16 May 2016

Going to be completely honest.. I can't really remember what happened this week. It went by sooo fast.

I think I'm just gonna bullet point the highlights because I don't really remember much.

A ver..

- Friday we did divisions. I stayed in Palermo with none other than... Hermana Sanchez! My trainer. hahah It was interesting to be back together again after all the things that happened in Escobar, but it was actually awesome. She really is such an amazing missionary. We got a message from Mar, who was set to be baptized on Sunday, telling us she had a ton of doubts and fears. So we dropped our plans and ran over to meet her at the church. We just listened and shared testimonies and helped her. She left there feeling way better. She had her baptisimal interview on Saturday and passed!

- Sunday a whole bunch of things happened. I was asked to speak on missionary work in sacrament meeting. Now I absolutely LOVE giving talks.. but in Spanish, not so much. But I think it went fine. I spoke on the importance of members in missionary work. And what we did was as I was speaking, Hermana Ruiz passed little papers out to all the members, and I invited them to, as I was speaking, think of family or friends that might need the gospel. After the meeting we got a whole bunch of references. It was awesome :)

-Then we got to go eat Brazilian food with a new couple in our ward. They don't speak a ton of Spanish, but the also invited someone who speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and English. It was again, one of the funnest lunches I´ve ever been to on my mission, and some of the best food I've ever had. It's pretty sad when Argentine´s ask me what my favorite food in Argentina is and I tell them Peruvian food, and now Brazilian food. Oops. 

-Then at 6 that night, Mar got baptized! It was one of the most amazing things. I have never met someone so prepared before. She was so ready and so willing to give up so many things to be baptized. I don't know if I´ve ever given any basckground on her so let me do that real fast. 

   Mar is 26, and the girlfriend of a member of the ward that shares the building with us. She is (was, haha) SUPER catholic her whole life. She did everything, and even taught in the church. She then strayed a little and made some not-so-good choices in her life. Then she met Elias, and he introduced her to the church. Eventually she decided to come, and that's when it all hit her. She felt so happy and welcomed.There were things as we were teaching her that she didn't love, like the no tatoos and piercings and all that.. but she just said "ya fue" which in a rough translation I take to be "I'm over it" we were laughing so hard. But really, Mar has changed my life. She has become such a good friend in these 3 weeks we´ve known her. We gained confidence so fast. It's more like friends than missionary/investigator. We´re laughing all the time. She´s the best. 

Her baptism was amazing. She was incredibly happy after. It was super stressful, as is every baptism, but eventually she did it and left glowing. 

The time has started to fly by. I only have 8 months in the mission but I know one day I'm going to open my eyes and I'll have 18. I know I say this all the time but I'm so thankful for this opportunity. Especially to meet people like Mar, who have changed my life. To see someone go through the repentance process and change completely. To realize that we, as missionaries, aren't doing anything on our own. To realize that we are literally just tools in God´s hands as He uses us to bring about His work. 

I love you all so much! Thank you for all the emails and support! ¡Que tengan una buena semana!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich 

Mar's baptism

Casa Rosada

El Obelisco 

Brazilian food :))))

Stress and Miracles

I know I literally just last week said that I wasn't going to start my emails off with "this week was crazy.." but... This week was crazy. 

Now that I´ve gotten that out of the way, I´ll start. 

This week we were super super busy with mettings and traveling and a temple trip and we had like no time to work in our area. So that was super stressful. We got to our area around 4 or 5 every day, and then had those 4 hours or so to work. Remember the girlfriend that showed up to church on Sunday? Yeah, so her name is Mar. We met with her Monday night, and she accepted a baptisimal date! She´s set to get baptized this Sunday :) She´s super catholic, but really loves how she feels in the church, and her testimony is growing every time we meet. She still has some doubts because changing a religion is a big decision, but she´s ready :) She´s so awesome. She´s more like our friend than our investigator. Our lessons are just filled with laughing and stories and jokes. She´s great. :)

Then by Saturday, we were a little stressed about how our numbers were crappy, our members kept canceling, and we had no idea what to do. We had had a new family that just moved into our ward in our plans all week but never had time to go. They weren't in our plans Saturday, and we were on the complete opposite side of the area, but we felt we should go. So we get over there, find them, and sit down with them. The mom said they got baptized 3 years ago in Peru. I asked if everyone in her family was a member, and she said just her and her husband. I asked her son how old he was and he said 10... So obviously you know what we did. We shared a scripture, then talked to her son, names Andres, about baptism. We invited him to be baptize and he said yes "because he loves church". It was so cute. So he´s set to be baptized on the 22nd :) As we were leaving the mom said "I dont know how you guys did that. He´s said no for 2 years" It really is all on the Lords timing. 

