It's already been a week...?

Hola!.. Again. 

This week has literally flown by.. Not sure how. 

But anyway. A highlight for the week, Damian was confirmed :) He's now officially a member, and he's way happy :)

Let's see, so this week, we did divisions. I stayed in Escobar with Hermana Vasquez, and we saw SO MANY miracles. 

First we had a zone meeting which they asked us to conduct 10 minutes before, but it was awesome. Super spiritual and super fun, about how we can better use the Book of Mormon in our teaching and just in our own conversion. 

Then we went to work :) We had THE MOST POWERFUL lesson ever with Damian, and Rita (his mom) who is an old investigator, you know, the one who doesn't want to accept the law of chastity?

Anyway. We started out without a plan, and felt we should read in 3rd Nephi, when Christ comes. So we started and the spirit kinda just hit us. We asked them if they believe Christ came to the Americas, and they said yes. Then Rita asked who is Nephi, and we told her a prophet, and then we asked if she believes he was a prophet. She said yes, and we asked how or why she believes that. Just then her doorbell rang and as she was getting up she answered "because I believe in this book" and walked away. I looked at Hna Vasquez in shock to find her looking at me the same way. Literally the spirit was SO strong and we knew what we had to do. So when she came back we continued to ask questions. We tried so hard to follow the spirit so that we would say the right thing. She said she knows the book is true, she's prayed and asked. She knows that this is the true church, that Joseph Smith was a prophet.. everything. So me comp and I looked at each other, knowing that we needed to invite her to be baptized. I looked at her and said "Rita..." and she goes "Look, I'm still not ready to be baptized because I dont want to accept the law of chastity yet". DANG IT. My heart broke and you could tell Damian was sad too. But we can't force her. Then we started talking to Damian about a mission. He now thinks he can't go because he just got accepted onto the police force and knows that if he goes he will lose his spot. We then bore testimony and invited him to pray and fast about it.. So we'll see where that goes. :)

Then we went to visit Milagros, an investigator who's 16. Over the week we found out she has a huge problem with lying.. but like.. bad. Shes accused her dad of violating her, claimed she was pregnant, and a lot of other things. She has a few mental problems. But we went, and her brother wanted to listen too. He has a
HUGE problem with drugs. He smokes 20 packets of cigarettes a day. 20 PACKETS. is that even possible????? But his body is super dependent on them now. But we found out he lies a lot too. Also their family does things.. like.. with the devil. Like they allow evil spirits to take possesion of their bodies and stuff, and it's in a pretty dangerous part of our area. The other side of the street is just fields and they live on the edge of a villa. So we can't be there later than 6 anyway. And every time we go there there is just this... bad feeling. It's literally impossible to feel the spirit and I just don't ever want to be there. 

So last night we went to our meeting with the elders and our ward mission leader and they told us again that they really don't want us going there anymore. And if we do we have to go with a priesthood holder. So we dropped them. It's for the best anyway. We also found out they both have taken discussions before, but told us they haven't. Hahah, oh well.

But today we went to make tacos with the zone, and we were in charge of making dessert. We tried to make pudding, but we had to cook it on the stove. The thing we cooked it in was all burnt on the bottom so the pudding was NASTY.  So they made me promise I would bring no bake cookies to our meeting tomorrow hahaha :)

The mission is great. It's hard and exhausting .. but for the first time this week, after the meeting with Rita, I honestly felt like I love it here :)

Some other things: 

1. I'm the tannest I've ever been

2. I have the ugliest tan lines I've ever had

3. I'm absolutely in love with the food here

4. Thanks to number 3 I'm the fattest I've ever been

5. I'm almost 20! I'm so old. 

And more but I'lll think of those later.

I've been studying true conversion lately. What it is that Christ wants us to become. And in the Bible Dictionary it says that "true conversion comes after many trials and much testing". I can testify of that. I cannot say I'm truely converted. I think that's something I will always been working on. But I can say that thanks to how hard the beginning of my mission was, I'm a little bit closer to becoming what He needs me to become. 

