"Si Dios quiere..."‏

I never know how to start these emails.

This week was good but pretty normal. Nothing TOO exciting happened. So I'll just fill you in on the major things.

Jose Luis is still progressing towards his baptism on Sunday! He´s great and totally love learning about the gospel, but seems to have a hard time giving up his catholic beliefs, which is understandable. It's like he agrees with everything we say, but then tries to spend a majority of the lesson teaching us about catholics.. He also loves talking about love. About how love for everyone is "fundamental", which I mean, yeah. Thats great. But he talks about it ALL THE TIME. Sacrament? Love. Church is on Sunday? Love. Nephi was born of goodly parents? Love. After 15 minutes of him talking about love and catholics we´re just like "..ha.. uh huh.. anyway.." Also, there's a saying here that goes "Si Dios quiere". It's WAY Argentine, and directly transalted means "if God wants". He also says that after EVERYTHING. We´re like "so tomorrow at 3?" and he's all "if God wants" and I just look at him and I'm like.. "... God wants" hah I'm awful. 

Also, we finally met up with Jose Antonio this week. It was super awkward at first. It was like when you have a fight with someone and you see each other for the first time and that meeting decides whether or not you´re going to continue with your friendship or whatever. Not sure if that made any sense but whatever. So we brought a member who kind of just listened and talked to him better than we could. And then Jose came to church and was asked last minute to bear his testimony as a talk. So being the great person he is, he got up there last minute. He was super honest and said that he wasn't feeling anything. That he wasn't sure why he was here. And he was trying to figure it out. Then said that he realized that Satan is just tempting him and trying to prevent him because he knows that Jose will go far. That his testimony is strong. And that now he feels good. Then after that Hermana Holloway and I got to be there while Jose received the priesthood :) It was super cool. Watching someone progress through the gospel is like whatching your child grow up. I mean.. I assume. I wouldn't know.

I also got to see Hermana Vallejos the other day and she had the pleasure of telling me that my convert from Escobar, Damian, hasn't been going to church. When I asked why she told me it's because he's "trying to find the chapel in Palermo because he has a letter he wants to give you personally" Oh. No. My heart dropped. Luckily he's been trying for about 5 weeks and hasn't found it yet. I hope he never does. That's the last thing I wanted a convert to do or think or feel. 

I also got to file off dead skin off Carlito's foot yesterday and clip his toenails. The thought of doing it made me want to shrivel up and die, but I just love him so much that the actual act of doing it wasn't THAT bad. 

As for this week, thats pretty much all that happened. But I do want to take some time to share something I read in my studies this week:

I've been reading in Jesus the Christ, and honestly I love that book. There's a part in it where Christ is talking to his disciples and says to them, "The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day."

It then goes on to explain that Christ had mentioned to them many times before about how He will be delivered and killed, but here is where He mentions it in the clearest way. And then is says that His disciples failed to understand the other times He said it, and even though this was completely clear, they still failed to understand. As I was thinking about how they couldn't understand that, I read the next couple lines that stood out to me. They read: "The thought of what the Lord´s words might mean, even in its faintest outline, was terrifying to those devoted men; and their failure to comprehend was in part due to the fact that the human mind is loath to search deeply into anything it desires not to believe"

I'm not sure why, but those lines really stood out to me. They were so devoted to Christ, that they refused to allow their minds to understand even the clearest statement. But as yesterday was Easter, I thought a lot about the Resurrection. About how it was understandably "terrifying" for them to think that Christ was going to leave them. He was their Leader, Master, Loving Friend. And I'm sure it would be terrifying for anyone who knew Christ like that. And then applying it to my own life, I too would be terrified if I was told Christ was going to leave and I was going to lose the opportunity of knowing Him or having Him in my life. But we don't need to have that fear because Christ rose again on the third day. Thanks to this, we will never lose Him. And He gave each of us the opportunity to also rise again. 

I love my Savior, and I'm so thankful for the sacrifice He gave to us, and that He rose again so that we too might all rise again.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Love you all!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich 

1. Jose Antonio after getting the priesthood! 

2. CHORIPAN :))) (yes, there is a fly on my plaque. But I like this picture)

Fua. This has been a hard week. Or better said, this is a hard area. 

But no importa. Honestly, Im not really sure with where to start with this email. I could complain about how all of our appointments fell through this week, about how we just walked and walked and walked and how everyone rejected us. Or about how our numbers were awful this week. About how Jose Antonio pratically broke our hearts.. But Im not going to. 

