I feel so loved! by YOU and my HEAVENLY FATHER!

First of all, I just want to give a SHOUT OUT to my now OLD little brother and sister!

16 and 20! I can´t believe it! I CAN’T be that old.....wow!

I did NOT forget your birthdays. In fact, Hna Dunn´s mother´s birthday is the same as Sammy´s so WE CELEBRATED TOO! haha

I´m sending a BUNCH of pictures. (I kept waiting for another email with pictures because there were no pictures on this oneL) Some you´ll just have to sort them out because I TRIED to remember the order I´m sending them but,......probably forgot already. I´m getting SO OLD that if I don´t write things down, I WILL NOT remember until it is too late. My brain is just too full of things to remember them all. Names, addresses and streets and stuff for all over Argentina....it´s crazy.

But this week I have really been feeling the love. We have been making a particular effort to follow the promptings of the spirit EVEN if that means varying from the plans we so lovingly make. I learned to love PLANS and GOALS but I don´t always know exactly what people need or even WHO exactly needs us, but the Lord ALWAYS does and He is perfectly willing and READY to lead us on our paths to be His representatives.

This week has been full of tender mercies, being in the right place at the right time even though we didn´t know why. We also experienced stupors of thought that I KNOW protected us from some unseen thing. We have found ourselves walking and talking in paths we hadn´t thought of but have seen the fruits of teaching with the Spirit.

No, David didn´t magically make it to church but 5 other wonderful souls did.

Beginning of our miracles:

4 wonderful little girls, varying from ages 6 to 10 wanted to come to church with us yesterday but didn´t have the coins (2.40 pesos) and they MADE IT HAPPEN. How? They made and then sold beaded necklaces and bracelets to make the money. And with the leftover material they gave us a necklace and bracelet. SO CUTE! It is now one of my most prized possessions. What that purple beaded necklace means to me is the faith of a child to follow God´s commandments willingly and with whatever it takes. I´ll take a picture of it and send it next week. Those little plastic beads are worth more to me than gold.

THEN Prince showed up!!! Ok, not the Artist Formerly Known As, but even better! An investigator that we lost contact with! He showed up and we got his new phone number and address and we will be meeting with him Tuesday! Hooray! He is from Haiti (oh and David, another investigator is from MALI, Africa...I think in your email it was Haiti...anyway..) and he DOESN´T speak SPANISH soo.....we teach him in English! In our new member/investigator Sunday school class we kinda split, Hna Dunn translating the class to Prince (yes, his name is Prince. Prince John, in fact) and I made sure Rudecinda (a wonderful, wonderful woman) and Alejandra (another MIRACLE) were understanding and enjoying the class.

Alejandra was a great miracle because we didn´t even know her before 10 yesterday but she has been so prepared by members (hooray for members working!) and her daughter (with whom we had eaten dinner with in a member´s home this week). Her daughter Yamila, loved the message we shared at dinner and loved the way she felt. She went home and told her mom all about it and even though Yamila had to work, Alejandra was so touched that she went by herself to find out what her daughter had felt. It was such a wonderful moment!!!!! Her spirit feeling abilities are so sensitive and I KNOW that great things will happen with her here. I just love the tender mercies the Lord shows us to remind us that we are NOT alone and that He is leading and guiding our steps and the steps of those we need to find and teach.

Real quick note:

The food....I don´t even want to talk about how much we eat! This whole, taking over the area from elders thing, is HARD because we also have to train some members to remember that we DON´T eat our weight in food. The elders can pound food like nothing else but we DIE if we have more than one mountainous plate of food. BUT I eat to not offend. They made that food with all the love in their hearts. Just remember, if I come home fat (which I´m REALLY working on NOT doing) it will NOT BE MY FAULT. ok?

I lost my planner this week, which was pretty depressing actually, because I put SO much work into this one. I had a great picture of Christ raising up Jairus´ daughter and great scriptures and my marking stickers (for leaving parts of the Book of Mormon for specific ´homework´) in it and now....it is lost in the abyss of the argentine subway.....bummer. I hope only that someday a touching Ensign article is published about a great conversion story when someone finds and looks through that planner and finds the Church. The directions and bus numbers to get there were in there and everything! haha

I don´t know if I´ve talked much about Hna Dunn either. She is GREAT! We have a barrel of laughs. She´s like me where I laugh at everything, even if it´s not particularly funny and so we make each other feel great and witty. She´s from California, Arroyo Grande in the Central Coast but has spent the last 3 years living and loving it up in Provo, UT going to BYU! Worked in the BYU philanthropies before the mission and is just an all around WONDERFUL COMPANION! She reminds me SOO much of Nikki Stay, I mean, Sister Stay. They would probably be best friends. They are the adventurous type that WORK HARD and PLAY HARD. They both have been great in my life to push me and help me not settle for less than the BEST. Love Hna Dunn and Sister Stay!! haha

Ok, gots to go beat the Elders (AGAIN) in bowling. Speaking of beating elders in bowling, could you remind ex Elder Pearson that I’m still waiting for his wedding invites...if they are out, there better be one on the way to BS AS. Oh, and a little note on FB about BOWLING will rile him up enough to remember, I think :) hahaha oh Brenden.....

I love this work. I am SO looking forward to the amazingness that will be this week and reaping what we have been faithfully sowing here in Congreso!

Love you all lots and I expect great letters next week with your conversion stories! YEAH!

The Church is TRUE. No doubt about it.

Love,

Hermana Gonzalez

I just could not post this without pictures, even if they are not recent. These are from Hna. Gulbrandsen's collection.