HECTOR!!

Buen día todos.

What a week it has been. It was Carnival this week, which is basically Mardis Gras in Argentina. Which meant that we had to be inside early most of the week. I didn't appreciate that. But whatever. The time we did have to work, we worked.

Formosean Sunset

We have this new investigator named Angelina. She's 8 years old and TOO precious. Her mom is a member but Angelina needs the lessons before she can get baptized. It's been interesting because teaching kids is HARD. ESPECIALLY when I still don't know a ton of Spanish. You have to think of new ways to explain things like The Preisthood or apostosy. It's interesting. But also, so much fun. We started teaching her Plan of Salvation the last time and I took the opportunity to use some of my artistic abilities to draw out a little map for her. She was so into it. Angelina told us that she likes art too, so we brought the Gospel Art Book to show her some cool Gospel paintings. I just opened up to a random page and OF COURSE it falls on the painting of Zion being translated. Angelina asked us what was happening. Uuuhhhhh... Not quite sure how to explain that one. Haha. So I told her that Enoch was praying. She looked up at me, astonished. "With his eyes open!?" Haha. And after, she asked to see a picture of Heavenly Father. So I flipped to a painting of the Fisrt Vision. She examined it for a moment before saying, "With a longer beard and glasses, he would look like Santa." I WAS CRYING. Oh my gosh it was so funny. We're teaching her again tonight and I'm super excited.

Saturday, we planned to spend the morning contacting in an area we don't know super well. One of our first contacts of the day turned into a pretty cool lesson with a man named Hector. At first, he was a little hesitant to let us in, but after seeing us sweating like mad under the Argentine sun, he offered us some water and we were in. Hermana Dustin had a Book of Mormon in her hand when we walked in and upon seeing it, Hector began to ask us questions. We explained more about it and taught him the Restoration. He then went off on this whole thing about how so many people profess to have faith but then don't do anything about it. Huh. Interesting. So we invited him to church and to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon. He accepted. The crappy thing is that we can't see him again until NEXT Saturday. So we're praying that he remembers us and the spirit we felt during that lesson.

Hector didn't make it to church either. We didn't stand outside his house and shout his name Sunday morning. Maybe we should have. Oh well. We'll see what happens next week.

Hermana Dustin and I at the park

Needless to say, this week was interesting. But that's okay. Training is crazy. But Hermana Dustin is great and we have learned a lot together. And we're going to continue to learn and grow everyday. And so long as we keep the Lord involved in our work, we'll be just fine.

Salud hasta la próxima semana!
Hermana Hein

Heart, Might, Mind and Strength

Hola todos!

All the new trainers and trainees at the Resistencia terminal.

Que loco esta semana, ¿no? I'm a trainer. And this week was crazy. I still have NO IDEA what I'm doing. But I have had the chance to see just how much I've learned and grown since I first got to this country 3 months ago. And that change is... BASTANTE. Let me tell ya'll (vosotros? no. chiste) about mi nueva compañera: Hermana Dustin. She's awesome. She's from Richfield, Utah and is straight Gringa. Which means... she doesn't speak much Spanish. And guess what else? I don't speak much Spanish either... Haha. So It's been an adventure. But let me tell you something else: The gift of tongues is REAL.

 Hna. Dustin, yours truly, Hna. Fullmer, and
her new hija, Hna. Cluff

For the past little while, I've felt like all the Spanish in my brain is all twisted around. It's all there. I know the conjugations and everything. But I couldn't make sense of it. It still struggled to understand people up till that last day with Hermana Fullmer. But that first day with Hermana Dustin, it ALL clicked into place. There's still LOADS I have to learn, (let's not even talk about Past Subjunctive right now) but I can communicate. It's crazy. But all I have to do is OPEN MY MOUTH and the Lord does the rest.

Yesterday at church, we met this woman named Jaqueline. She introduced us to a little girl named Angelina who's either her... daughter? Niece maybe? Not sure. But she told us that Angelina needed to be baptized. But that she needed the missionary lessons first. And she live in our area. So... we are going to teach Angelina. And she's going to be baptized. I'm so excited. We have struggled so hard in our area for a long time. We have been working hard and talking and teaching as much as we can. But we just haven't found anyone to teach. But here we see that the Lord delivers. We need to do our part first. And after, He'll do the rest.

I'm so grateful to the Lord for this opportunity to teach His gospel here in Argentina. It's been a struggle. La lucha es real. SIEMPRE. But it's been worth every moment. I have grown so much and will continue to do so for the next 13 months. Every blessing is from Him. And I am so GRATEFUL. I would not be able to do this crazy thing without His help and I'm glad He's with me.