Okay I lied, Im actually going to explain that last one. So we met with Jose and the first thing he said to us is, "Chicas, I have something to tell you but I dont know how to say it" Ouch. So he starts off by reminding us about how his interest started in the church because his ex girlfriend (who hes still completely in love with) is a member. And then as he investigated he gained his own testimony and all that good stuff. And then he told us how he feels like hes been reading and praying and doing everything for us. How he feels like he reads just so he can tell us about it, and how lately, nothing is sticking out to him. Hes not feeling anything. Then he asked for about a week or two alone to do everything because he wants to figure out if hes doing it really because he has a testimony or for us. So that was just really hard. And then he didnt come to church yesterday. Even harder. 

BUT. On a more happier note, we got to church yesterday and were introduced to a man named Jose Luis. He recently got married and his wife is inactive. They came up to us and pretty much just said "hi! I want to be baptized!" Fau. So we set an appoinment with him for that night he accepted a baptism date. Hes set to be baptized on April 3rd :)))))))))))))))))))))))))) MILAGROS. 

Honestly just when we finished a super hard week and were so ready top just give up, God gave us a miracle. He blessed us so much. 

Then we got to go eat american food with 2 american senior couples so that was a highlight.

I still havent been sleeping that much, but I dont even care because God is blessing us with SO MUCH. 

Im just really happy and really thankful for the opportunity God has given me to serve Him. Like Ive said a million times, its hard. But so so so worth it. Im especially thankful for the people God has put in my life. From my companion, my awesome zone leaders and district leader, President, to my investigators and converts, the members, or even the people we talk to once on the street, every single person has taught me something. I feel like this transfer has given me a lot of opportunities to change who I am. To improve personally. And Im really thankful for it. I feel like Ive changed a lot. Im still no where near where I need to be, but with the Atonement and the support I get from everyone along the way, Im getting there :) 

I love you all! Happy Easter!!!!!!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich 

1. We found a really big bench

2. a daughter of the family from the villa :)

 

Sleepless in Buenos Aires....

This week can be described in one word.. Long.

Honestly it was an exhausting and long week full of a lot of things. 

So to start off, we got out of our trio on Tuesday. So that was a lot of stress taken away, as we were able to begin to completely focus on our area. We also went to contact that reference with president. And let me just say that was the most unique experience ever. So we got there and Pres told us his name was Tom Evans. No joke. He´s Argentine, but he "speaks English better than we speak Spanish".We get up there and he looks completely American. Blue eyes and everything. Hes about 65 or so. So he starts talking to us in the coolest British accent Ive ever heard. We find out he lived in England for a while. Hes also worked for a shipping company that works for the church, to help move mission presidents to and from missions. So hes been to salt lake and everything. Even has his own Book of Mormon with his name engraved. He has a crazy story. When he was in england, he was engaged, and his fiance was killed the night before their wedding. So he moved back here and married someone quickly, and that only lasted for a year. And then married someone else, which lasted 38 years until she died of cancer about 4 years ago. So we just started with the Plan of Salvation and ended up teaching that with the restoration. I was already nervous because it was with President, and then we also had to teach in English. Super hard. Also I had to pray in English. LEt me just tell you, that was the hardest thing ive done. I was having to translate my prayer in my head from spanish to English. So Dev, if you´re reading this, I know understand why it was so hard for you to pray in English when you got back.

 On Wednesday we had interviews with President. It was super sad because it was his last time doing interviews, as he leaves in July. But it was cool. We also got little workshops with the assistants. Theyre awesome. But it was also their last time doing interviews so it was just all sad. 

From Thrusday on we just had long days. We walked all day.And our area is huge. It takes about 45 minutes to get from one end to the other in bus. Almost all of our appointments fell through so we walked, and walked and walked... and walked. But we were so guided those days. We literally just gave up on our plans and were like.. ¨"Lets go visit this person" So we did. Without a clue why we were there, we showed up at the door of this member family. She let us in, which was a miracle because shes NEVER home. She gave us hot chocolate and we shared a message. Then her sone came out and said he wants to accompany us. So we left with him and he asked if we knew a kid names Facundo. We had gone to visit him a while ago, because both of his parents are members but hes not because his mom wants NOTHING to do with the church. Well we decided to go anyway, and when we got to his building, his dad was outside taking out the trash. He let us in to see his son, another miracle, and we met him. Hes so awesome! He said he knows the church is true and wants to be baptized. The hard part now is his mom. She legit hates the church. And im not even doing it justice when I say "hates".

And yesterday we were guided again to other families and found a couple possilities. I wont go into it because this email is already pretty long. But honestly Ive seen God´s hand in every aspect of the work lately, and I honestly dont think I could say that before. This area is changing my mission. Its strengthening my testimony so much. I just LOVE the mission!

