Well I didn't do a general e-mail last week because I got to SKYPE my FAMILY on Christmas day :) Yes I cried. I always cry :) It was a wonderful Christmas. Christmas Eve we had a HUGE meeting with the whole mission together. It was really great :) President Ayre got up to start the meeting and then he said "Is Hermana Scarlett here? Where is she?" I raised my hand and then he asked me to give the opening prayer! Wow, I only have 6 weeks in the mission and he wants me to give a prayer in front of the WHOLE MISSION!?! There are 280+ missionaries and I have to prey in front of all of them in SPANISH!?! Of course I said yes and did it and it was fine :)
They then showed us a video that they put together for the mission to watch. It started off with a jib-jab video of the faces of the senior missionary couples on the bodies of a mariachi band singing and dancing to the song Feliz Navidad. Everyone was ROLLING! Next they showed the clip from the Grinch movie where the grinch´s heart grew 3x bigger and talked about how the Gospel can change people´s lives and had a slideshow of all the baptisms the past couple months, so we had a white christmas (all the people in their white baptismal clothes. Felt like I had to explain that one because when I first heard it i was SO confused! I was like, there is NO WAY it´s going to snow here!) I cried. Then they showed the piano guys video O come Emmanuel. It was super good. I cried even more. Then president talked to us and talked about all the different kinds of missionaries we have in the mission. We have missionaries from 21 countries serving in the Buenos Aires North Mission! Then he asked all the convert missionaries to stand up, then all the missionaries who were there because of the age change, then a lot of different types of people. He then talked about how grateful he is that each one of us are here and each one of us had to make sacrifices to be here. I cried even more. It was really great and I loved every second of it.
After that meeting we all had lunch together. They had all the Hermanas go sit down first and as I was heading to the tables I heard someone yell my name and I turned around and there was Elder Hicks! He was an Elder who was visa waiting in my ward back home and at the same time I was serving as a ward missionary. He´s way cool. Well he got his visa and left and then I get my mission call not long after. Everyone told me "That´s the same mission Elder Hicks is in!" So it was cool to see a familiar face and talk a little bit. We all ate and chatted and then we did a white elephant, all the gifts provided by the mission. It was the Left Right story that mom does every year. All the Hermanas got scarves, even some of the Elders too :) It was a really fun day.
Christmas Eve we also had permission to stay out until 10:30 with the members. Here in Argentina they celebrate very differently. They don´t sleep at night, they stay up ALL NIGHT! Christmas begins at midnight. But we spent Christmas Eve in the home of Paul Pizarro, who is our ward mission leader and we ate a TON! His brother, Gustavo, loves to cook and feed us missionaries. So we chatted and ate and listened to Christmas music and then we went back to our apartment. At midnight the fireworks started. It was way cool! Everyone was awake and shooting off fireworks from the streets, from the tops of the buildings. It was magnificent!
In the morning we opened our presents and prepared for the day. We went back to the house of Paul and Gustavo and ate some more and skyped our FAMILIES! When mom answered I just started to cry. Then they all sat around the computer and mom sat down and had a list of questions to ask me. It was like a Question and answer session. Kind of like a panel of judges or something :) It was really nice to see the faces and hear the voices of my family again :)¨ It was really funny because every 10 minutes Paul popped in and said "Merry Christmas" or "Hi Family" or something. He was so excited to have the missionaries in his house skyping their families and he was even more excited that he could say a couple english phrases to them :) He and Gustavo would come in and be like "Tell your family I said this" But I made them talk to mom in Spanish so she could practice :p They really enjoyed that too :) And it was funny because sometimes I would talk to them and start saying something to my family but I had to pause and transition my brain back to English. It was just a really great hour to be able to talk with them :)
As for this week, we have an INVESTIGATOR (someone who is interested in learning more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)! We were walking to visit someone and I just had this thought that we should go visit a contact that works outside the Coto Grocery Store. I voiced this to Hermana Mowry and she agreed. So we headed down the street when this lady came up to us and greeted us in English! We asked her where she was from and she's from here in Argentina. Then she looked at our name tags and said that she wanted to meet with us and talk about God and what we believe. WHAT!?! That´s never happened before. But then she was like "But you're probably too busy." We replied "No! We would LOVE to talk with you about God and what we believe." She then set a cita con nosotras (appointment with us) for later that afternoon. Oh man, We were so excited!
Her name is Santa Lo´Scrudado (Not like Santa Clause, Santa signifies Saint in Spanish). We met in a little restaurant and we shared the message of the restoration with her and she was just soaking it all in and had so many questions. It was just amazing. We had Diego Gomez, a member, with us and he was such a HUGE help. When we have a member at a lesson it really makes all the difference. She is really concerned about her brother and the road in life he´s taking along with what´s happening in the world. She wants to help the people in the streets and the people who are drug addicts and the people who are poor and don´t have much. We introduced her to the Book of Mormon and she is really excited to read it and pray about it and we invited her to church and she accepted. We also invited her to be baptized but she wants to know more and be sure before she makes that commitment. I´m very confident that she will receive her answer and desire to be baptized. She really is searching for something more that can help her in her life and we have it! She came to church and really liked it and we are going to visit her again tonight and we are so excited. What a miracle and a blessing she is!
Something New about me is I´m really enjoying our 30 min of exercise time every morning. I fear I may become and Exercise nut while I´m here. I still eat a lot but that´s because the members are trying to make me fat and I'm always wanting to eat more because we walk a whole lot. Oh well!
Love you all!
Hermana Scarlett
Hermana Scarlett
Wish List (Things I'd like but don't need and cannot get in Argentina):
Exercise Jump Rope
Study Journals
Colored Pens
Sticky notes (Really good ones that stick well, I use them a lot!)
Note Cards
USA Stamps
Envelopes
footie socks (The ones that cover the front part of the foot for flats)
White out (preferably pens)
Shoes insoles (The green and purple dr. scholl´s ones are comfy :)
Q-tips
Toasted Cinnamon Almonds
Reeses
Measuring Cups
Fast Easy Yummy Recipes (egg-drop soup, no bake cookies, etc.)
Beef Jerky (original)
Nutella
Peanut Butter
Mints and gum
Crunchy cheetos
Lays Barbecue chips
WHite cheddar popcorn
Dr. Pepper flavoring
Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Seeds
Peanut Butter M&Ms
Zip Lock Bags
Box mixes (Cake, brownies, Pancakes, reese's bars, etc)
Healthy Snacks (Cliff bars, luna bars, trail mix, nuts, etc.)
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