Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Home is Now Behind You...

Holy guacamole I´m in Argentina!!

This place... is crazy. I thought I was learning Spanish in the MTC but apparently... I was not. Haha. Just kidding. But it has been a real chore trying to understand the people here. They talk so fast!! Thank goodness for a companion who actually knows Spanish. Haha.

Hna. Fullmer is awesome! She's so patient and understanding. It's been rough. Not even going to lie about it. The culture here is so different and it's really frustrating that I can´t communicate with anyone. Pretty much all I can do during lessons is bear my testimony. Hopefully that's enough.
Hmna Fullmer


Let me just tell you a thing or two about Formosa... There are dogs.... EVERYWHERE. And the driving is OUTTA CONTROL. No me diga. I was certain the few times we took a cab that we would be responsible for multiple deaths. There´s not really any traffic lights or speed limits or anything. Everyone just goes when they want. It´s a mite terrifying.  Everyone drives motorbikes and weave in and out of traffic. I´m so glad we don´t have to drive anywhere. Walking however... has been... interesting...

My feet are SHREDDED. I´m not kidding. If I´m not capable of walking through Mordor and into Mount Doom barefoot after this... I will be severely disappointed. Those people at the Sister Missionary Mall.... RIPPED US OFF!! Those shoes are the worst. We are going shopping today for new shoes. Also... I have some weird bug bite on my ankle that has made my whole ankle swell up... Yeah not sure... But we´ll see what happens there. Because my feet are so torn up, walking everywhere sucks. Haha. I feel so bad because I feel like I´m slowing us down. We aren´t teaching as many people as we could be because I have to walk like an old codger. Ugh it sucks.
Home Sweet Home

Argentina is a very humble place. At least... it is where I am. I don´t know how things are down south... But here, the people live in very humble circumstances. It really makes an Hermana grateful for all the things I have. I really have no room to complain about anything. I've been humbled a lot since coming here. I have a lot to learn. And I'm so excited. Terrified, but excited. I have been cast into the refiner's fire and I hope to come out of it a better person.

I'm excited to be here and excited to be learning so much. I have already been so blessed by my time here. I can only imagine what I'll have learned 17 months from now.

Okay. Until next week then. The pics are of our pensiĆ³n and me with Hna. Fullmer. Cool beans. Alright. Now I'm really out. Love you guys and I hope all is well!

With love, Hermana Hein

Side Note from Mum: Jenessa told us that her first Sunday in Argentina, the Sacrament Meeting was the Primary Program. I asked her if they sang the same songs that she (Jenessa) taught our primary kids before she left. She said that some of the songs were the same, but there were others that she had not heard before. Since she was one of the Primary Music Leaders, Jenessa felt bad that she left for her mission just a couple of weeks before our Ward's Primary Program.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

The Long Journey

Hola Familia!

Here I am ... in Argentina ... finally. We finally got to Resistencia after a 36 hour journey, including a 9-hour layover in Buenos Aries. Mmmm.. so fun! But I'm super excited to be here! I'm still exhausted and found that I really don't know Spanish like I thought I did, but its all good.
Hermana Fullmer and Sister & President Franco

I just met my trainer. Her name is Hermana Fullmer and she's from West Valley. She's super nice and has been really helpful for the past 30 minutes that I've know her. Our area is called Formosa and is about 2 hours away from where we are now. Don't ask where we are now because I couldn't tell you, remember?

I really don't know Spanish...  We're eating pizza for lunch and it's a litter different. It has eggs on it. It's alright. Also, Alfajures. They're big here in Argentina. They're like... little cakes filled with Dulce de Leche. They're pretty good, I guess.

I' just had an interview with President Franco. He's really cool. Super nice and understanding.

I'm not sure what else to write. Besides traveling, nothing much has happened since I got here. My little suitcase broke. But whatever, it's fine. Can't send me one anyway. I'm just sick of lugging my crap around. Oh well.

Okay, I've got to go. But I love you guys.

Love, Hermana Hein

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened...

Hello.
Notes from this week: Nothing. Haha. Just kidding. It was just another week of the same. You know how the MTC is: Class for 9 hours, volleyball, teaching investigators, attempting to learn Spanish... The usual. But now, it's a little different. Because.... It's OUR LAST WEEK HERE! Holy crap. We only have 5 more days here in the good ole CCM. (I literally have NO IDEA how that translates. I just say it because it's Spanish.)

Our daily grind
We no longer have our TRC investigator, but we did get two NEW investigators: Our classmates. Hma. Nakken and I are teaching Hma. Flores and Elder Brady. We all get to be investigators. It's kind of weird. I don't exactly know how to do it... Not to mention my Spanish isn't really the best so... But it's fun to teach our classmates. Our goal is to (Nacho voice) baPTIZE by Saturday so we're working like crazy.

We also taught over Skype this week and that was weird. Not to mention it was when I was still kind of sick so my voice was gone. Haha. But the lady we taught was really nice. They're member lessons so they're like, home teaching lessons. And we get to teach natives. The TRC people try to get people from the country you'll be serving in but that didn't work out this week. So we taught a lady from Mexico. It was really cool.