Tarantula we found outside of church.

Great Tan Lines!

Thanks for all your love and support. Hope this week is DE DIEZ.

Con Amor, Hermana Hein

Now I am the master...

I probably shouldn't be quoting Darth Vader in reference to my church calling but alas... I couldn't resist.

Here I am in Argentina, just ready to finish my 12 weeks of training, when the assistant to President called us... To tell us that I am going to have to relive 12 semanas because I'm now training... a new.... missionary...

Yeah I freaked out. Let's be real. I'm STILL freaking out. We don't meet our hijas until tomorrow. We have to go to Resistencia to pick them up. After that... my real training begins...

I've always said that the mission is like the Refiner's Fire. I'm never going to be completely ready for everything the Lord asks of me. But if He waited for us to be 100% ready, we'd never learn anything. The best way to learn anything is to just do it. I've said it from the beginning of the mission and I'm casi seguro that I'm going to be saying it until the end. If I just sat around as M2 my whole mission, only doing what it is that M1 is doing, what would I learn? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's time for me to step up, put on my big girl pants (skirt) and go to work.

I'm terrified. I have a little baby bird in my hands now. And it's my responsibility to teach her how to fly. All while I'm still perfecting the art of flight myself. It's going to be very interesting... And we are going to learn LOADS together. I'm excited. My Spanish is going to improve. My teaching skills, my street smarts. All of it. Because I'm a mom now... And I have to help my little hijita.

I have a testimony of this work. I know the Lord has a hand in everything I do here. I am never alone here. And I won't ever be alone if I keep Him involved in what I do. Yes. I'm terrified. But at the same time, I'm excited to see my faith grow as I put all of it in Him. Cuídense mucho.

Con amor,
Hermana Hein

Pics for the week: more rain and even more mud. I almost lost my boot that day to the mud. And also, Hna. Fullmer and I with Araceli, one of our investigators. I'm really going to miss Hna. Fullmer. She's amazing.

January blows by...

Wow. February. What even happened in January? I honestly don't know. But alas. Here we are. And transfers are next week. You know what that means: Training Complete. Que loco che. I can't believe it.

As for this week, there's really not much to tell. Hermana Fullmer spent most of the week still really sick. So we had an interesting side quest to the Argentine doctor this week... yeah... sketchy. The lady didn't even take vitals or anything. Useless... She asked what was wrong and then prescribed something. We're still not sure what. It was an interesting adventure to say the least. And while Hna. Fullmer still is not feeling 100%, she is feeling much better. We've come to the conclusion that her body has just had enough of Argentine food. One more transfer and she won't have to deal with it anymore.

This week, we tried to focus much more on following the subtle promptings of the Spirit because we haven't been having much luck finding new investigators that are PREPARED to receive the Gospel. Man let me tell you what. The Spirit knows what's up. We had several good lessons this week with potential investigators. But more than that, we've found a couple of less active families to work with too. We're still working with the Duarte's but this week, we also started talking with the Familia Valdez. Meriam Mabel is the woman we talked with and she had some interesting stories of the opposition keeping her from returning to church. I won't get into too much. But despite this opposition, she came to church with us yesterday! We were really excited. The only thing is that she doesn't live here in Formosa. She's only here for vacation. She lives in a little village outside of Cordoba that apparently doesn't have a church. But we'll see what happens. We can help her while she's here.

Yesterday after church, it was REAL hot. Nice and toasty as it is here in the North. But after we popped in for a spell at the Duarte's to see how they were doing, the rain started coming. And let me tell you what. It RAINED. We weren't prepared for it either because it was so hot 20 minutes earlier. (I swear, everyday here you have to leave with your sombrero, umbrella, and rain boots because you never know what you're going to get.) Our next appointment was across the street. But in the time it took to walk across the street, we looked like we had been swimming. Nice. Thanks Argentina. We had permission from the Zone Leaders to go home early and well... despite the fact that we're not allowed to go swimming as missionaries, we had a pool in the pensión. We spent most of the night mopping it up. So we used ARGENTINE SHAM-WOW! It was super effective. Really. Argentines know how to sham-wow.

Sorry there's no pictures this week. The computer here is... a little janky. But next week for sure. Anyway. That was this week in a nutshell. And next week is transfers! Ah! We'll see what happens now that I don't have my training wheels anymore. (I would make some reference to Icarus and his wings melting but I'm pretty sure that my wings would melt regardless of how far I am from the sun because it's so hot. So there's that.)

But until next week, suerte con todo!
Hermana Hein