I love you all so much!

Talk to you next week! 

Love, Hermana Prestwich

Damian :)

I have like 10 minutes to write this so here goes!

This week was awesome. Damian was baptized! Heres some background. We were teaching his mom Rita, and we were about to teach the law of chastity. Hermana Sanchez and I made a joke that we should invite Damian to listen. Anway, he accepted and since then he began listening to us. He told us a while later that he had had a dream, where Christ told him that he had one more chance to do the right thing. And the next day, we invited him to listen and he took that to be his answer. He then told us about how he prayed to know if the BoM was true. He said he prayed and felt the most "unique sensation" and knows without a doubt its true. He is SO GREAT. 

Anyway. Yesterday he was baptized, and it was so stressful! It takes 3 hours to fill the font, and some little kids drained it not once, but TWICE. So Hermana Vallejos and I were literally filling buckets in the bathroom and pouring it into the font to make is fill up faster. Then we couldn't find clothing for Damian, then the person who was supposed to baptize him forgot his clothing, and it was SO STRESSFUL. The ward mission leader was helping us and I turned to tell him there wasn't clothing and before I could say anything he said "solutions hermana! not problems!" and ran away. But eventually he was baptized and everything was great and then Damian told us he will be "eternally gratefull". I'm just so happy!

Anyway. Thats all I have time for. I'll write more next week. 

The picture is us with Damian. 

I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich

La obra

Hello again! I honestly feel like yesterday was Pday.. and I think that's the first time I can actually say that since the MTC. Time is starting to go by a lot quicker..

But anyway. Rita didn't end up getting baptized yesterday :( We met with her and she said she just isn't ready yet.. That she's "not going to lie" and doesnt know if she wants to keep the law of chastity.. I just don't understand. There is literally no reason for her to not accept it. She's not married, doesn't have a partner.. she just doesn't want to keep it "just in case" someone comes along.. hahahaha

BUT her son Damian is getting baptized next Sunday :) He went to church alone yesterday, as we couldnt go by to get him and none of his family went with him. He's so ready. He´s the uncle of Lucia, the 11 year old girl we baptized a while ago. We´re working with that family little by little :)

Dana. Let me just talk about how much I love her and how proud I am of her for like the bajillionth time. But fau. She told us this week that she was walking somewhere for about an hour or so and she was alone.. And she was just "talking to God". That she prayed and just told her about how she feels, what's happening, what she needs help with, and all that. It's amazing how much she's changed. She also gave her first talk yesterday and is going to the temple for the first time tomorrow :) I love her SO much. 

Yesterday in our meeting with our ward mission leader, I was thinking about how when I got to Escobar, I didnt understand a single word he said. Like.. literally nothing. And now I understand almost everything. I really do undertsand 90% of what everyone says. My problem now is speaking. 

The other day we were outside Dana´s house and I saw her neighbor sitting outside, as she normally is, and I felt like I needed to talk to her. I ignored it and made excuses like "no she's smoking she won't want anything to do with us" and things like that. But I kept feeling like I needed to talk to her. Finally I sucked it up and went over there. We talked, and she accepted a baptisimal date! She said her life has been super hard and she doesn't know who to go to for support... Good thing we have the answer :) She didnt come to church yesterday, but we´re not giving up :)

Other than that life is normal here. It's HOT. I got my first sunburn. It's hard when its 101 degrees, you're out of water, no one is in the street due to the fact that it's a million degrees, and if you happen to find someone, they either want nothing to do with you or just want to hit on you. 

But we keep pushing. Because its not about us. It's the Lord´s work and we´re here to find His children and help them return to Him. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich 

My Zone

Augustine

Tranfers!!!!!

Hello from... Escobar! Im here for my 3rd transfer! But this time with my new companion, Hermana Vallejos from Chile!!! This transfer is going to be awesome :)

Right now we´re currently teaching someone named Rita and her son, Damian. Rita has a little problem with accepting the law of chastity... shes supposed to be baptized this sunday.. but I guess we´ll see if she decides to accept it. She has no reason to have a problem with it as she doesnt have a husband or partner, she just said she doesnt know. Hahaha oh well.

