Off to Toay!

Hola familia y amigos!!!

Okay, I have no idea if I spelt Toay correctly, but there it is! I´m leaving my dear pueblo of Trenque Lauquen and jumping 2 hours away, to the provincia: LA PAMPA! woo! I was in campo before, but now I´m REALLY in the heartland of all argentine gaucho (cowboy) legends. I´m super excited to be able to get there! Cause although it´s just 2 hours away from TreLau, I had to come to Bahía Blanca to drop my companion off (she´s going to train a new missionary!) and to find my new companion! We´re not technically opening an area, but two of the missionaries from this area left and we´re going in together! Party on. My new companion is Hermana Castleman, a little blondie from Indiana, USA :) She´s so great! I´m really excited to be able to work with her. It´s hard to leave Trenque Lauquen- I got to serve there for 6 months! But I´m super grateful for the time that I had there! I´ll miss the people, but I´m not too far away, jaja and a few of the members even talked about how we´ll see each other at stake activities! Thank goodness for the opportunity to still talk and love all of the people of Trenque Lauquen. I know my companion Hermana Marple is going to take good care of the Rama back there, she´s amazing. 

This week we had a SUPER FESTIVAL de OTOÑO! I made wassail and popcorn :) the kids loved the popcorn, but all the argentines wanted to drink the wassail cold! or they thought it was weird... haha but, even saying that they drank a lot! And I really don´t mind, because they were content to have the chance to try something from the states and I was content to drink the rest of the batch! We played pin the tie on the missionary and pin the flower on the misionera, musical chairs, and had a contest of eating donuts on a string. It was wonderful, and we had a LOT of fun. 

One day this week, it POURED rain the entire day... We´re talking, the Hermanas had boots, rain coats, umbrellas, everything, and still got soaked... Thunder shook our 11 story apartment building, lightning illuminated  the sky. We called the member with which we had scheduled to work with that day and told her that we didn´t want her to die and it was better if she stayed inside- you know what? She brought us around the town in her car, stopping at the houses of the investigators and helping us to teach or set up appointments. TAKE THAT WEATHER! Team Trenque Lauquen couldn´t be stopped. 

This week I learned a great lesson from my companion and in my studies- Knowledge enhances, but charity edifies. It doesn't matter how much we teach, or tell the people. If we don´t have the pure love of Christ, the ability to love the people, it does NOTHING- wait, what?! Are you telling me that it doesn´t matter what we say? even if it´s true? It doesn´t matter what we do? even if it´s good? If the things we say and do aren´t done with charity, there impact will have but a small moment. They may do good, but they can do excellent things if they are done with love and concern for the good of others. Sometimes, I get caught in routine. It´s easy to do. Serve this person. Say this thing. How do you escape from this trudge? This daily habbit of share and help and smile- Is it not good to do these things? It IS good. And it feels good too! But why doesn´t it feel GREAT sometimes? It´s because it´s not done with this deep desire and hope of Charity. How can we develop this love for the world and the people in it? If you ask most people, it´s imposible to have. But you know what? It´s more than possible. I´m learning, for it takes a new effort every day, to dig deeply in my heart and pray for charity. To let my heart open even though sometimes it hurts, and it gets tired. Because it takes fight to love. And when we fight for it, it feels great! It´s in these moments that I can see and feel the changes in peoples lives. And even if nothing happenes for the people around me, I´m changing. And I´m so grateful for that. Moroni 7- pray with all the energy of your heart! And if your heart doesnt have energy, pray for it! It´s wonderful! Really! I have a LONG way to go, like a really long way. But I suppose and I hope that the more I work and the more I try, the better I´ll be able to do it. I hope that you all can feel of the joy that praying for charity brings. Is there a person that bugs you? Pray for charity! Is there someone that you wish you had a little more love for? Pray for charity! Do you just feel meh? yep, you get the picture. And remind me to do the same ;) I still would like to learn a lot about this principle... if you have any thoughts I´d love to hear them!

I love you all to the moon and back! Take care and smile! I hope you have a great week!

con amor,

Hermana Hill