Transfers

What a rollercoaster week I have had here in Bariloche. It has been full of emotions, picture taking, teaching, visiting, and planning. We had a family night on Monday with one of our investigators. It was so much fun. We played a game called ¿Quién soy? where we cut out pictures of the Ensigns of random objects. The point of the game is to hold the photo above your head without looking at it, and ask yes/no questions until you figure out what you are. The theme was that we are children of God, and we have a lot of other callings in this life too. They have a 4 year old, and she loved it, she thought it was so much fun. There was a lot of laughter, and we could feel the spirit. I am super grateful to be here to work with the Troncoso family. We are planning their wedding, that will take place in the chapel this week, and then Sabrina will be baptized on Saturday! It is all very exciting. (: We also have two other investigators that are promising as well. Ian is 11 and will be baptized on the 1st of November. and we have Joana, who didn´t come to church this week, so her baptism date fell, but she is prepared, and her life has been a bit complicated these last two weeks, but she knows she needs to come, so we are working with her this week too. We have really been focusing on faith and the basic things we do - reading, praying and church attendance - as we teach. We have found that these are the things people forget about, and their faith eventually fades out. It has been working really well so far, so I hope to continue this focus while I serve here in Argentina. Sabrina is getting married on WEdnesday and then baptized on saturday!!! keep her in your prayers (:(:(:(:(:
We have transfers this week, and Hermana Hendry is headed to Roca... it has been a very emotional week. I am very sad to see her leave, we have really hit it off these past 3 months and have accomplished a lot together here in Alto 1. I am also excited to meet my new companion, Hermana Llerena and work with her here. I ain´t scurred! The work goes on, and all we need to do is show our faith. The mission is truly the university of life, and full of blessings and miracles, as long as we are doing what we are supposed to, God will use us to our fullest potential. Thanks for everything you guys do! Love you all so much!!

xoxo

Hermana Terry 

campanario! a picnic on the top of the Andes.. nbd.

the banner we made for sabrina and alan! supes cute, yah? (:

Milagros

What a week in Alto 1! It´s always like that here, we are doing so well and seeing so many miracles. The days pass so fast, I can´t believe we are in the last week of the transfer already. We have three investigators with a baptismal date, and they are all so ready, it´s definitely a blessing from the Lord, because we aren´t doing much besides visiting with them. They edify us each time we visit, because they have such powerful testimonies. It´s been a privilege to be here and work with these people so far. I am definitely being spoiled by the good Lord.

Sabrina is our little angel, literally prepared by the hands of God, floating on a cloud to her baptismal date in two weeks. I can´t even explain her. Her fiancee is a less active, but now active, and they are getting married on the 22nd of the month, then she is getting baptized on the 25th. They have the cuuutest 4 year old named Ali, and wow, I want to be as cute as them when i have a family. All I can say is that everytime we "teach" them, I learn something new. so... if that doesn´t explain it, I don´t know what will. haha

And Ian... he is 11 and the funniest little squirt I have ever met. He reminds me so much of my dweeb brothers, so it´s a blessing to work with him too. He is Alans little brother, and he is hyped on baptism. So smart. The first time we met him, he started rattling off Lesson 3- the gospel of jesus christ. Then, we told him to read 3 Nephi 11, and he has already read it.. hollllaaaaa! such a champ. He has a date for the 1 of November (: 

And our last little lady of the hour, Joana. She is the mom of an active 7 year old. She is also super prepared. When we asked her to be baptized on the 8th of November she said, "Wow, that is fast. I wanted to be baptized with  my daughter...... but, if I don´t do it, I will regret it." WHO SAYS THAT? wahhoooo! She is 24, and has two freaking cuuute daughters and is just a prime lady. if you could keep these three champs in your prayers, it would mean the world to me! (: 
Hermana Hendry is great. I am SO grateful to have her a companion. She is very smart and so in tune with the spirit. I have learned so much from her, and I wish that she could stay here in Bariloche with me until she finishes her mission next transfer. I hope to be as inspired as she is. It is something that I will work on throughout my mission. She is definitely a disciple of Christ, and knows it. We have had so many good experiences together. I am so blessed to be here in Bariloche working with her. This is probably our last week together, and after that, she only has one more transfer left. So, prepare to meet her, family! she said she wants to come by and visit you all (: 

Thank you for your prayers and love, it means the world to me. The mission is the best thing I have ever done, and I hope that the time slows down a bit, because I am going crazy! it´s going by too fast. 

xoxo

hermana Terry

sorry folks, i don´t have many pictures this week... 

i made cinnamon rolls last week, yuummm. haha

aand, its not even like there is a lot of dirt here... hahaha

What a blessing......

