Monday, April 28, 2014

Hna. Snow Update


It sounds like we should get parasite results back on Wed. Dani said her energy is coming back but she still feels weak and gets a lot of headaches...oh, and she's still losing her hair. She jokes with her companion that she will go home as a stick w/o hair or weight.

She has to pin her skirts to keep them from falling off, not down, but off. She said nothing fits her including her garments. They are going into their winter so she's able to wear layers just to keep clothes on. 

Here's a funny story she shared with me during our "email chat" they were eating lunch at a members house during the week she was on the pasta and rice diet when for dessert they brought out her favorite...cheesecake, of all things and all times. The one American thing and she couldn't eat it. She was heartbroken.

Here is the description of what is happening to her body that she sent me..."it is like a fish out of water, I am drying out, shriveling up and withering away. My skin is super dry all the time with or without lotion, still don't have much meat on my bones, and still losing hair...with a sensitive scalp that itches a lot....bah"

She feels like they are doing a bunch of things that aren't doing anything. We decided that it's possible that this has been building up because it hit the morning after getting to La Plata. She keeps telling people she's allergic to the city.

Hoping for some answers this week. 
Chau!

Q & A

Q: What tests were done other than checking for Thyroid or Parasites?

A: None others, just those ones so far.

Q: Did they check for Diabetes?

A: No or not that I know of

Q: Was your iron levels low?

A: I have no idea, I don't know if that was something they looked for, it would be way too easy to check for all the simple things first, right? haha

Q: Do you know a Roger C. Manning? Pres. Thurgood cc’d him on email correspondences.

A: Nope doesn't ring a bell

Q: Have you been able to keep up with mission responsibilities, appts. etc.?

A: Nope we only left about 2 or 3 times last week, and returned to the pension b/c I was drained and achy.  And apparently I haven't had much color in my face for a while. 

Q: How’s your new diet of potatoes and some meat?

A: Better than the other one of just rice and pasta. haha but it is getting better and I don't have complete fear of eating. 

Q: Pres. Thurgood mentioned that the Bishop’s wife has been your companion.  Is Hna. Medina still your companion also?

A: Yes Hna. Medina is my companion, the bishops wife has been a HUGE help in all of this, she is pregnant and has been keeping us in contact con [with] her doc and the mission counselor  pte Vitale. 

Q: Will you be able to Skype on Mother’s Day…Sun., May 11th…Shayla’s B’Day…Dalen/Shellie & Kids will be here?

A: As far as I know yes. 

Q: So, I (DAD), just got asked to speak in church on Mother’s Day!  They want me to talk about you and what things you are learning on your mission that will help you in your future after the mission, especially that will help you become a wife and mother.  Will you give me some thoughts you have on that subject that I can use in my talk?  I would like to use your words.  Thanks

A:  Wow there are a lot of things that I have learned in terms to this question . .  but here are a few...
-Being innovative, we have to come up with ways to talk to people to get around on our own (some times traveling long distances) having to ask for directions and incorporating handing out pass along cards. 
-Patience. that is one attribute that I have come to obtain in my mission, patience with the members, the investigators, my companions, and myself. 
- Prayer. NO matter where, no matter what time, no matter the situation you can always pray and ask for help or comfort or guidance from our Father in heaven and He will ALWAYS answer you. 
-Blessings. I have gotten a lot of priesthood blessings on my mission whether for health or comfort. And they always help me ´just keep swimming´(we had a lesson on perseverance on Sunday and that ex was used love it!) and I know that my heavenly father is there with me every step of the way.
-The Atonement, no matter what happens in your life, what situation or afliccion [grief], Jesus Christ KNOWS really knows what you are going thru and he will help you. They won't give you anything that they know you can't handle. I know it is true and it is cool to look back and see how far I have come and how they have lifted me or carried me thru the difficult times. 


There ya go. Hope that helps.

5...4...3...2...1...

Well, another week has gone by. But sadly this time not with much work. With me being sick and all. It has been really hard on me not being able to do much. But you find things to do, for example, I have read in the B of M from the end of 2 Nephi to almost the end of Mosiah, in Spanish. And the crazy thing is that I understand it, really and the stories are just coming to life. It is cool and kinda weird because I am understanding it more than when I read it in English, haha funny huh?

Anyway to describe the title:
5-weeks
4-doctors visits
3-medications
2- blood tests and 2 diets
1- very tired missionary...

And we still have no idea what is going on with me. Needless to say it has been another very interesting transfer. I guess there is no such thing as an ordinary day. 

