Hermana Gonzalez in Argentina!: Hey there, ho there how do you do? haha

May 30, 2011

More pictures! I finally discovered how to have time to load them. Hìp hip hooray!

So things I´ve been slacking on updating you on:

English classes---going great but there are no new people that have come for a few weeks. NOT the point of teaching but hey, I am really feeling like I am helping the people that come regularly really learn. There is one older guy who has this HUGE desire and is there every week without fail. He wanted to know what he could do to show his appreciation for these classes and we invited him to church on Sunday :) Um...didn´t come but he would be attending the other branch so we do what we can and it´s in the Elder´s hands to teach him.

Also, I´m getting used to the cold or it´s getting warmer. When President and Sister Gulbrandsen were in town I discovered that we DIDN´T have to turn off the heaters at night...ok, maybe sounds common sense to you but to me I am afraid of dying in the night...that´s all. But anywho, turns out that the gas heaters we have in our apartment are wicked safe and can be on 24hrs a day. WONDERFUL NEWS! Now we get home at night to a warm house and wake up warm too. Actually, I DIE of heat in the night. Since we were used to closing the door to our room and having a bunch of blankets on top, we were warm enough without the heaters on. Now, the door is open, the heat comes in and I hadn´t taken off the extra blankets. I was so hot, I woke up with everything but the sheet on the floor next to my bed. Since I sleep like the dead (seriously NOTHING wakes me up) I didn´t know what had happened but my excellent detective skills (and my thoroughly knotted hair) led me to believe I had had a restless night.

Also, the below zero days are fewer though it´s cold when the sun goes down....at 6pm. blah

Hna Campos and I are perfectly healthy except.....haha remember that one time I said that we were going to start a diet?......haha well, that crashed and burned like, 6 days ago :)

The facturas, Mom and Dad, are yes, BOTH bills or receipts of payment, like the gas bill. That and the most scrumptious pastries you have ever experienced. Ok, Mom, kind of a lot better than the Mexican kind, oops. They have lots of honey or fruit baked onto them, they have dulce de membrillo (a fruit that when it comes off the tree is yellow y muy áspera and yucky, but the dulce turns red and it pretty delicious) The orejas from México here are called palmitas or palm-something. I just point and say I want THAT. Oh donuts don´t really exist here but there are roscas de miel which are delectable. ñumñum :)

Then there are the empanadas with fruit and stuff in them but I stick with the meat and chicken and ham and cheese ones. So delicious! Oh and the argentines put green olives and hardboiled egg in EVERYTHING.

This week we are praying and working extra extra for Federico. He is so close to not smoking at all and this weekend he will be baptized. Usually I don´t tell you in advance for dumb superstitious reasons but this is a going-to-happen-no-matter-what kind of situation. He is the most direct man when it comes to keeping his commitments. He is so great and so faithful that he has not missed one Sunday since General Conference. And is NEVER late.

Oh, hey, we both spoke in church yesterday! Good thing I feel way more confident in Spanish than ever before and my scripture study has been improving as well because we had been so busy that we had mostly forgotten until Saturday night (haha sound familiar) that we had to speak. It went great. I talked about the war chapters in Alma I had studied a while ago. I felt confident about it and there were heads nodding with my words. I guess the spirit was teaching them so my purpose is fulfilled. :)

About improving scripture study. Reading just for reading is fine if you are trying to understand the history and who killed who and who started which war and when the nephites turn wicked and the lamanites repent etc. Even that takes some thought and marking and re-reading. But the APPLICATION of scripture like Nephi says in 1 Nephi 19:23 (scripture mastery anyone?) is where we learn. I have had wonderful experiences with this and have had my eyes and heart open to the same passages I´ve read before and learn something new.

Hi, I wish that the Conference Liahonas would be here YESTERDAY but we have to have patience. But reading the Ensign and Liahonas seriously are such powerful sources of modern teaching and testimony. How did I not appreciate them more before???

I love being here. i love this work and I hope to never be distant from it. Dad, I am anxious to read the rest of your Denver experience. I only skimmed it but will read it fully later today.

P.S. an investigator commented on this and I hadn´t noticed until he said it but I don´t get angry or upset. He said this while his two very energetic children were running around, yelling, punching each other and then running to their mother, lots of noise going on etc. He says, it´s amazing. You never get angry.

Not that I had anger management issues before but people (like my fam) have seen me lose my temper. But honestly, I have not lost my temper (though I get thoroughly irritated sometimes when people shrug off the gospel message like it´s no big deal ´I’m ok with God, thanks anyway´) for 7 months. Wow. What a blessing.

I know this church is true. i love you all and I love the Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the Light and Life of the world. Have faith, repent and come unto Him to be healed.

Love you all, be good!