Monday, March 23, 2015

Hola from the beautiful city-town of TRENQUE LAUQUEN (March 2, 2015)

First off- HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY KAYLIE!!!! I hope you had a great one! 

This week en Trelau, we had the great opportunity to see baby Benjamin receive his blessing! It was so great :) His mom and grandma recently moved back here from Santa Rosa, and wow how grateful we are to know them! Not only is Hermana Angela Goyeneche a great cook, a fabulous personal trainer, a hair stylist, an Olympian (track and field), but she´s also a woman of great faith. Her daughter Fernanda is wonderful and her enthusiasm for the gospel helps revive us with excitement. We got to know them 1 week before Benja was born, and now here he is! Big as ever! IT´s SO hard not to scoop him up in my arms, but, rules are rules. One day I´ll come back here and play with him ALL day. 

Okay, please excuse my bad translating, but I´ve got to tell ya´ll about the great studies/experiences I´ve had this week. I don´t know if I´ve already shared this, but in the books of Alma and Helaman in the Book of Mormon (where I am right now in my reading), The words "They empowered themselves" (se esforzaron) and "continually" appear with great frequency. Whenever a miracle happened, or the people lived in peace, it was because the people worked to continually strengthen their faith.  I know that if we endure and strive to do what God has commanded us, we too will have peace and success in our lives. I´ve definitely seen the results of it this week. Even when my companion and I are tired, and we just want to take a few minutes to rest, pushing though, working hard, and praying with all of our heart is the only solution. Our Heavenly Father gives us strength. In the words of my dear Dory (and recently quoted by an Hermana Stanger) JUST KEEP SWIMMING. But it´s not enough to just go through the motions. You have to STRIVE, do all that you can. We´ll be able to rest knowing that we gave it our all and that we have been obedient. We can do more than we think we can. Nobody was made to fail. I´ve gotten the chance to share the story of Ponchello (or whatever his name is) from the children´s book "you are special" with a few of our investigators. What is most important is what we think of ourselves and what God thinks of us. If something doesn´t go the way we want it to, we just have to have patience and strive to do better in the future. Isn´t life wonderful that we have the opportunity to change and do things better! I´m not perfect, but I´m not stuck in doing everything badly- I can improve! I´m grateful for these scriptures in Alma and Helaman that remind me of that, and that even when I´m tired, if I work through with joy, there is a heavenly reward just around the corner. Whatever youre going through, don´t give up! You can do it! And with God, nothing is imposible.

And now for a few cultural notes.  

When the fútbol teams of River or Boca are playing, we literally hear shouts of ¡GOAL! from the streets. Or booooo..., but when you hear the crying of frustration, you don’t want to be anywhere close.

Also, yesterday my companion and an investigator were talking about Higo- Figs. I thought they were saying Higado-Liver... I was really worried when they were talking about putting it on crepes with dulce de leche and chocolate... or in alfajores... but, I´m learning new words! woohoo! oh the adventures of Hermana Hill... sometimes they´re rather embarrassing.

I love ya´ll tons!!! Hope you have a wonderful week!

Oh, and mom- (or anyone) can you send me a recipe for scones? THANKS!

Love,

Hermana Hill

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