"I blinked . .and then it was gone"

Holy Guacamole!!!! This is the last email from this missionary before she embarks on the journey home. . . How weird is that. 

Oh well, this week was super interesting.  Besides the fact that it went super fast. Tues evening, all day Wed and all day Thurs, I was sick in the pension. Let me tell you it was so no fun!!!!!!!! 

Something is going on with my body but ya know I really couldn't

tell you what it is.  But it hit me hard, Wed and Thurs it took all I had just to get out of bed and walk to the kitchen or the bathroom. I am really good at going pale too. :) and just my luck I would get sick right before our temple trip on Sat. but thanks to a LOT of rest and liquids we were able to work on Friday and go to the temple with our investigators on Sat.  And OH WOW what an experience it was.  I didn't realize just how much I love and miss the temple.  It was so cool to be able to see their reactions when we got there, to be able to see a hope in their eyes to one day be able to enter this magnificent house of the Lord.  

 

With Marcelo, oh they are so excited to get married and him getting baptized to be able to enter their together!! We had a lesson with them last night explaining more about what goes on with baptisms and that after a year they can enter the mysterious part of the temple and be sealed as a family for time and all eternity!! Oh what happiness it is to be able to help them with their goals to become a family.

 

Our other investigator, Florencia is just like her mom and is super content.  It was so cool to have her there with her mom and her kids, (her husband, yes she is married-that is the biggest problem that we have here is that not many people are married, works all the time as a taxi driver and we have not been able to talk with him) and they were so stinkin' happy the entire time we were there.  We have an appointment with them tonight to have a FHE and talk more about temples! Oh it is so cool to watch the changes take place! Even now I still get a little giddy. hehe 

 

I STILL can't believe that this will be my last week in Argentina, and that sooner than I will like, I will be back in good ole Utah. It really feels like a dream the way it all flew by, but I am grateful for the friendships that I have made down here, for the chance to help others realize their potential as children of God and also for Facebook to keep in touch with them all. haha

 

I hope you all have a good week, Mom don't get distracted too much. And the next time you hear from me it will be my lovely voice. haha

Love you all, see ya soon (that is SUPER weird to write)

Hna Nieve

 

Pix for Kix

 We got to go with our investigators to the temple!!! Oh it was amazing! 

1. One of our investigators and her family.  

L-R: Gabriela, a recent convert and the mom of Florencia. me, 

Florencia investigator that is progressing beautifully!!

Her 3 daughters: the one next to her is Milagros, in purple Candela and the chiquitita Katalina.  

2. Marcelo and his soon to be wife!!! 

They have two kids that were running around when this was taken

 

and just b/c I am me. . .

Days are weeks and weeks are days. ..

Hola hola hola hola, 

Wow for reals, the days are just flying by now, sometimes when we get home to plan the things we did in the morning feel like they happened the day before. It is super crazy. 

 

This week was just as crazy and fun. Our investigator Florencia is so ready to be baptized!! She has come to church with her 3 girls and they just love it.  Her oldest is in the YW's and is starting to work on Personal Progress. The middle is starting to actually stay in the house while we are there and the youngest is starting to warm up to us more and more. She is talking like crazy and we just love them all so much.  We have a stake temple trip planned for this weekend (and we are praying that we are going to be able to go) we talked to Florencia and she said that she is going with her girls and has worked it out with her mom, a recent convert, to make sure that they will all be able to go.  Oh it is super exciting to be able to see them progress, it is just a little sad that I miss the baptism by 4 days...oh well at least I will be able to see the pix on Facebook. haha. 

We also visited a menos activa who we found out is receiving chats from the Jehovah Witnesses . . yea we were a little surprised ourselves. She told us that what they say makes sense and that the bible has everything.  We shared a scripture out of the Book of Mormon and she asked where it is in the bible. . oh honey, we even went back to the basics that the Book of Mormon AND the bible have the fulness of the gospel, that the BOM is just more from God for us now, and that the BOM is what sets us apart from all of the other churches.  But she still just went off about the bible.  It made me think, and I still don't understand, how one could have a testimony of this book that we have and then drop it all. 

 

I Love reading the Book of Mormon and I really find something new in it every time. I just hope one day all these people, that are walking a different path, will be able to find there way back and that they can have a new appreciation for what we have as members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, cuz I CERTAINLY do, and it grows stronger everyday.