We also found a woman named Marisa who accepted baptism in the first contact. We taught her twice and then she didnt show up to church and we havent been able to find her or get in contact with her. So we´ll figure out this week if we drop her or not. 

CATALINO AND MARTHA (Rios family) ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!! Catalino came with us to a lesson with Rita but wasn't able to bear his testimony about the law of chastity because he isnt living it. After he told us he felt like the lesson was for him, and the next day he FINALLY went to start working on his divorce. Guess what? If your converts are getting sealed while youre still in the mission you can go :)))) If Martha gets baptized any time before March I'll be able to go!!!!!

This week I got the best surprise. I got a call from the assistants, or at least who I thought were the assistants, and when I answerd, it was Hermano Figueroa, my teacher from the MTC, who was back visiting the mission! It was so so so awesome to be able to talk to him for a little bit :)

Other than that the mission is good. Working hard in the killer sun. But its so awesome to be able to see the change in these peoples lives. To have the opportunity to see them how God sees them, as His children with divine potential. I think one of my favorite things to teach is the Plan of Salvation. To teach everyone that there is a purpose in this life and there´s more after, and how we can acheive it. I have learned so much while teaching and every single investigator I have taught has taught me something. It's incredible and I'm so thankful for it.

I love you all so much! 

Have a great week and.. Happy 20th birthday to my best friend Elle today, and happy 14th birthday to my beautiful sister tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich

 

Damian

Dana and Noelia

Escobar and....Tigre?

Hello again! This week it has been so humid and hot that when you breath you are literally breathing in water. So that´s fun. 

So this week was good! We did divisions with other Hermanas and I got to go to Tigre for a little bit. Tigre is awesome and Hermana Vasquez is an awesome missionary. I always learn so much from divisions. :)

Anyway. 

Pablo. 

Dang. Pablo broke my heart yesterday. We went to visit him and earlier this week he has a girlfriend who is a pretty bad influence and he grows drugs. So.. yeah. We went to figure out for suer whether or not he wants to change. So we got there and I just straight up asked him if he was ready and willing to give up everything. And he looked at me and just said "no". In that moment my heart literally broke. So all we did was testify. We shared scriptures and just promised him that if he changed he would be blessed with so much more happiness than he has ever felt. We then taught him the plan of salvation. He told us his goal is to "get to the celestial kingdom", but "not right now". Ouch. So he's no longer going to be baptized but we´re going to continues to visit him once every one or two weeks and hopefully the disire will come. 

Isabel. She completely stopped smoking!!!! Miracle. But. She didn't come to church yesterday. We went by to take her with us and she said no because for the first time in forever her daughter and husband showed up and she doesnt want to lose them again. I mean, understandable but I also know that if she showed her faith and went to church God will bless her. So now her baptism date was pushed back. 

Also. Rita. She´s a miracle. She had always refused to talk to us. Remember Lucia? The little girl we baptized a couple weeks ago? Its her grandma. She accepted a baptismal date and came to church yesterday. She´s awesome. 

As for everything else, it's good. It's hard. It's the mission. There are ups and downs. But what I've been thinking about lately is how the mission changes everything. All of my thoughts are about others. All of my actions are for the benefit of others. When I'm sad, it's because someone doesnt want to accept our message. When I'm happy, it's because someone has chosen to walk the path back to God. I would never get the chance to experience this if I didn't serve. And there are sad times and there are happy times, but everything and every feeling I have is gospel related and I love that. :)

I hope you are all enjoying your cold weather and your new year! 

Ill talk to you soon :)

Love,

Hermana Prestwich

PS. Next week are transfers! :) :) :)

Picture: This is what happens when you let two missionaries into an apple store. ;)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This was a busy week filled with many emotions. 

First.. It was Christmas! On Christmas Eve we had an activity as a mission and it was awesome. I love being with all the missionaries. We sang, watched some talks, ate, had a gift exhange, and watched the videos each zone made for christmas. 

