First Week of Motherhood

This week went by super fast but also super slow. 

 A ver.. I got my hija! Her name is Hermana Ruiz, she´s from Chile, and super awesome. She speaks about 1000 miles and how and super quiet, so as you can imagine, I'm struggling a bit. I can now understand everything that Argentine´s say, but with her, I'm struggling. haha but she´s cool. She´s 22, and a convert of a year and 3 months. She´s super ready to work and teaches with so much power. 

As for the area, it's good. I've been here for 2 months and I have 3 more to go. I don't know if I want to think about how I'll be here for 5 months or not. hahha I love Palermo, but I´m a little stuck on what to do. We´re finding a lot of "new" invesigators, but none that are progressing. We´re kinda just walking and visitng less actives and asking for references and looking for old investigators to see if they´re now interested. I'm not really sure what else to do. 

Yesterday we had a super powerful Ward Counsel meeting. Our bishop is great. We talked about 7 or so families/people and what we need to do. And then we watched the conference talk about rescuing those who have strayed. The one about the boats, and how the second boat decided to wait and so all the people drowned, and how we need to be the first boat and not the second. Then the bishop turned it off, looked at us, and was all, "okay. Who´s ready? Now?" We kinda just stared at him and he was like "well? Lets go!" Assigned us families and we left! One of the sisters was saying she couldn´t because something about her dog, and the bishop looked at her and said "second boat". Well, that quieted her and we left" It was awesome. And Our ward mission leader and a member of the YSA went to visit Jose Antonio. He had told us previously that he doesn't want any visits from members. He called us and I thought he was going to be really mad, but he called to say thank you for giving out his address even when he said not to, because it really motivated him and he said he will most likely be at church next week. :)

We also have a less active/recent convert who we finally found and have been working with. He´s pretty honest so he just straight up told us that he got baptized to learn but never really received an answer, but that he would like to know that the church was true. Normally situations like this would make me sad. But the spirit just hit me and my comp so strong. It was our first or second day together but the spirit was telling us both what to do and say and we were following it. It was evident as we both opened up to the exact same scripture at the same time. 

So no, we don't have any investigators right now. We´re mainly just working with less actives and members and trying to find through them. But I know we´ll be blessed as long as we keep working diligently and don't give up. It's hard and I'm stressed and feel a little like I did at the beginning of my mish, minus the feeling of wanting to go home. Haha 

I love you all and I hope you´re having a fantastic week! 

Love,

Hermana Prestwich

Here´s my new comp and Carlitos :) Bueno, and me. 

It's a Girl!!

Hello again! Just so everyone knows, I'm staying in Palermo. Today are transfers and I'm still here! Which I'm so thankful for. I love this area with all of my heart.
 
I have a lot to tell you so let me just start. 
 
On Monday night we got a call saying that we were going to be moving the next day so we have to pack everything up and be ready to go. We were so excited. We had been living with two other hermanas who didn't get along to save their lives so.. that was fun. So we packed up and were told we´re going to a super rich part of our area. YES. So thanks to our amazing Zone Leaders and District Leader, and Ward Mission Leader, we got everything taken apart and shipped over to our new apartment! We walked in and... hahahah it's the smallest thing I've ever seen. There were cockroaches and it just smelled. Haha They had just replaced the hardwood floor in there so I walked in and it smelled just like the gym at South so all those basketball memories came flooding back. We also didn't even have a fridge. Or plates, or forks or knives or anything, for about 3 days. But other than that, we´re alone so thats nice. 

Lets see. Then on Tuesday we get a call from Jose Antonio. We talked to him and bueno. Some background. Like I've said before, he became interested in the church because of a girl. Anyway, he told us that they were probably going to end it and he wants more time to see if he's really in the church for the right reasons. ... Mhm. So he calls us and he tells me that he and this girl officially ended and he now consideres himself an "inactive member". That he doesn't want to see or talk to us or any one else from the church until he´s ready. He was very blunt and didn't want to listen to what we had to say and hung up. I literally got off that phone call crying. He pretty much broke my heart. 

But we knew hermana Holloway was leaving so we begged him to meet up with us and he did, and it went alright, but he's stubborn and dramatic and won't listen to us. But I have faith, I know he´ll come back. 

But, as so the subject line.. I got a call on Thursday from one of the assistants. I thought it was about our new apartment as we had been getting so many calls from the office elders. But he said he needed to speak with me and that's when I knew. Well, I'm going to train!! Haha I'm super nervous. I feel like I just finished my training yesterday and now Im going to train. I'm gonna be a mom!! hahahahaha. So now hermana holloway left and I'm sitting here with the other trainers and we´re just waiting. I have no idea who my new comp is and I won't until we´re at the meeting and we find out together. I'm so so nervous. Haha my areas big and I don't know it and I don't know how to train and gah. But oh well. God qualifies that called, right? 

But other than that nothing has really happened. I feel like a ton has but as I write, there isn't that much. 