 

Sorry to make this one a bit shorter, we didn't have a whole lot of time to write. Talk to you next week (hopefully) 

Love you all tonz and bunches!!

Hna Snow

 

PIX FOR KIX

my birthday. 

the avocados here with HUGE seeds 

the member that gave them to us told me to take the seeds home and plant them in Utah.:)

 

"Days go by, I can feel them flying like a hand out the window. . ."

Monday, August 18, 2014
First off, I have no idea how we are already in week 4 of this transfer. I think someone is speeding up the clock. And, mom I got my itinerary this week along with the plans for our tour of the Capitol and the temple trip...lets just say I almost cried again- like when I got the "please don't cry letter". I printed off your letter and was able to read it earlier...oh my goodness what changes have happened. Please tell everyone Hola and that they will be in my prayers. With all that has been happening and just all the crap in this world, I am kinda scared to return to normal life. Don't get me wrong I am super excited to see Everyone but scared to return to all the crap that we are currently separated from.  At lunch with one of the members the other day, we were helping her make a treat for the activity they had for ´children's day´ and her grand kids had the TB on and were looking for a channel with music.  They found MTV and it had music on but then it changed to one of those reality dating shows, I wasn't watching it but it was in English and b/c it is MTV they have swear words like every other word or so and it honestly hurt to listen to them. The others didn't understand what was going on and I asked them to change it. Well talking with my comp about this as we walked back to the pension that night and after thinking about it that day, I told her that I am nervous to go back and understand all the swear words...here it has been great b/c I don't know those words so when said I don't notice. It has been quite a nice break, let me tell ya.  

Aanywho, on a happier note, we had exchanges this week. I always like exchanges to get a different perspective for a day and if you change areas the chance to work in another area. This one took a bit of the stress away. We still don't have a map and I still don't have any idea what the boundaries of our area are exactly but I started doing what I can to organize even though it is still driving me a bit crazy that I am not able to do what I have been thinking about. Especially since I don't have that much time left and I am not going to leave the Hna V without some kind of organization . . haha (mom I totally get this from you)

 

We've started teaching a reference that we got from another area in our zone, Diana. She is really interested and her boyfriend is a member of the other ward. This week we had our second visit and took a member and wow what a lesson it turned out to be. At first it was a bit rough with her younger siblings running and dancing around, the TV on, her dad had just gotten home, etc.  but as we got talking the Hno asked if her parents wanted to join in the discussion they agreed and we started. Her mom is very catholic and had a straight not so friendly face as we started, but while talking to them about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and explaining a little about how we have the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth again. When asking if anyone had questions,  her mom said that she heard that we don't believe in God. It was a little funny but makes you think of the side of non members and what they think or hear about the "Mormons" and all the crazy rumors and after explaining and clearing up a few things the mom seemed a lot more friendly than when we arrived, with the expression ´who are you people and what are you doing in my house?´ And once again the Spirit pulls through for me.  

 

Sat. at the ward activity for children's day, the Bishop asked me if I would give a talk Sun. the next day. I automatically said yes kinda without thinking B/c I am a missionary and that's what we do...haha but I wouldn't have said no anyway. He asked me at 4 on Sat...we had the activity and then went to work for a couple hours until we went back to have language study. Well, lets just say that my language study was me first choosing a topic (Hope), then writing a talk very quickly using True to the Faith, the Scriptures and Preach My Gospel. You know me I am not too much a fan of the whole talk giving, so yea I was nervous. But I guess like what happened with my farewell talk, they said it was a good talk and my comp said that I didn't seem nervous at all. Oh good...now we will see what happens when I have to give a talk in English...it will be interesting to see what happens b/c I can't even say a prayer out loud in English...hehe. 

 

Anywho, hope things continue going good and get better for you all.Say Hello to all for me. Until next time.

Hna Snow

If you could find where this last YEAR went that would be great.

Monday, August 11, 2014
Yea, so this week I realized that I hit a year in Argentina. I am not exactly sure how this happened but it did and I have to accept this fact and carry on.  And that is what I am doing.