This week was great, as is every other week. But, it was even better because we had General Conference this weekend! What a blessing it is to listen to the prophets and leaders of the church. I was truly edified by so many things in the conference. oh my gosh. it was alll sooo good, but the saturday sessions were just dropping cane. Every one was like, so intense and straight forward. it was crazy. and they did something new, that people spoke in their native tongues.. cantonese, spanish, and portuguese! it was way cool. Okay, so the talkson Sat by: Lynn G Robbins, D Todd Christofferson, Niel L Anderson, Tad R Callister, Jörg Klebingat, and Jeffrey R Holland.. then on Sunday by: James J Hamula, of Course President Monson, Richard G Scott, CArlos A Godoy, and of course David A Bednar... those were like, the super amazing ones for me. But i have notes for literally every single talk. it was the best conference i have ever heard! 

we have some good news here in Alto 1. We have another investigator with a baptism date and he is re capo! He is 11 years old, and he is so smart. We think that he will be a great example to his less active family, and is ready to make a covenant with God through baptism. He is really excited, and he said he has been waiting for this day. haha he is so awesome. We are seeing so many miracles here in Alto 1, and people keep asking what we are doing. Honestly, it is just a lot of member support, which we are so grateful for. We have also been trying to be the most obedient that we can be, and speak with everyone in the streets. It has been pretty effective, so we are seeing some fruits right now. I feel SO blessed that Heavenly Father has given me the opportunity to be here in this time to work with so many amazing families and members of the church. It's definitely not in our hands, we are just trying to do our best to follow Jesus and be obedient while sharing the good word of God! (: Everything is great here! 

i think i will have one more transfer here, and then i will be moved. so i am doing everything i can to enjoy my time here. mostly we are preparing two people for baptism!! and working with another woman to prepare her for baptism too. we have 3-4 ish progressing investigators right now, but we are also seeing tons of miracles here in alto 1. i can´t complain, we are so blessed, and the lords hand is definitely in this work! we have a wedding for the 22 of october and her baptism on the 25th, then another on the 1st of november and then hopefully another on the 8th of november.. the work rolls on!

if you didn´t watch conference... i demand it of you! haha it´s not just a challenge this week!!! it was too amazing to miss. love you all tons and thank you so much for the support!

if you want to know some cool places i have been, look up: campanario, llao llao hotel, la cascada de los duendes... and today we are off to cerro catedral! bariloche argentina is beautiful (:(:(:(:

xoxo

Hermana Terry

The Lombard Street of Bariloche! que tal! hahaha i love it, it reminds me so much of san fran here... definitely no complaints (;

my first fast food experience..ehh i definitely miss chick fil a... haha but here is a glass bottle soda for my baby girl Merrill!! (aka Mary Jane Dowden! totally reminded me of you)

yayaya

This week was great. We were in Centro a bit more than we had hoped again, but we still had a really successful week. We had a few really great lessons with Alan and Sabrina, our investigators, but unfortunately, they couldn´t come to church this week. It was a bummer. They are so awesome though, they read all the chapters we leave, they started the Book of Mormon from the beginning by themselves, AND they fasted this week without us asking them! It was so awesome to listen to their experience with that. 

Lets see.. I learned this week that not all little kids are easily entertained with pictures and stories. We tried to do a family night with a part member family, but their two little boys have so much energy and don´t really like to read stories or learn about how to pray. It was a great learning experience though, because I had to have a lot of patience and it was still really fun to practice how to pray with them and challenge them to pray together as a family every night. We had a tsunami in Pioneros this week, and it was really fun to go up there and help the Elders find people to teach, even though it was a downpour of snow. It was a homey feeling, which was great! I literally felt like I was in Sandy, the houses were beautiful, right next to the mountains and just dumping snow. so pretty!!!

Something I learned this week while studying in Preach My Gospel is about immediately testifying of a gospel principle when we are street contacting or door contacting. I really liked this idea because at least if these people don´t call us, or don´t want us to pass by, they will leave feeling good and hopefully feel the love and energy we have for this gospel. So I am working on immediately teaching and testifying when I meet someone new, so they know why we are here as missionaries. 

Also, I really love learning about faith, because we can always enhance our faith. I was reading in 3 Nephi 1, and it struck me when it says that Satan (v.22) was trying to deceive the people and tell them many lies about the signs they had SEEN. So I feel like people who just want signs or need to see something to actually believe in it, it´s just a lie also because even people who have seen Christ or seen signs still didn´t have faith. The thing about faith is that we just need to have it. we need to believe! I really loved that. 