Friday we had the opportunity to go to the temple. President goes home in about 6 weeks so for our last zone conference with him, we got to go to the temple. Even though we had to wake up at 3 in the morning to do it, it was so worth it. I love the temple and the opportunity we have to go on our missions is super awesome. To feel that peace and feel so close to Heavenly Father is just incredible. 

Then on Saturday, the general Young Men's President and Sunday School President came to visit us. It was just for the missionaries in my mission that are in Capital, so it was a pretty small group. Maybe of about 100 missionaries. Then they split us up into 2 groups and we had to teach them. It was super cool and I learned a ton about how to improve as a missionary, person, in my area, and with my investagators.

Then Sunday, I got to skype with my family :) It was awesome. It was hard to hang up and all, but about 10 minutes later I got over it (no offense fam, love you) But honestly as much as I miss them and miss home sometimes, I'm super thankful for the time I have to dedicate everthing to the Lord and serve Him with everything I have. 

Today I hit 8 months. Almost halfway done. Not sure how but.. here we are. 

I love you all! Hope you had a fantastic Mother´s Day! 

Love,

Hermana Prestwich 

fotos:

 Sisters from my zone at the temple :)

 Me and Hermana Doughty :) 

3 generations

Me and Herman Chichia. She is like my best friend here.  

JWs, Jews and Mormons

I´m officially done saying "this week was crazy" because I'm pretty sure I've said that every week... because every week was crazy. So im just going to start writing.. 

Normally I write my subject line and then completely forget to explain it haha pathetic. But this time I'm going to! So Argentina is like infested with Jews. It's actually kind of awesome. Haha They have temples on like every corner. And there are apartment buildings where only Jews can live. And they´re very much practicing Jews, with their clothes and culture and everything. So many that the mall has a "McDonalds Kosher". No joke. My goal is to baptize one. 

Second, there are a crap ton of Jehova´s Witnesses. But like, a ton. On Saturday, we had a whole list of people we were going to visit. Less Actives, Old investigators, and people who spoke to the missionaries once but maybe never had a follow up. We were SET on finding on Saturday. So we go get our member, and start on our way. THERE WERE SO MANY JWs. No joke. We would get to a house on our list, and they would already be there. We were literally racing. Like passing each other on the street. Then my comp decided to contact someone on the street and he's all "yeah I know a little about your religion! Something about Joseph Smith. I'm actually really interested, do you think we could meet up on Tuesday here to talk?" It was a little weird. So I was all "what church do you go to?" And he said he was a Jehova's Witness. Just then his comps came up and he was all, I'd love to discuss the gospel and change opinions. So, Tuesday?" We were all "yeah, okay see ya then bye"

We're not going.

So by Saturday at 9:00, we were a little sad that we hadn't found anyone. I prayed so so so hard that God would give us a miracle like He has before and that someone would be waiting for us in church. I remember waking up and I thinking, "There's going to be someone there today." So, we show up, and... no one. But I still had faith. We get to sacrament meeting, which is last, and someone calls us over. He introduced us to his girlfriend, and said she's interested. So, we set an appointment and we're meeting with her tonight. God really does bless his missionaries. 

I'm sure I've said this before, but I've seen the hand of God in the work more than ever in this area. But there have also been times where I´ve doubted. What I've noticed is God pushes us until we can't go any farther. Where we walk and walk and get rejected over and over again for weeks, and then when we´re exhausted, and can't go any farther, he blesses us with a miracle. I´m so thankful for this opportunity to be able to see the hand of God so clearly and so often, and in the simplest or biggest ways. To be able to teach God's children, and in return be taught by them. 

My comp is amazing. I dont have to teach her anything. She´s teaching me. She has so much faith and diligence and is so ready to learn and trust in God.

I can't believe this Sunday we´re already skyping again! I remember ending the call on Christmas and thinking that 5 months is an eternity and I'll probably be dead before that comes. But, here it is! Crazy. 

I love you all so much! I hope you have an amazing week!

Love,

Hermana Prestwich 

Me and mi hijita :) 

Favorite Zone from last transfer



One of the best/funnest lunches I have been to!

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