But like I said this week was super hard on me not being able to do anything. I started taking the time to write/catch up in my journal, but after a very short while my hand and arm were just tired b/c of all the energy that I didn't have. So I took to reading el Libro de Mormón ( yes in Spanish) one of my goals with Pres. Thurgood this time around in interviews was that I wanted to finish it before I left in Sept. I guess Heavenly father has a funny way of answering prayers. . as I mentioned above, I read from the end of 2 nefi to ch 27 of Mosiah in about 4 days. 

It is amazing the healing power of the scriptures, Sat. I was feeling very sad and depressed about not having hair and not having answers. I cried for a little while then picked up my scriptures, started reading, still felt a bit sad, but kept reading, and I can honestly say that my testimony of the scriptures has definitely grown.  Literally getting lost in the stories that are in them helped me more than anything, and is the best cure to get out of the funk of sadness.  And with a blessing that I got from my district leader, he said something along the lines sometimes we don't understand what happens to us, but God does and sometimes it is His way of preparing you for something else. It help my animo greatly, needing to put all my trust in God, yes it is hard, with the outward appearance of not having much hair and looking like I am sick (which I have been doing better with b/c I refuse and avoid the mirror although avoiding my shadow is a bit more difficult) but He knows a lot more than I do and he can see the end, whereas I can only see to the next hill. 

Here is my thought/quote for you guys this week, it is found in Mosiah 3:7-8. Trust in God and things will work out. 

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, it means a ton to have such a great support system. 

Have a great week!!

Hna Snow

Monday, April 21, 2014

Hna. Snow Update

Update on Dani's health issues...

On Apr 20, 2014, at 7:47 PM, 
"Larry L Thurgood" <thurgoodl@ldschurch.org> wrote:
Dear Brother and Sister Snow, and President Davies,

As you know, Sister Danielle Snow has been having quite a time with health issues. She has been vomiting and has had diarrhea. She has also lost some hair. She has been to the doctor and a blood test indicates that she may have some kind of hormonal imbalance. She will go to the doctor again on Tuesday for a better diagnosis.

I spoke to her tonight. She is a great young woman and a faithful missionary. I really appreciate her and the good example she is. However, I am concerned about her health. We do not want her to struggle with this problem, or let it go untreated. Fortunately, the doctors in this part of Argentina are very good. I am confident that we will find out more of what is happening in the next 2 or 3 days. One of my counselors in the mission presidency, Carlos Vitali, has been a great help in getting doctor’s appointments for missionaries. He really looks after them and assists them with health problems. He has been in contact with your daughter and with the Bishop’s wife (who has been keeping an eye on Sister Snow). He will be with them at the doctor’s appointment on Tuesday and will keep me posted. He lives in La Plata, the city where Sister Snow is serving.

If this problem is not corrected soon, we will likely need to have Sister Snow return home to get the care and recuperation time she may need. I hope that isn´t necessary, but we will do whatever is in her best interests. She does not want to have to leave, but also realizes that it is a possibility and will do what is needed.

I will keep in touch with you. Please feel free to email or call me. The number at the mission home is: 0054 11 4248 2798. My cell phone is 0054 11 6546 0268.
Sister Thurgood’s cell phone is: 0054 11 5062 9149.

Thank you.
President Thurgood
Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission

Dani and I were able to email "chat" today, Monday, April 21, 2014 she has lost 20 lbs and most of that has been within the last week. [She now weighs as much as Shayla and almost the same as McKayla] She has been put on a diet of rice, noodles, a little chicken and as of last Saturday Apple Gatorade and 7 up. Luckily she isn't throwing up anymore. Dani's words "I look like I am anorexic. My true waist line is WAY too small." After her phone call from Pres. Thurgood telling her that if they cannot fix the problem there in ARG they will be sending her home...she says she cried a lot last night. She does not want to come home just yet. She has 3 transfers left. She was able to get a blessing of comfort today that she said helped a lot. Pres. Thurgood also told her that if she had to come back home to get herself better he would allow her to go back to ARG to finish up her mission - which as she put it was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you all for your fasting and your prayers. She thanks you too.

Hello and Happy Pascua!


Hello to all, I hope you all had a great Easter week! Cuz we sure did, it is called "la semana santa" or the Sacred/holy week. With activities all week long. . which is great for the people but not so great for the missionaries . . haha the city was practically a ghost town All week. haha, that doesn't make our already difficult work any easier.  So we went looking for less actives and visited members. One of the members showed us a video about how thanks to Christ we are able to live again.  Its on Mormon.org, called "Because of Him". It is an amazing video and I encourage all of you to watch it and share it with friends. 