This past week we've been finding some menos activos, each with a different story and history as to why they left the church or just stopped going.  It is amazing how many down here have left. Some just because life got in the way, others because they didn't agree with somethings, others cuz things are hard, others who had strong testimonies and one thing happens and they don't want anything to do with it or hear what they need to do b/c "they know what they need to do" . . this far in my mission and I still don't understand. 

With one he told us that he is super busy with work and is backed up for the next couple weeks and that the Lord can wait a little for him to finish all the projects that he is working on. . Um, okay let me know how that works for you. But the only thing we can do is bare our testimonies and pray that the spirit will confirm our words and one day they will realize their actions.  

 

Wednesday we had our zone conference, IT WAS AMAZING as usual, but seriously, they are just so so good and spiritual, it is just great! We talked more about this pilot that we are doing to try and reactivate the menos activos and thru them find new investigators and how we can work more effectively.  Hna Thurgood spoke on our preparedness as missionaries and what we can do to be prepared for any situation, but she specified on the food and water storage and to have enough for 2 or 3 days. . it is as though something is coming.  Its crazy the things that are going on and being completed that have been predicted and talked about for centuries, we really are in the last days and EVERYONE  can tell. But one thing she said really stuck with me, ¨This is not a journey for the weak¨  and oh how true it is, Satan is attacking us from all sides with whatever means that he can, and right now it is more focused on the youth and the family. Yesterday morning (like 8:15) we passed a kid about 13 years old who was drunk and walking the streets . . a little ways down Hna Villa and I talked about how sad it was to see this in the world, chicos out and about doing whatever thing they please with the parents not worrying about what they are doing. Sharing this experience with the members that we had lunch with I told them that after experiences like this it makes you stop and think just how good we really have it, as members of the church of Jesus Christ and to KNOW of our potential and worth as children of God, the blessings, guidance, happiness that we have and can have in this life and the life to come.  

 

There we have handfuls of menos or inactivos, here we have a handful of active members. And a list a mile long of those who need rescuing, who just need that little push or a hug to tell them that they are still loved by a Father who is watching over them in every moment. That even through everything that they have gone thru, He is still there at the door waiting with an outstretched hand to lift us or outstretched arms waiting for us to come back.  I know this is true now more than ever and my testimony is engraven.  But even with that there are those that fall. The General Authorities that have come, namely some of the 70 and Elder Holland, have said that the percentage of RM's that go inactive is bigger now more than ever. It has gone from 1 in 7 to 1 in 5 and now sadly, it is 1 in 3.  We are in the Front lines of a battle that is in full force, that will strain out the weak and make us show what we have. Like Hna Thurgood said "This is not a journey for the weak". 

 

I hope you all remember WHO you are, what your POTENTIAL is, WHO is there waiting for you and WHO is ALWAYS by your side.

Love you all! Have a great week!!

Hna Snow

 

PIX FOR KIX

 this week sí!!!La Plata, 

1. Our awesome district! In our last district meeting before transfers

2 The fabulous crazy zone of la plata! 

This zone was super close and super fun kinda like my first in La Costa

 

 1. My new comp. Hna Villarreal, 19 from Rosario Argentina, convert as of 5 or so years

2. The sky line of the city, from parts of our area you can see La Plata. ha

1. Hna Knowlton decided to translate the area La Plata 2 means the money 2. haha

2. Our last comp pix on the train to transfers dark and early

 

You either laugh or you cry . .and sometimes you do both.

Monday, August 4, 2014
Hola to all of you!!

Holy Guacamole!!! (which side note I gave Hna Knowlton what little we had left of spices that you sent me so she could still make it.) What a week it has been. First, I forgot how much easier it is to work in the country, although I am only about 20 min outside of 

La Plata (and when we go to a couple parts of our area I can see it, the steeples of the Cathedral and all) it is soo different.  The people here are humble and actually willing to listen to you. We don't get rejected by intercom and we can actually talk to people face to face. It is great.  

 

This week the work has been slow due to a couple of reasons, one this area is in complete disarray and 2. we are going off just the directory, making it rather hard to learn the area and who lives where in which part of our area, Why? b/c our map is a drawing that is marked and divided but doesn't make any sense AT ALL. Whats more is that the other comp of Hna Villarreal didn't really explain much to her, poor thing. So I have been a little bit stressed, but don't fret, it will change this week when we get a real map at our zone conference (thanks to the awesome elders in the offices). So I will let you know how it all goes next week.  

