Open House at the Church

This week we had a Capilla Abierta el Sabado [Open House at the Church on Saturday]. A lot of members came. They were all the converts; I swear the long timers don´t do anything, haha. We all went out and contacted. We gave away tons of folletos [pamphlets] and talked with a ton of people. It was so fun to see all of the members contacting and their animo [enthusiasm]. It was a ton of fun.

These are the members that helped out at the Open House.

No one really actually came through the church that whole time, only a few youth to see the football field. But God works in his ways because after all our efforts when we were about to end and go home Marcelo came. He is like 27 years old and was SUPER interested in the gospel. We gave him a tour and talked with him. He met the elders a while ago and is super excited for Hermana Lopez and me to start teaching him!  He is like one of those golden investigators!!!(:

He wants to take English lessons so we are going to start to do them twice a week. My English is awful and my spelling is even worse. The univesrity afterwards is gonna be rough! haha

At the end of the tour Marcelo gave me a chocolate, ¨For the teacher,¨ me dijo. Now all the members joke about it and tease me all the time about my chocolate, haha. We hope that Marcelo wants the lessons for the right reason! But it was super spiritual to see how God works at the very end of things after we have given our best! 

I have been reading Jesus the Christ. Can I just say that every morning I am in awe of how much I learn and the spirit that I feel! And honestly I am learning some pretty awesome things! Did you know that God lived on an earth and went through all these same things we are going through before he became God? Like whoa, like I think I had heard that before but it never struck home.

We are dejando [dropping] a lot of our investigadores but are finding new ones, so the work continues. There has been more stress from being a leader now and in charge of hermanas that aren´t doing so great together but I am trying to help them and trust God. I had a Noche de Hogar with the sisters that I am in charge of this past week and it was amazing. The spirit was so strong. 

Some weeks I feel like my testimony is stuck and not going anywhere but then you just have to continue because weeks like this happen and you gain so much more to your testimony! Life is amazing! It is soooo weird to think that I have almost been out 6 months! Hermana Lopez and I are going to carve Zapallo for Halloween. You can look it up in google. I’m super excited! 

Today eating with the Caseras family. They are like my family here in Tacuari.

Answer to your bug question; the bugs here aren´t bad at all!! But it has been winter, so we will see how summer goes. There are some cockroaches, and ants but other than that it´s been really nice! The mangos here are coming on!! We have the yellow ones and Brazilian ones! In a couple months they will be ready!

I love you all. Stay happy and follow Jesus. (: 

Hermana Newell

Zapallo: A large winter squash that resembles a pumpkin.

Another Busy Week in Posadas

Another week has flown by! It´s incredible to think that I have been out for 5 and a half months. It flies by super-fast! This past week was really good!

Last Monday night Hermana Villanueva had to come do tramites [visa paperwork] and she stayed with me!!!! She was my MTC companion. After 5 months we had so much to talk about. It was super fun and she is doing really well!

Hermana Villanueva

On Tuesday I did splits with my new sisters. They are both amazing. It was great to get to know them more and their area. They are having some trouble between the two of them and so that has put a lot more stress on my plate to be worrying about three sisters now, including Hermana Lopez. But Hermana Lopez helps me a ton to relax and to enjoy it and not stress out so much.

This is a member and an investigator that I met while working with the other sisters.

On exchanges with one of my sisters, Hermana Arandeda from Chile.

So we eat lunch like every day with members and they ship us home with leftovers and more food. And when we have visits the people are constantly giving us food. So don´t worry, we are eating plenty!  The food that I liked most that we had this week was Noquis made from aselga (Possibly Gnocchis made with swiss chard). They are a type of pasta. You can look them up and see.

This is lunch with the Pulgar family. They are used to feeding the elders so they always make like a huge amount of food! It is so good though. They give us the left overs to take home.

Pulgar family

This week I realized that my area is huge! I don´t know even like a 5th of it, so I guess there is a lot of work to do!

This past Friday we had a Noche Familiar en la capilla [at the church]. It was so fun. We all sang and there was food and everything. Hermana Lopez and I sang “Let it be” by the Beatles, haha, whoops!

My companion is the cutest and greatest thing ever! These are traditional things they do in Honduras. She wanted to present in the Noche Familiar but we didn´t end up doing it.

Noche Familiar

The 15th birthday celebration (quincenera) of a member named Alejandra Duarte.

Sunday was Mother’s Day here in Argentina. EVERYONE was partying and we had lessons with two drunk people hahaha and that was interesting. But we met Pedro Leva, and taught him. We are excited to see what happens! He is like 50 and super interested!

We also met Ramon Cabrera. He is a recent convert that is inactive. But he has the cutest granddaughter and she just hugged me the whole time. (: They all came to church on Sunday and he invited us to lunch next Sunday!

Sebastian is progressing, but he isn´t ready for baptism yet so we extended his date. We will see what happens!

Today for P day we had a zone activity and we played volleyball. It was a lot of fun!

The zone activity

Here are some photos of my apartment.

My kitchen

My bedroom

This is especially for Allison.  This is how the Argentine people wash their underside after using the restroom. I have never used it but both my apartments have had them.

This past week I finished the Book of Mormon again! I started at the beginning of the mission. It was amazing. Moroni 10 is incredible. I love the faith and humility that he had. Today I started Jesus the Christ and it is AMAZING! That is what I’m starting to study now along with the New Testament.  I’m so excited.

All is good here. I hope all is well up there. I pray for you all.

Hermana Newell