The other day we went to visit some less actives/recent converts in the mini villa. For those who dont know what a villa is, its an area where people can build houses and live without having to pay the government. Its a really poor area where people build up. Like they stack houses and build with whatever they find. If you want a better idea, look up "villas in argentina". Anyway, we got there, and this family lives in an abandoned train car. Im not even kidding. There are 7 people living in that. As I was sitting there in shock I heard the mom say "yeah, we´re gathering clothes to give to the people who have nothing!" What. Im sitting here thinking about how they can live there and be so happy and there they are focusing on others. Humility literally slapped me in the face.  

Honestly the people here are amazing. They´re changing me. I feel like Im finally starting to become the person that God needs me to be. But I still have a long way to go. I reached 6 months on Wednesday, and I was thinking about how I only have a year left. And then I started to have a mini panic attack about how Im not ready to go home (Ignoring the fact that I have a year left, haha oops) because Im SO NOT READY. I still have so much to change and improve on. But Im working on it, little by little. 

And anyway. Ive been exhausted because even when Im sleeping im tracting and teaching. Literally im doing missionary work 24/7. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich

Photos :)

1. Jose tracting with us :)

2. Jose made us lunch :) 

3. Alfajores! 

Chevere :)

I don't even know where to start with this letter as I´m not even sure what happened this week. I feel like so much happened and so many things changed and then changed again and people came and went and were giving me a million things to do and I just stood there clueless.

Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. But this week was pretty stressful. We live in an apartment with another companionship of sisters. One of them had a bad back when I got here, and found out that she has a mass in her spine, or a slipped disk or something. To be honest, I don't understand medical terms in Spanish so I'm not sure. But anyway, what I know is she can't walk. So she was going back and forth to the hospital and President's house trying to figure out what to do. And during that, we´ve been having to work in a trio some days and work in two areas. And some days when we´re trying to help them we haven't been able to start working until 4. So it's been a little stressful. But it's okay. :) Anyway, that sister went home today. So we were officially put in a trio until further notice, and will be working in 2 HUGE areas. Pero bueno. Todo bien :)

Jose Antonio, our convert from last week was confirmed yesterday. He is SO AWESOME. I know I didn't find him or anything, but I definitely feel like he was someone I was supposed to meet. He's just so happy all the time and anyone even close to him is just happy. After his confirmation he went up to bear his testimony, and it was so powerful. After we had ward council and the bishop said that the ward literally did "everything wrong" with him, yet he was determined and got baptized. And that he's a miracle and an example to everyone. Gah. I love this area!!!

Remember Carlitos? The one who had a stroke that I talked about last week? He got to pass the sacrament yesterday! Only to the bishopric because he can't really walk that well, but he was so happy and so cute and my heart exploded. We went to visit him after and he just went on and on about how happy he was to be able to use the priesthood. 

We´ve seen some pretty crazy people here. We meet a lot of people who see that we´re 2 gringas and try to speak english with us and they say the most RANDOM things. Someone started saying he was German with a red hat and then started apologizing to us. Someone else asked us to give him a sign that God exists. 

Then we passed some crazy guy talking to himself and as we passed he said "girls, I'm going to follow you now" and then proceeded to follow us laughing. That´s when we started running. 

Today on the bus we hear someone yelling something outside, so we looked out and saw probably the scariest woman I've ever seen in my entire life. No joke, straight out of a horror movie. She was super short, with GIANT teeth, so big she couldnt really close her mouth, sunglasses, and pigtail braids that were randomly blonde while the rest of her hair was black. She looked at us on the bus and just started screaming. And not like yelling something at us, but like screaming like she was dying or going to kill us, bloody murder type scream. I mean, I love horror movies but that doesn't mean I want to live in one.  

Other than that, life is good. I've noticed that I feel like we´ve been having a lot of trials thrown at us this transfer already. And it's been hard sometimes to be patient and not get stressed. But despite everything that's happening, Im really really happy. I love this area and I love the mission. I love my comp and this ward and every single person I've met. And I feel like I've changed. For one, I've completely forgotten how to be sarcastic. (Yeah yeah, I know.) But I've learned that if I want to get anything done in this mission, I have to just trust God. What I want and what I want to do really doesn't matter if it's not what God wants for us and for this area in that moment. I've been reading Jesus the Christ, and I read something I really liked. I can't remember it word for word, but it said something like God will still be God whether we acknowledge Him or not. He´s in control no matter what. And I've learned to accept that. To put my trust completely in Him and to try and be patient and humble when things don't go the way I thing they should. This transfer has already been a very humbling experience and an email doesn't do it justice. But.. I guess I just want to say, I'm happy. Thats all :)

Bueno. Mil disculpe, porque esta carta es MUY larga. Pero bueno.. Que tengan una linda semana! 

Les amo!

Hermana Prestwich

Photo: Jose Antonio on the day of his baptism! The other guy is the one that baptized him :)

La Boca--P-day fun.