 

But remember what you told me a few weeks ago, when you were on the train or subway and ´people watching´ how they are all just like robots going from point A to point B, and living just to live? Well. that is how it is here, only these people live to live and live in fear day to day.  Sometimes it is funny b/c they are always surprised that we work until 8:00 at night, and they are always telling us to be careful and all of that. Which is kinda obvious, Pres. tells us all the time the ways to stay safe...walk down streets with light, avoid the dark and dangerous areas after dark, and all that. But in La Plata and worse here a lot of times they are scared to leave there houses to go to the supermercado for food.  It is really super sad. But that is why we are here, to help them understand and teach them that there is life out there and they can live for a purpose and actually, ya know, ENJOY life here in this world.   

 

After somethings that I have experienced in the last month or so, I really have a stronger testimony of the happiness that we have as children of God and with the plan that we have to continue and grow in this happiness.  Lots of people are looking for it and wanting to be happy NOW but don't know what to do to find it. Well guess what, We have it!! and not only can they have it now but for the rest of their lives and more, too! How great is that? I think it is pretty great.

 

We were fortunate to see a couple of miracles this week.  One with this family that we are working with, the mom is a recent convert and we are working with the dad. They have a date set to get married for the 12 of Sept. and after one lesson with him he asked to get baptized . .yea, He asked Us. So we set a date for the 19th of Sept. when we returned to give another lesson, we were just about to ask him if he wanted to change the date of his baptism to the 12th, when they asked us why it had to be later and if we couldn't move it up closer to the wedding . . . haha so that is exactly what we did. They will be getting married the morning of the 12th and he will be getting baptized that evening.  There really can be happily ever afters. 

 

Another, we visited a recent convert and when asking if she knew anyone more that we could visit, she looked to her granddaughter and was like would your mom be okay? She sent her a message and she said it was fine, so we left with the granddaughter to visit her mom.  And WOW! it is true that God prepares people and then puts them in your path to find.  The first little lesson was great, we introduced the Book of Mormon and laid out what we would be doing.  We went back a couple days later and she told us that her and her husband started reading the Book of Mormon together from the intro and on . . (they use the husband here lightly meaning that it could be living together or married . but they really are married). she has heard things about how we worship Joseph Smith and all, so with that we gave the first lesson, and oh my goodness, I never get tired of giving or hearing the first vision.  EVERY time it just draws a Spirit like nothing else.  This time I was able to give it and as I was I got chills starting from head to my toes, as the Spirit just filled the room. Oh it is so Cool!!!! anyway she very willingly accepted a baptism date for the 12th as well. 

 

Oh, it is just INCREDIBLE what you can do when you have the Spirit and the blessings we get from having it with us all the time. It really is the only way that we can get people to understand and to really feel like they are children of God and that they are just as entitled to all of this as anyone. A couple times in La Plata when we tried to contact old inv they would say oh I am not with your church and shut the door. . haha we would just walk away smiling and whisper to ourselves, ´that is why we are here´ to help them not just live to live or live to be content, but live to be happy, to be really truly happy.  

 

I hope you are all really truly happy, because I am very happy. :D

Thanks for everything, sorry this letter is super long, Enjoy! and ENJOY LIFE!! love you all have a fantastic week!

Hna Snow

No one told me I would be training . . .

Monday, July 28, 2014
Hola Familia!  

As for transfers, yes I got transferred, to a little-ish town called Berisso, that is about 20 min outside of La Plata central. Funny huh? One transfer left and I'm moved, but I guess that has been happening to a lot of missionaries. It is just one more small adventure before I leave . . :( but we aren't going to talk about that. ..anywho, my new comps name is Hna Villarreal, she is from Argentina-Rosario, is 19 years old and has 6 weeks in the mission. Here is where the title comes in. So the Hna that I replaced in 

La Plata was transferred here to Berisso and as we were talking to the other Hnas in La Plata they told us that she was training and since she left this transfer that I would be finishing her training. Well as you can tell that caught my attencion, b/c when our district leader called us about transfers he said nothing of the sort and I didn't get a call from President. So we asked this Hna and sure enough she confirmed it that I would be finishing the Hna Villarreals training. Haha yup EVERYDAY in the mission is an adventure, I am just sorry that that means she has to stay another transfer after this one as I will be leaving.. 

