Hola familia y amigos? Que pasa?
Life is better this week. I can't believe it's December and there are only 15 days left in this transfer. Holy Cow! (That sounds weird by the way.) The mission is going better and I'm loving life in this crazy little town. We had a lot of stuff to do last week. (Comparably of course.) And we visited a lot of less actives and recent converts. That was good because they are all such awesome people. We also had a couple of opportunities for service- we helped Hermana Perez clean and tidy her house and patio. (She has 9 kids) We also took Ninfa, our closest member with us and we helped Juan clean his floor. Around here it is pretty hard to find people who'll let you help them with something. But I love having service activities so I'll take them while I can get them.
We really only have four investigators- Mario in Oncativo and Claudia, Maria and Ilda in Lagoona Larga. We only go to Lagoona Larga twice a week. So basically we are always looking for people to teach who are interested her in Oncativo. We did receive two referrals from members so we are hoping that they work out well this week.
The missionary work is different her in Argentina, Cordoba. We have something called plan Piloto. It's a new type of missionary effort and it's focusing on finding more people to teach people by working more on with less actives and part member families, while keeping all the new converts active. The initiative is to Baptise more, retain more, reactivate more. We only report about half the numbers we are supposed to and the way we are supposed to work with the ward or branch organization. Hermana Tuttle says that when it works it's amazing but we haven't quite gotten there with Oncativo, yet. We have had quite a bit of success with reactivating (At least with Juan, Elva and Nicolas. The three less actives we have that are willing to have anything to do with the church and don't call the cops when we come to their house.:)
I was so confused about what in the world we were doing when I first got here. It's totally different missionary work , but it is going to be really cool. Apparently there are four other missions who are also testing it with us. 2 more in Argentina and one in Chile. It's fairly new, almost as old as Hrm. Tuttle has been in the mission-so ten months almost. It's Ok if none of that made sense. I'm learning that only missionaries know what we do. It is a strange but blessed life.
We had a pretty normal day on Thanksgiving. I ate a milinasa-fried chicken type thing and of course mashed potatoes. It already feels like weeks ago. I got a blessing this week and it was awesome to feel the peace and comfort of the spirit and I am thankful that there are priesthood holders here. It was cool to have my first blessing in spanish. We are starting to see more puppies and kittens. THEY'RE SO CUTE!!! Oh I have a story of the week. We got ROBBED! That's right a whole 70 pesos ($7) We had our window and door open because it was so hot and two little kids came and just watched us study through the window. I talked to them for a few minutes- the little boys name was Benjamin and the girl was 6 and I can't remember her name. They didn't leave when I stopped talking to them, so we just went back to studying for a few minutes. I was reading the paper on culture shock outloud to Hma. Tuttle and I got to the part about being over stressed about being robbed when it hit me that Hma Tuttle had left money by the keys on the table which happened to be right under the window. Sure enough my head shot up and the little kids were gone- and so was Hma Tuttle's money. I said "I think we just got robbed! And we ran after the little kids and eventually we could see them walking a long ways away with their mom. We didn't know what to say or do - Hma Tuttle didn't have shoes on. We decided they probably needed it more than we did and it was one of those things that we didn't have any words or experience with. Moral of the story - little kids may look cute and adorable but you can't trust them. Even in your own pension at your own kitchen table. Hma. Tuttle was pretty upset-70 pesos is actually quite a bit of money here. But all is well:) Pretty harmless way to get robbed....it could have been alot worse. Anyway we can wear Chacos here, but my feet are used to my other shoes, so I haven't worn them yet. My favorite food is probably milinasas or pizza, the pizza is different, but really good. We eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies and I love that. I have discovered these evil little white chocolate filled caramels and they are my weakness! I also love the bread and futuras here-I'm sure I'll put on some weight, but it will be worth it. :)
Love Hermana Swan
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