Being in the mission for Easter has been a blessing, getting to really focus on the life of Christ and his gospel. I have definitely learned and experienced the power of the Atonement during this time and seen it in the lives of those around me.  It is amazing no matter how much I study the Atonement, there is always more to learn. 
 
 
And in light of the festivities, the city of La Plata put out an incredible display of "The Last Super" with life like figures in front of one of there Gov. buildings, so of course we went to check it out. Yea, it was amazing, standing back and looking at it, it looks like it could be a painting. (see photo)
 
I hope you all realize the sacrifice that Christ made for each and every one of us.  It's really too much to comprehend, but we can understand a little more of it everyday.  I am beyond grateful to my Savior for all that he suffered for me and hope that I can one day repay Him.  This mission in only a little part of repaying that debt, and I know that even in these hard times we are having with not many people to teach, we are doing a great service in always testifying of our Lord and our Savior. And I know that even though we don´t understand everything right now, He does and we can turn to Him for guidance and comfort in our toughest moments.  I love my Savior and thank Him and my Father for the chance to be here in Argentina serving a mission, having the experiences that I've had and for learning all that I am.  This church is true and no one can take that testimony away from me.
 
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Hna. Snow
 
FOTO'S


My diet and the kilo of ice cream that we FINALLY bought that I can't eat. It was a shame, I bought food to eat this week and haven't been able to eat any of it. . . sad huh?
 
 

 The castle and the chocolate festival- yes there is such a thing. 
(we bought it, I saved it for Easter, I didn't eat it. . .;(

 the banner for the chocolate festival. 
btw I will send the other pix next week





 

Monday, April 14, 2014

Las Misioneras sang as they walked and walked . . .‏

Hola family! I hope your week was just fabulous. Ours was pretty good, but I am pretty sure that this week we covered absolutely every part of our area...and as you can see from the title, we did so walking, sorry I forgot to take a pix of the map of our area to show you how big it is-next week, but trust me it is HUGE!  And because we are in the city we walk or if we have to go really far we take the bus. As for your questions, we do it all, as we are walking we street contact with pass along cards, sometimes if we feel prompted we knock on doors, and on occasion we do get some referrals. But most of the time when we contact them they aren't interested or don't have time...it is a hit an miss. We had exchanges this week, I stayed here with the Hna. Tolman (who was in Idaho with me) who was here in La Plata as her first area when she got to Arg. She was telling me that it was her hardest area so far in the mission...oh goodie. But it is true, we have gone weeks without teaching an investigator. We, right now are teaching lessons to members, menos, activos or trying to update the directory that we have.  We go days with walking and walking sometimes not having one lesson, getting doors shut on us or in most cases the intercom shut off haha. They have door bells with intercoms b/c there will be more than one house or apartment behind the initial door. Like they will have a door and behind this door will be a passage way with the doors to the houses.  So it is VERY different than my other areas, but while we walk we talk, it has been good getting to know my comp and we get along really well, sharing stories and jokes about how some house numbers don't exist or there is now a hospital at the address we were given. And something that is different is they have half addresses..like one will be 1254 then the next 1254 1/2, and the next 1256. haha I thought it was funny when Hna. Medina first pointed it out to me.


As for the blood work. We got them while in exchanges and then realized that it was all in Spanish and  didn't´understand anything, So we took them to our bishops wife and what I understood from her is that one of my hormones is out of whack. She told us that with it some effects are hair loss, weight loss and dry skin all of which I had and still have a bit of. Finally some answers. Then she said that I needed to have more analysis done. Oh dear and that she would call her doctor. I told her that in interviews that Wed. (this was on Thurs) Pres. Thurgood told me that when I get the results to call the mission doctor. Long story short we called him. I tried to explain what I could and gave him the number of the bishops wife so she could explain it more. Now we are just waiting to hear back from him to see what the next step will be. . .Oh what a roller coaster it has been. As far as being sick goes (besides the cold that both my comp and I have because it is FREEZING here right now) my energy is back and the vertigo is pretty much gone, my stomach is still not normal and I think I am still losing weight giving the fact that I don't fit in ANYTHING. Like my ring doesn't even fit anymore. hehe oh the adventures of the mission. I told Hna Medina that I have never had anything like this happen in my life, then I thought about it and said well never in my life have I been on a mission. haha good times, good times. 