Anywho, this week was super fun, here is a run down of what happened: 

Monday- was the trip to the museum-Incredible! 

Tuesday- I don't remember if I told you guys about Vanessa, she is now a new investigator. The lesson we had with her was amazing, and we were even able to take out a date for baptism, we were honestly surprised and weren't sure what to do next. haha 

Wednesday -we had a fantastic district meeting, where we all bore our testimonies on the Atonement and WOW the spirit was so super strong. Then we had lunch and pix as a zone. To tell you the truth it was almost like another p-day, just shorter, but I will miss La zona La Plata. We became like a family (kinda like La Costa) we had activities and every Tues we would meet as a zone to start the meetings for like announcemnts and stuff, then we would split off. 

Thursday- we had another lesson with Vanessa starting off by asking if she knew what she was getting herself into. She said yes and that she was going to let us come back. Yea it was pretty amazing (although I am a little sad now we just got a good investigator and then I left. .) and we got calls about transfers

Friday- Christmas and planning for the week. Lets just say for our companion inventory we opened presents we thought it was a good way to analyze the relationship. haha with planning, since for some odd reason we knew I would be leaving b/c usually we get calls Sat. night, Hna Knowlton said that I still had to help her plan, which I was planning on doing anyway. haha 

Saturday- not much happened, we just tried to visit the menos activos we had a couple appt fall thru so Sat. and Sun. we just visited members. I had them sigh my journal and we took pix. 

All in all it was a pretty great week to end a great couple of transfers with the Hna Knowlton. We even gave our self a name,  . .are you ready for this?!?.... we are the Hnas Snowlton. haha we thought it was pretty good. 

Anywho, I will let you know how my first week in Berisso goes next week!

Hna Snow

How do you eat Calamari with a smile?

‎Monday‎, ‎July‎ ‎21‎, ‎2014 ‎1‎:‎50‎ ‎pm

Hola Family! 

Glad you made it home from your trip. Sounds and looks like you all had a blast! This week was a good one, first off, the title, this was the lunch we had at Inka this week...as she brought it out Hna. Knowlton said that is either onion rings or calamari and I don't think they have onion rings here. . . so yea we ate calamari. What you do is combine every bite with a little bit of everything on your plate and with the promise of french fries, ice cream or alfajores after you just eat and eat and eat until it is gone.  But I can now say that I have eaten something super strange on my mission. ha but never again. Trying to cut that rubbery substance was just too much for me. And you all know how I am not a fan of sea food or anything of the sort. But here you just have to put a smile on, try not to cry and eat what they give you. 

Chance or coincidence don't exist: A couple cool stories from this week, we went searching for old investigators and in-actives.  

Last week we found an old inv and as we got talking she said that she had never before talked to or listened to missionaries and she didn't know how we knew her name and address (which we had on a form in the pension meaning that someone had found and talked to her before. . .right?) well we went by again a few days ago b/c she agreed to let us come back, they were busy but we left them with an explanation and pamphlets of the plan of salvation.  I don't know if it is true or not that they have never talked to the missionaries before but we found them and hopefully something good will come of it. 

Story number 2: looking for in-actives, we found one who is baptized but his family isn't. We went by a few times and never found anyone. A couple weeks ago we finally talked to him and then this past week again and were able to leave him with a thought. But what was cool, the night before when we were planning, I was planning to go for other menos activos and then another direction, but stopped and had the feeling to go by his house.  So we went and found him sitting outside his house very distraught for the situation that he has found himself in. We shared a scripture about how Christ knows all that we are going thru and that he is the one that we can turn to when we need help and guidance.  After we left I turned back and he had gone inside. I don't know how long he had been sitting out there, but I had the thought that it probably wasn't that long. I told Hna K my thoughts during planning the night before and how I was going to plan to go to another house but changed.  If we would have gone for the other route we wouldn't have found him sitting outside. Also I'm thinking if we would have went a few min. later we wouldn't have found him either. Was it chance that we found him? I think not. Oh the spirit is SO cool!!! 

Transfers are coming up again in a week, we have NO idea what will happen, so I will let you know what happens next week. 

Have a fantabulous week! Love you all. 

Hna Snow

we went to the museum of La Plata today . .this is the evolution of man and of missionary

Hna. Knowlton and I with the bones. :)