Then on Christmas day I got to skype my family! It was awesome. And so so so hard. I told myself I wasnt going to cry but as soon as I saw their faces I lost it. But it was good to talk to them. 

Then we went back to work! Noelia was confirmed this week, so that was awesome. 

Pablo. Man he is awesome. We decided we should teaching him the word of wisdom, and we kinda knew we would have a problem with it. As expected, he told us he smokes. Which would be fine, except he told us he doesnt really have a desire to stop. Well. Dang. But we´re going to keep working with him, hopefully he´ll start feeling the desire. But the lesson we had with him was awesome. In the beginning I wasnt understanding anything. So I said a little prayer for help to understand and help him. And immidiately after I started understanding and we had a 30 minute conversations back and forth. The spirit was so strong. It was awesome.

We also found a woman named Isabel who has had the HARDEST life. Seriously. Shes literally never been happy. And shes going to be baptzied on the 10th :)

But I was thinking the other day. I feel like Ive been kind of a downer in my emails, always talking about how hard it is. So first Im sorry for that,

But hey, this has been the hardest thing ive ever down spiritually and emotionally. But its so so so so worth it. I cannot imagine my testimony without the mission. Of course I would still have it, but my testimony has grown more in these 4 months that it could ever have in my whole life if I was home. Ive gotten to see the atonement and love of Christ work and change people. Ive been put in situations where everything depends on my faith. Ive been given the opportunity to grow in ways I couldnt have without the mission. Im so thankful for this opportunity. 

I love you all and I hope you had a great Chistmas and have a Happy New Year!!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich

McFlurries in the rain...why not?

A Week of Milagros‏

Hola! 

I dont have a lot of time to write today, since it isnt really our Pday. 

But anyway. This week was awesome. We did divisions for a couple days which really helped our companionship. I was with an American sister here in Escobar for a couple days and my comp was in Tigre. 

So. Remember Dana? The girl that was baptized about 6 weeks ago that I always talk about? Yeah well when we first started teaching her, we were also teaching her sister, Noelia. And to be honest, she was tough. She was rude to us, and never really wanted to listen. We had dropped her as our investigator because she didnt want to commit to the Word of Wisdom. Then these past couple of weeks shes been expressing interest, and one day we took a leap of faith and invited her to read the Book of Mormon. She did and the next day she told us she felt like the Book of Mormon was "speaking directly to her". So we starting teaching her slowly, and then took another leap of faith and invited her to be baptized... and... she accepted!!! So we started teaching her again and when we got the the word of wisdom part we were super nervous... but she said she would live it without a problem. There were so many complications when it came time for her baptism. She really had to show her faith and desire to follow God, but she did and she was baptized yesterday! She´s amazing. 

Then another miracle. 

This week, with the help of God, we found an investigator named Pablo. Just the way we found him was a miracle. We knocked at his house and waited for like 10 minutes. No one came out so we left. Well we were almost at the end of the street when we heard someone whistle. We turned around and He was standing in the street. We went to talk to him. His parents are members but he was never baptized. Hes super spiritual and open to new ideas. He came with us the next day to our ward christmas party and everyone was SO nice to him. A lot of people knew his family and just made him feel so comfortable. Then he came to church with us the next day and stayed for our baptisms. He´s awesome. And this ward is INCREDIBLE. Ive never been so thankful for members in my life. They were amazing examples to me of welcoming a new face. Something I know I could have done better at and something I want to continue to work on when Im home. Today we´re going to set a date for him to be baptized. Yesterday he kinda hinted that he wanted to be baptized, becuase he asked us "so, people can be baptized at any age?" and then proceeded to say "and is there an age limit to serve a mission?" like... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The mission. Highs and lows. But its awesome.

And this week is CHRISTMAS. I get to skype my family!!!!! 

I love all of you so much and Im so thankful for your support and letters to me. I hope you all have a wonderful week and Christmas as we remember the birth of the Savior. 

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich