There is Sunshine in My Soul Today : Happy 2015!‏ Jan. 05, 2015

Wow, I can´t believe that it´s a totally new year, and I´ll spend all of it here in Argentina. How crazy is that?

I am kind of glad that the fiestas here are over, it makes missionary work a little more complicated, but at least we got to party! We got to stay up late again with Familia Daniele and celebrate the New Year :) We ate so much food again, but much less pan dulce (we´re pretty much sick of it...it´s like fruit cake, and everyone gives it to us when we visit their house, so we get wayyyy more than our fair share). We had really good food though, and we got to watch more fireworks outside, so that was really fun :)

I finished the Book of Mormon again this last week in time for the New Year. The cool part is that I can finally just read it in Spanish and I understand pretty much everything. Every once in a while I have to check the English version, but let me tell you, the gift of tongues is real. Also, there is just so much power in the scripture. I feel like every time I read I learn something different and it´s awesome.

We had a really fun zone activity today. We went and watched a magic show to help a few youth make enough money to go to EFY this next week. I got to participate, and it was pretty great. Later, they made a turtle appear in a box and that was a pretty good trick...yes, a live turtle. They were actually really good and they kept a whole room full of missionaries entertained :) We later played fútbol, and I made a goal, which was pretty awesome. The Elders just never expect that, so of course I got a lot of glory :) Oh yeah, and this capilla (church) is in kind of a sketchy part of Córdoba, so when we arrived there really early by ourselves we hopped the fence so we didn´t have to sit out by the street. The funniest part of that is when everyone else showed up and the gate was still locked, and then they realized how we got over...yeah, the things we do in the mission. Por lo menos, it was safer inside the gate, so I rest my case :)

Really though, this week should be great. We´re going to have a Splash in Laguna Larga (the splash last week got moved to this week, and we´re going to go there instead of the pueblecito we just got added to our area called Oliva). So hopefully we´ll be able to find a ton of awesome people. Splashes are when all of the Missionaries in our Zone come to one area and we all work together in different parts and contact as many people as possible. It´ll be super fun, and I´m really looking forward to it.

Thanks for all the letters I´ve gotten through the mail and through email, this time of year everyone is really busy at home and I know it´s hard to sit down and write. However, it does mean a lot to the people who recieve them (like me, and Hermana Tuttle). So basically, nobody hates getting mail. Seriously though, thank you to everyone who sent me a letter or an email! I love you all, and if I didn´t reply, it´s not that I don´t love you.

No pictures this week, sorry. We had to email right off the collectivo and we don´t have the converters for our cameras. So there´ll be lots next week :)

Here´s hoping that you have a fantastic year, and you can learn more about yourself and the world. I´m learning the importance of goals here on the mission...I used to just kind of make them up as I went along, but they really do help you measure your progress and stretch a little farther. If you haven´t sat down and made some goals for this next year, do it! Write them down and put them somewhere you can see them often and keep working at them every day. If the year is just too much to handle for you, do it month by month. I´ll do it too. ¨When you reach them, send me an email about what you learned and about what you accomplished, and I´ll send you a real letter from Argentina! I can´t wait to hear about how it goes :)

Hope that you all have a great week, and that you enjoy the start of school again, and enjoy the cold. Today I got to the boiling point on the collectivo because the air conditioning was broken again....AHHHHHH! Luckily, Hermana Tuttle had her hand fan, so I didn´t get angry enough to hit anyone, but it was close. Usually, it´s the other way around. If you´re going on a mission, take a cute cheap little hand fan with you...it might save your companion´s life one day (or your own, you never know:).

Thanks for listening to the crazy Hermana Swan, and have a fantastic week. My suggested reading for this week is Moroni 10. That chapter is the reason I and anyone else can have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and know for ourselves that it´s true. It is, and I know it. That´s why I´ll be in Argentina this year, because I want to help people have that for themselves and the happiness that comes from knowing our Father in Heaven loves them.

¡Saludos a todo! (appropriate for a missionary of course)

Love,

Hermana Swan