Also we had to go to Buenos Aires again for my visa papers . .(a lot easier from La Plata, catching the train from La Plata and ending up in the HUGE train station in Buenos Aires. Anyway, to sum it up we went to one place, they said we needed to go to immigration to get something done, we went there they said that something was missing and dates were expired (because if I had everything set and ready that would be way too easy, right?) so we have to go back on the 22nd. haha btw this all happened Wed. we caught the 7:30 train, were in Buenos Aires by 9:15ish, met the missionary couple and  a couple other missionaries caught the bus did it all, then we had to leave to get back for interviews at 2:00. Hna Medina and I caught the subway (yea they have a subway in Buenos Aires) to get back to Constitution train station to catch the train to La Plata, arriving at the capilla with time to spare luckily, After interviews we met the Hnas in the church we all went to have lunch at the members house and went to work. It was quite the day that is for sure. 

Sat. we had lunch with some members and their friend who was an inv. before we found out when we went to share a thought and he asked if he could get his Book of Mormon. ha we ended up teaching and testifying, we invited him to church but he said that he didn't have much interest. So Sunday we were a little shocked and a lot excited to see him walk in the doors all dressed in a suit and tie with the members. It was awesome and we finally had an investigator in Church. ha Fasting and praying work!!!!
Anywho, I hope you had fun reading only part of our many adventures this week, can't wait to see what this week brings.
Love you all! 
Hna Snow

PIX FOR KIX
 hopefully you get them this time...
Hna Vasquez- the before shot

 the during . . 

 the during again

 after

 
 the after with the pile of hair, hehe not bad for my first hair cut huh? 
at least it was somewhat straight. ha 
.
the pix of my hair wet, you can really tell in this one, 
it is longer and I think I have less now then I did in this photo
 baptism of Carlos he is the tall one with white hair
 baptism of Susana

big blue - Hunt's this one's for you! 

Monday, April 7, 2014

two days of WOW!!!

Hola familia, how are you all doing after the amazing conference, (ps fam thanks for the photos of the food...I am now super hungry and craving everything that you had.) 

Anyway, I am still on a spiritual high. We "the gringos of the zone" were able to watch it in English in one of the rooms in the stake center, and can I just say how weird it was to watch it all in English and be speaking "spanglish" (b/c I can't write nor speak in all English at this point) and it is super funny to look at my notes that are also in "spanglish" haha but what can ya do? 

I don't know about you guys but I found a lot of answers to my questions and found a lot of the themes of this conference were focusing on the basics of the Church and the basics of the truth.  There were repeated talks about looking for the truth, being obedient, and of course the subject that popped out the most to us, Missionary work. It is just taking off like a rocket. 

It was cool to hear all the stats of the church with the count of stakes, wards, branches, members, baptisms and missionaries.  Something big is definitely coming- soon and fast. Like everyone said it is the time to make sure that we are anchored to the Truth, doing the basics, and preparing ourselves for what lies ahead.  

It was cool to hear the announcement about the revelation of Christs birth being yesterday, the reorganization of the church and another fun fact: the 121st anniversary of the Salt Lake Temple! woo. I love the temple and I miss it just as much as you guys and the mountains! hehe and how sad we were to hear that they would not and will not be announcing more temples for a little while, but how cool to hear that when they are all finished we will have 170 operating temples in the world!!! That is a lot. 
 
This work is moving forward and we need to jump on this bandwagon and push it along. I love being a missionary and seeing the miracles that are happening. Even in these times that we are having with not many investigators. But we are in the process of cleaning the directory, looking for the menos [less] and inactivos [inactive], taking notes on the addresses that don't exist, people that have moved or passed away and so on. It is really great to be helping in some way and I know with our diligence and obedience something great will come.  Like you are always telling me, whatever we do and where ever we go we are always planting seeds, even though sometimes we won't see the results, someone will and it will help their testimonies grow in this gospel.  
 
I know this Gospel is true. I know Pres Monson is our prophet. I know my Savior lives and that He will come again! I love that we have this very short time to tell the world that we have the Truth!!!

I hope you all have a great week and remember the things that you learned in conference. Those words are scriptures for us to live by today. 
Con mucho Amor, [with much love]
Hna Snow


PIX FOR KIX
 Fridays lunch. Oh, it was delicious!


 My outfit for Conferencia on Sunday. :) recognize the shirt? hehe

 Excited to go to conference!!

 Our room full of gringos haha these are all the gringo missionaries minus two that were in the front that didn't make it in the pix, in the zone, watching conference in English in our special little room

******************
Apparently Pres Thurgood got a letter saying the following about packages:

Due to the constraints imposed by the government of Argentina for imports, we are having trouble receiving packages from other countries. Because of these constraints, we recommend that the next time missionaries communicate with their families via email, that they ask them to not send any more packages. If packages are sent, they will probably remain in customs and never reach their destination. We want to clarify that there is no malice in this, but removing these packages from customs is a costly process for the Church and can be avoided, if appropriate measures are taken.

So, for now hold off on the packages, mail not sure on.