December 15, 2014

15 diciembre 2014
10 days ‘til Christmas! I better get shopping!  It’s Hermana Tuttle’s birthday on the 26th, so yes, I really need to start thinking about what we’re going to do for that! It’ll be fun though.  So today has been great-  we started out by baking a cake for Wendy(18) and Brian(22)’s birthday (they’re Perez children, but their birthdays are on the same day.) We also made Wendy a bracelet as her present- yay for crafting skills!  (Boston, take some embroidery floss with you- it’s not the same stuff here and you’ll use it at some point ) Then we went to Hma Perez’s house + learned how to make Empanadas Arabes! Porsuerte (Luckily) I actually wanted to eat them again for the 1st time since I was really sick almost a month ago.  They have different hygiene standards with raw meat here + that was a little bit shocking, but we’ll survive.  She taught us how to fold the cute little triangles.  It was fun and quite like a little factory because we made a ton of them for the birthday lunch. We went and read emails and then came back and ate with everyone.  They fit a ton of people into their house (I’ll send a photo- I actually got one) We ate empanadas, Argentine style pizza, soda and then some little sausage sandwhiches the familia Daniele brought.  It was fun! We couldn’t stay for cake because we needed to do some stuff but it was fun to see a party  Even though yesterday we had a Relief Society party – it was like a gian pep talk on visiting teaching and games and then we all ate tons of toks (cakes/desserts/etc) and of course soda.
I really love the ward here and I’m glad Hma Tuttle and I are staying this transfer  I love dulce de leche – just putting that out there… it’s so good! So my funny story for this week was when Hma Tuttle had a panic attack during the storm.  Storms here usually start with a huge dust cloud and and you have to shut all the doors and windows and the wind sounds terrible because we’re on the 3rd floor.  Then they cut the power (they do that on purpose apparently) and it was dark I put my head lamp on and just kept making my mashed potatoes as usual and Hma Tuttle started to panic- she wanted to make a fort with the mattresses and the desk (it looked more like a bomb shelter ot me) and I kept telling her we’d be fine.  Eventually, we said a prayer together so that we could feel better (all of her panic was rubbing off) and then Hma Tuttle hid in the tiny hallway area and wrote in her journal.  Eventually, the lights came back on and I finished my potato and life went on – It rained like crazy, but all was well.  Seriously though, Hma Tuttle is really afraid of storms.  The cute little lady at Ciber where we email gave me a chocolate bar 0 here they have peanuts in them- and it was so good! Maybe my tastebuds are just finally used to Argentine candy, but I liked it! Oncativo is doing really well- we have investigators in Laguna Larga and the members are all getting done with school, etc… so they can help us more! (In theory, but really though. It’s going to be great).
Ilda, our cute little investigator is doing great and we love helping her inkiosco.  She really loves how we pray and how we have a very personal and loving Heavenly Father.  We invited her to be baptized and she said she’s already been baptized but if she needed it again she would but not on the 27th of Diciembre – it’s her little sister’s birthday.  So we’re working with her and we met the sister this week.  She’s an English teacher (her name is Lorena) and she wants to practice her English with us.  We’re excited to get to know more about them and to teach them more! Maria, who wasn’t sure she wanted to read the LdM accepted on this week – miracles really do happen! We found two really awesome girls named Florencia and Natalia.  They’re 15 and 16 and they have big dreams.  Florencia wants to see Washington DC so badly! She also wants to study Marine biology.  Natalia wants to study biochemistry.  We’re going to go back and talk to them and their families  This week we also throught about going to Manfredi (another pueblecito in between Oncatino and Lagina Lerga that’s tiny), but we will probably go there next week.  The cool thing is that we’ll be able to find the people who are ready in Laguna Larga and Manfredi – missionaries haven’t been there in a long time.  Every day that I’m on my mission I’m struck by ho the Lord guides every step of His missionaries.  I love serving Him and Saring the gospel with the blessed people of Argentina.  I’m building my testimony of personal progress… If you haven’t done it, you should! Hope you all enjoy the hustle and bustle of an All-American white Christmas!
<3 you all!
<3/Hma SwanD