I guess I should share some spiritual stuff. I'm in Third Nephi right now in the Book of Mormon and I was reading about when Christ came. There's a scripture (3 Nephi 11: 3-5) that talks about the spirit. They heard a voice that was soft, but even so it penetrated to their very souls. They heard the voice two times but couldnt figure out where it was coming from. Finally on the third time, the recognized it. But what I love about these scriptures is that they recognized it because they were prepared to hear it. Specifically, it says:" And again the third time they did hear the voice, and did open their ears to hear it; and their eyes were towards the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards heaven, from whence the sound came."
I love this. And it's how the spirit works with us. It can try to communicate all it wants, but we won't hear or understand it until we´re prepared. How do we prepare? The simple things. Reading, praying, attending church, being worthy. The more we follow the Spirit, the more He will speak to us. 

Anyway. I love you all! Ill let you know who my comp is next week! 

Love,
Hermana Prestwich 

Xemina, a YW who comes with us sometimes:

Waiting to enter the Villa

On top of a windy building overlooking Buenos Aires

"Why do they have plaques?! Because they´re craaazies..."‏

This week flew by. And I know I promised I would write a lot more because I was super lame last week but I don't have like ANYTHING to say. So I'll just write and see what comes out. (sorry in advance..)

Let's seee. We finally got to see Jose Antonio again this week. We´ve only been able to see him MAYBE once a week because he works and started school which sucks for us because he´s like one of our best friends haha but anyway. The reason he got interested in the gospel was because of a girl he was dating. She´s LDS, and they broke up but he's still completely in love with her. So he thought that if he became Mormon she would date him again. Well, he decided to investigate and ended up gaining a testimony. He LOVES the gospel. But this week we met with him and he told us he needs THREE WEEKS alone. Because he´s going to talk to this girl and either date again or officially end it. He´s pretty sure it's going to end, and told us he needs time to make sure he´s doing this because he really wants to. I'm not really worried though because he´s already done something like this and it was fine. Just a little annoyed. I just want to slap him and make him see that he already knows but as I'm a missionary... I can't. 

Jose Luis was confirmed yesterday and bore his testimony. It was the most SWEET and SINCERE testimony. Of the undiscribeable (...indiscribable...? Whatever. English) happiness that he felt. It was super cool. 

We also did divisions this week. Hermana Olivares came from La Boca. We had so much fun. She started her mission in Palermo so it was fun for her to see her converts and everything. We got lost a lot but it was super fun.

Other than that I can't really think about anything else that happened to be honest. This week went by super fast. This is the last week of this 8 week transfer. I remember when we found out it was going to be 8 weeks I cried insde. Because I thought it was going to be SO long. But it was the fastest transfer I´ve had. Maybe because I love my comp, and my area. Maybe because I finally am able to say I love the mission. That doesn't mean that I don't still have days or weeks even where it's hard and I don't completely want to be here. But if it really came down to it, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I´ve learned a lot about myself this transfer. About my weaknesses and about who I need to become. I hit 7 months the other day. I'm finally starting to find my personality. It´s been super hard to be myself in Spanish and in a different culture, but it´s finally starting to come! Por fin. 

Anyway. That´s about it. I love you all and I hope you´ve had an awesome week and have an even better one this week! I have a TON of pictures to send but.. this stupid computer isnt letting me do it. :( Next week I guess... I LOVE YOU!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich

Sisters we live with:

Me, My comp and STLs:

Hermana Olivares:

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!! I just love it.

But let me start off from the beginning of the week.

It was a good week to say the least. We saw a lot of little miracles. 

But honestly my brain is a little dead as I'm super sick right now so I'll just fill you in on the major events.

First things first, José Luis got baptized!! It was crazy as usual as we did it in between conference sessions with the whole stake who also had baptizms. So about 8 people were baptized yesterday. Also our ward mission leader forgot baptisimal clothes so we had to track those down. But he got baptized and was happy so that was awesome. 

Then conference. Man. It was AWESOME. We got to watch it as a stake, and they set up a room for the missionaries that spoke english to watch it in english so it was basically a whole relaxing weekend with the zone in english. Much needed and way awesome. I started getting sick during the Saturday afternoon session and woke up feeling awful on Sunday and was practically dying during the sunday afternoon session. I sneezed about 7 millions times and thats when my ZL looked at me and started freaking out that I was so sick. I mean, I didn't think I looked THAT bad. But I woke up even worse today. I just hope today is the worst and it gets better from here on out. I'm probably sick from being caught in a rainstorm and not wanting to waste the time to go home and change clothes so I was soaking wet all day hahaha oops. 

But conference was so awesome. And it was super cool to watch it as a missionary. I loved the talk about rescuing people. I made me think a lot about being on the mission but also our responsability as members. We have this amazing message that could save SO many people. So why are we so hesitant to share it? Don't wait too long. 

Also, Hollands was awesome as usual. 

I promise next week I will write a lot more but I'm just dead so... I love you all and I hope you had an awesome conference weekend!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich

Pictures:

1. Jose´s baptism!

2. Conference in English! My comp, 2 other american sisters, my ZL, and  The one making the face is my DL. Ignore him as the picture was taken as he was falling out of his chair. hahaha I love them. 

Found some cheap Skittles

English speaking missionaries watching conference