Everything else is really great here! I love Bariloche (: I love being a missionary! 

xoxo 

Hermana Terry

Helado en Pday.................................................. 

Olga and my thing that I painted. but she wanted it, so I gave it other! (;

Hermana Davis de Texas!  She is leaving in 3 weeks, but she is awesome

My hair?  I dont know what happened, it rained a bunch and when I got home, it was SO curly. so thats a good time.. hahahahaha

tired = good

What a week! We had so much success this week, it was awesome. And we are very tired, which means that we are doing something right! (: I can´t believe that I am already done with my first transfer in the mission. It is passing so fast. We started off great this week with a family home evening at Bishop Sandovals house, with two less actives! We shared 1 Cor. 12 about the different parts of the body and how we as members of the church work together and we need everyone to make this church whole. It was really fun and we set another noche de hogar with the two less actives. Wahoo! 

I was studying my setting apart blessing this week and it spoke specifically about working with less active and inactive members during my mission. It gave me a renewed energy to contact and work with the less active members of our ward. I am really happy here in Alto 1, and I am having a lot of spiritual growth. I really can´t complain about the work here, it is moving on, that´s for sure! One experience that I want to share is with a woman named Corina. She and her family are inactive, and for who knows why! Her testimony is solid. She is a sassy little woman, and I love her! haha we are very similar, and I feel comfortable talking to her. With some people, I just click and I can easily talk to them, with others, I am more timid and kinda nervous to talk to, I don´t know why... Anyways, we went to her house and shared a video by elder Holland about how we are literally engraved in the hands of Christ. We talked about how we need to remember Him always, and give thanks for the good things and blessings that we have in our lives, and not only turn to him when we have struggles. (Thanks to my homeboy Elder Bristol! I totally quoted your letter that I received in the MTC, you rock (: ) It turned out to be really powerful and we invited her to say the closing prayer. She asked if we could kneel, because she really needed to give it her all. She started crying in the first sentence and just poured her heart out. What an experience. Hernana Hendry told me that no other missionary could get her to do that, and that I am the missionary she needed... I am just trying to love everyone, but I hope that in my time here, she starts coming back to church, because wow, I love her! and theres not a better feeling than seeing a less active or nonmember that we visited in the week at church... ah, my heart! So we will see. 

Also, this week we visited a woman who feeds us lunch on Wednesdays.. Her mom just passed away this past week. We passed by to see how she is doing. Normally she is pretty closed off, and she is also kind of sassy, just really blunt, which I love. But she is SO hard to understand for me, she talks under her breath and doesn´t anunciate (?sp)... I shared some experiences I had when Aunt Caroline passed away and some stuff that Dad shared with me last week about how we can know through prayer that our loved ones are being received into the heavens. I couldn´t even speak without crying because I remember how heavy my heart was in my experiences, I can´t even imagine losing my mom. So we did our best  but I think she felt how much we love her. She cried telling us about her experience.. ah man, I have a lump in my throat right now.. hah I just love her and I love the plan of salvation!!!!

All is well with Hna. Hendry and I, we are still working together well and always looking for ways to improve our teaching skills. This week, we focused a lot on street contacting, in order to find more people who are ready to hear the gospel. We don´t know who is ready, and we could be passing them all day! So, anytime an appointment fell through, or we had extra time in between citas, we talked to everyone we could that was walking or outside in their yards. It was really cool, and I am feeling more comfortable with street contacting now.

Ah, I can´t even explain all the good things that happened this week, but The Lord is with us and I love being a missionary! No matter how tired I am at the end of the day. Love you guys. Be safe, follow Jesus, study the scriptures.. and just love everyone. that´s most important(:

xoxo

Hermana Terry

My favorite family.. la familia Caro.  Noelia and Jaquelin are preparing for their missions and they always help us do divisions.. ah they are the best. and the best sunday male no doubt!!

Obispo y Hermana Sandoval. Love them!!

Sleeping issues man.. a cat came into our room and peed on my sleeping bag.. haha so Jaqelin was washing it for me, and I slept in my coat and my robe.. not too shabby eh?

Hermana Ponce, the funniest, tiniest little lady!  She is a hoot

First Transfer... Check!

Alrighty, it´s official, I have completed my first transfer in Bariloche, in Argentina, as a missionary in the field... 6 weeks! yay! haha it has gone by SO fast!! I can´t believe it, and throughout these 6 weeks, I have learned so much, so there will hopefully be a bunch of stuff in this guy this week. 

First of all, I´d like to send a shout out to my boo thang Elder Logan Wilson, who is going to have a HUMP DAAYYYY this week in Malaysia, by completing a full year of his mission (: 

I don´t even know where to start now....