Sunday's Temple Walk: The Sisters
I don't know if Mum posted anything about my travel situation but alas. I got my travel plans this last Friday and I'm headed to Argentina next week!! Crazy. It's going to be so much fun. But also, I'm pretty nervous. One of our teachers told us this story the other day about how when he first got to his mission, he couldn't communicate with his companion. WHAT?? Yeah. He freaked me out a bit. But I'll be okay. I'm not in this alone. I never have been. Anyway. Travel. We leave the MTC, fly out of SLC to Atlanta. We have a layover in Atlanta and then the real fun begins... 12 HOUR FLIGHT TO ARGENTINA BABY!! You can bet your sweet boots I'm spending that time becoming fluent in Spanish. Haha. Or finishing the Book of Mormon. Which is the COOLEST by the way. Everyone likes to cut arms off in that book. It's crazy.

We had a great lesson this week with Hmo. Lloyd. He was teaching us about being creative with our lessons so our investigators don't get bored, (like Juan...) so he demonstrated. We did that one lesson where you have to guide someone through a maze of chairs and desks and stuff but only one person is the voice of the spirit. So, it was Elder Brassanini's birthday the day we did this. (I don't remember. I'm sorry.) So he got to be the lucky one who was blindfolded. The rest of us got to be Satan. Only Elder Balmas was the true voice of the spirit. Everyone trusts Hmo. Lloyd because he's so amazing but he only led Elder Brasspanini to sniff a garbage can. That was pretty funny. He eventually figured out that Elder Balmas was the spirit and he found the chocolate at the end of the line. But it was probably a pretty funny sight to behold. And we all had to whisper so we probably just looked like a bunch of crazies speaking parseltongue to a blindfolded Brassanono.

Two Jen/Janessas
Okay. There's not much else to say for this week. It's my last time writing from the MTC so next time, I'll be writing from ARGENTINA!! Crazy! The pics from this week are from our Temple walk on Sunday. There's another Jenessa in the zone!! Only, she spells her name Janessa so it's not as good. Also, Elder Fuga and Elder Balmas switched jackets and that was pretty funny. Fuga's a 300 lb. Tongan football player and Balmas is tiny.
Elder Fuga & Elder Balmas

Alright. Until next time, good bye friends. The next time you hear from me, I'll be on another continent!

Regards,
Hermana Hein

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Infected (Not the name of my favorite movie)

Well.... This week was terrible. I got so sick on Halloween and still haven't fully recovered. But I'm on my way. Only today, my voice is all but gone. Everyone was laughing at me during volleyball because I sound so stupid. Oh well. Volleyball was excellent... as always. We played sand volleyball up by the temple and while it was a little chilly, we had fun.

So, because I was so sick this entire weekend, there really isn't much to tell because nothing even happened. I stayed in bed all weekend and was sooooo bored. We went to the doctor to find out what was wrong with me and that was a hassle... He checked for the flu, strep, and mono. I hate all of those tests. For the mono test, they had to take my blood but I hadn't had anything to drink all day so they had a little trouble getting any blood to come out. Hhhhhh.... I was telling Nakken about this whole thing and she could not handle it. She was a phlebotomist before she came here so she knows all about that. Anyway. I didn't have any of those things so that's good. But I did have an infection so we had to go get some drugos down the street. THEY MADE ME WALK DOWN TO THE PHARMACY IN MY SICKLY STATE TO GET MY OWN DRUGOS!! (it's actually drugas but whatever.) Long story short, I didn't enjoy this week. Also, OUR WHOLE DISTRICT IS INFECTED!! It all started with Elder Bennett who also now has pink eye, (DON'T LOOK HIM IN THE EYE!!!) who gave his sickness to me. I went home but he kept going to class and got OUR TEACHER SICK. Hma. Duncan got a 24 hour stomach flu, Hma. Flores is feeling sick and Hma. Nakken is starting to feel it now too!!! Basically, we're a hot mess in District 38 E so just steer clear. It's a quarantine zone.

Speaking of District 38 E, we're the oldest in the zone now... How crazy is that? Es la posta!! Okay. Story about that phrase: one of our teachers served in Argentina and has been teaching some Argentine slang. Saying, "es la posta!" in Argentina is like saying, "that's legit" in English. But the literal translation, is  "it's the post". Haha. So we said it one time in front of our other teacher who served in El Salvador and he was so confused as to why were saying everything was the post. Haha. Argentina seems like an interesting place. And I'm psyched to get there. Speaking of, WE GET OUR TRAVEL PLANS ON FRIDAY!!! I can't even handle that. It literally feels like we got here yesterday.

Hma. Nakken and I hadn't taught anyone in what felt like eons so our first lesson after I got back was yesterday and it was terrible. We were teaching our TRC investigator who already is a tough cookie and then, of course, all the Spanish in my brain was just..... gone. I felt horrible. So hopefully our lesson tonight is better. We'll see though. We're teaching our teacher and he always makes me laugh so I don't even know.

Not much else to say today. Because again, nothing even happened this week. But that's okay. I'll just leave with a quick (and always awesome) thought from Elder Holland. His talk from October conference 2012 was mentioned in one of the devotionals this week and I thought it was really cool:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/the-first-great-commandment?lang=eng

Just check it out. He's talking about being disciples of Christ and it had a lot of really cool stuff for us missionaries. Here's just a brief snippet of what he said:

"Our is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world."

Man. Jefferey R. Holland is the coolest. Anyway. It's really important to think of how important this work really is. And how important it is that we take it seriously. But this can be applied to really anyone in the church. You don't have to be a full-time missionary to share the goodness of the gospel.

Okay. I'm out for this week. Sorry it was such a lame week. Hopefully this coming week brings more interesting stories... Okay.
Love you all,
Hermana Hein