Here are a list of things to do, that I have learned so far:

-Serve... everyone. everyone needs to feel loved

-If you have a calling, give it your all. The Lord is trusting you with it, and someone is counting on you to fulfill that calling. 

- Family Home Evening... do them every week. I wish we would have done them more growing up, but there is always room for improvement. and When you have them, invite someone else, who isn´t a member, or having a hard time with their testimony, or just someone you´ve been thinking about... they will appreciate it and it´s a really easy way to share the gospel in a laid back environment.

-The Book of Mormon should be read and studied everyday. You guys, it is the best book in the whole world. I love to read, all the books, but the Book of Mormon is my all time favorite. Start with a prayer, with a question or concern, pour your heart out to our Father in Heaven, and then read. Start at the beginning or start wherever you want, I PROMISE you will learn something amazing. Even if it is only 5 minutes, read it!!! 

-Work with the missionaries. It´s such a pain when the members are flaky, but there isn´t a better feeling to work with the members and have them feel the spirit of missionary work. We can´t work unless the members are working too.. so hop to it! They are counting on you! (: Also, if you have a kid on a mission, I am pretty sure it is just expected for you to serve the missionaries in your area...duhhh (:

-If someone is old, lonely, sad or all of the above, for heavens sake, go visit them!! Take them a treat, or an Ensign to read and just talk with them. Let them chat your ear for an hour, because they need it. Even if you don´t say anything, they will be so grateful to have a visit from someone who will just listen, and they will most likely cry, but it´s okay... just be loving. be like Jesus (:

.... Okay, there´s that. I LOVE being a missionary. I still have a really hard time waking up in the morning, I am not a morning person... I don´t thinkI ever will be. But, I am so grateful to get up and work everyday, because I am taught something new everyday, and I have a greater appreciation for all the things. Everyday has something amazing in it. We have a lot to learn!

Okay, also this week, we got to play the role of Sister Training Leaders for a minute.. haha we received a phone call at 130 AM on Tuesday from the presidents assistant to tell us that we would be receiving an hermana in about 10 minutes... it was nuts. I was so tired.. haha Then she worked with us for the day, and she was the sweetest girl! We have the best missionaries here in Neuquen (: Then, we did splits with a member so I could take her to the bus terminal and Hna Hendry could go teach lessons. It was crazy... 6 weeks in Argentina and I am already doing divisions and taking people to the bus terminal. haha It was a fun time. Luckily we have some killer RMs to work with  in our ward. 

I got bit by a dog through a fence!!! hahaah.. luckily I had my big puffy coat on, so it just felt like a i got hit, with some teeth... hahah but I have a battle wound on my jacket, it was hilarious. I was like AHHH!!! and freaking out, it scared me more than anything.. what a little trucho... hahah so there´s that.. I was so afraid to get bit by a dog here, and now it already happened.. all is well! 

then, we did divisions again with some of the most capa (stud) members in our ward, who are preparing for missions. Noelia and Jaqueline... ah, sisters. they are so killer. I love working with the members here. 

Anyways, that´s all folks! Just killin´ it here in Bariloche. What a beautiful place. I love Argentina (: 

xoxo

Hermana Terry

Week of Miracles.

Lets see.. I am sucking at writing emails because I always have more fun reading your emails than writing my own.. haha and the time just goes so fast. but, this week was killer, that´s for sure.

I got sick... #flu... it was crappy, but that´s okay! I am feeling much better, and I didn´t waste any time staying inside, the work is moving along, ain´t nobody got time for a tiny pension!! We found 3 new investigators this week, and we are so blessed to have really great member support. I am trying to take it all in, because I am not sure if it will be this great in other places. Our ward here is the bomb, and we are way blessed. 

We had an investigator at church this week, which hasn´t happened yet, but it was awesome. I am learning so much here, I love being a missionary. I am glad to hear that everyone is starting school with a bang and everything is moving along at home. I have been studying in Alma, and wow, I love the scriptures.

Family!: I want you guys to read the book of mormon together, study it every day. and also, I want you gusy to read it individually. Its amazing and we can learn so much from the prophets and stories in there. 

All is well here, nothing to complain about! Just keep fighting the adversary... keep the commandments, smile at everyone and just follow Jesus! That´s the best way to live. I love you guys, and we are definitely blessed to be in the time, doing the Lords work. Holla"!!!

xoxo

Hermana Terry

just doing some construction.. the perks of having dirt roads i guess.. you can just smooth everythign out with a tractor! hahahah

the hospital... kind of a creepy place. I never want to go in there for myself.. but we went to visit an elder who got really sick..