Lima - Post 1

Hello Readers,

This is Hermana Scarlett's mom writing.  Things have been a little crazy lately (in a good way) for our little Sister Missionary so she hasn't sent out her usual mass emails to the whole world.  Instead she asked I update ya'll on her mission.

First, two Sunday's ago Gerardo was confirmed a member of the church and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  That morning had been really busy for everyone and the Bishop of the congregation had forgotten about Gerardo's confirmation.  During the congregational hymn, Hermana Scarlett was trying to give him hand signals to remind him.  In the midst of her gestures, she wondered if there were spanish gestures rather than the english gestures she was using.  When she realized she was trying to translate her gestures into spanish, she busted out laughing - in church :)

That afternoon we skyped with our missionary and I can't say she was beautiful because the connection was horrific - she was a pixelated blob on the screen!  Eventually we turned off the video and just talked which improved the connection some.  We blamed it on 85,000 missionaries skyping their moms all on the same day - Mother's Day!

Yesterday, Hermana Scarlett was online long enough to let me know she was being transferred in an emergency transfer to Lima!  Of course I thought - how can she be transferred to another country without the mission notifying me?!?!?!?!  It took several emails back and forth before she and I were on the same page - there is a itty bitty town way out in the country, right in the middle of Buenos Aires and Rosario, called Lima. There is a set of sister missionaries there currently, one is a trainer and the other is a new missionary out only four weeks on her mission.  The trainer has been sick and there isn't good medical care in Lima.  She is transferring in to Vicente Lopez and will be with Hermana Sanchez.  This will put her in close proximity to the Mission Doctor and the Mission President.  Hermana Scarlett will go out to Lima and finish training Hermana White.  Allison is soooooooo excited to train and she is more than prepared for this new responsibility.  

Lima has just over 10,000 residents and is primarily farm and cattle ranches.  It is a mid-point stop on the railroad between Rosario and Buenos Aires and on the river too.  The other main industry for the tiny town is the nuclear power plan on the river - it provides most of the power for the entire country of Argentina!  The church there is very small, the congregation is called a Branch and they meet in a rented house in the town.  The sister missionaries live in a teeny tiny house with few modern amenities - there is an electric hot plate, running water and a very small water heater.  Hermana Scarlett and Hermana White are spending their first day together cleaning their little home top to bottom, throwing out the clutter and broken furniture and organizing themselves - rolling up their sleeves and getting to work, thats my girl!

Hermana White is a convert to the church and was baptized about 16 months ago.  She is from Washington state and the two became fast friends quick - especially since they spent so much time yesterday in the car.  Here is the low down on that - the office missionaries drove them to Lima - just over two hours, and upon arrival realized that the keys to their house were with the sick sister - back in Vicente Lopez!  So they drove 2+ hours back and retrieved the keys AND the area cell phone which they didn't realize they didn't have until they asked for the keys!  Then for the return trip, they were put on a bus which they had to switch off of onto another bus with the return trip taking three hours.  LOTS of time to get to know each other!

Allison is so excited for this new adventure - new companion, training, new area in a totally new environment, a little branch of members and more.  I told her all this change was the perfect breeding ground for major personal growth.  With prayer, faith and obedience she will have great success with this companion and in this new area.

Stay tuned for more of Hermana Scarlett's missionary adventures in Lima.....

Vicente Lopez - Post 8

Gerardo's Baptism

Well yesterday we had a great event - Gerardo got baptized!  Trying to get everything organized was a bit crazy but it was a good moment :) I´ll tell you more about it later in the letter.

As for my week -

Monday we had P-day.  We went to Unicenter which is a huge shopping mall to buy stuff for winter.  It´s expensive so we won´t be going back anytime soon.  But Monday night we found a less active member.  Here they have security (neighborhood patrols) in the neighborhoods every couple blocks.  They are super friendly and we talk to them pretty often but they usually don't live here and work all the time so the missionaries where they do live can't stop by to teach them.  Well, we were with a member and my companion said she wanted to stop and talk with the patrol man so we did.  While we were talking with him, this little old man walked up to us and started talking.  Then he asked me where I was from.  When I told him North Carolina in the USA, he started to speak english UNCEASINGLY!  I'm pretty sure he talked about every single topic there ever was.  At one point the city patrol came by and let us know "His is in the Argentine Coast Guard, they are my friends and are good people." He signed for more of them to come over and started talking to us about them, but it was obvious from their faces that they had never seen this man before.  Fiinally they just drove away. Then he looked at me a said "I know how to lance" and started demonstrating lancing techniques.  I couldn´t help but laugh. 

Tuesday was the 29th of April.  Here in Argentina they eat ñoquis every 29th.  That day, we passed by a less active member's house.  His wife said she was busy making ñoquis but we offered to pass by and help.  (ñoquis are pasta made from potatoes)  SO she taught us how to make them and she cooked us some and it was SOOOO YUMMMYYYY.  When i get home I'm making ñoquis every day of my life!  Afterwards we shared a message with both of them. She accepts us and loves to talk to us but is happy in her church and doesn't want to change. 

Wednesday We had zone meeting wich was really good  We put goals as districts of how many baptisms and confirmations for the months and church attendance for sunday.  We all got back together and when the zone leaders asked for our goal our district leader said 6-6-6.  Everyone gasped and busted out laughing.  I also got the card from Mom with animal stickers.  When we saw the fox sticker, me and a sister from Brazil started to sing "what does the fox say?" and we laughed a lot about that too :)

Thursday morning, my companion said i was talking in my sleep, but the best part was that it was in SPANISH!!! That´s been one of my goals in my mission.  Thursday we were looking for less active members. We passed by a house and found the son of a less-active and started talking to him.  He didn't know his dad was a member but knew that his grandpa was President of something in the church in Chile (turns out it was Mission President in Chile and Italy)  SO we started talking to him then I realized he was wearing FOX FEET SLIPPERS!  I fought the impulse to sing "What does the fox say" another time.

Friday we had lunch with President Ayre and the AP´s it was fun :)  (APs are the Assistants to the President - missionaries serving in leadership capacity under the direction of the Mission President)  We had bruchettes, which are shish kabobs. It was super yummy!  And president gave us 2 references that we are going to contact with him this week.

Gerardo and Joaquin

Saturday morning during personal study a car parked outsie our building and was blasting the song "Uptown Girl" I started laughing and then tried to refocus myself on my studies.  Saturday night Gerardo had his baptismal interview and passed!  Our district leader gave us white chocolate oreo chocolate to congradulate us.  It was yummy and almost like cookies n cream chocolate.

Sunday we had the baptism of Gerardo.  We had to go early to fill up the font but it was a bit dirty and the faucet had been dripping, so we drained it, cleaned it, and filled it back up.  Joaquin Cabrera, a priest in the ward who is preparing for his mission, baptised him.  It went really well :)

Y ahora es lunes, la dia de descanso para los misioneros, y estoy disfrutandolo escriebiendoles.  Les amo y les extraño!  (And now it is Monday, the day of rest for missionaries, and I am enjoying writing to you.  I love you all and miss you all!)

Hermana Allison Scarlett

Vicente Lopez - Post 7

Another delayed post - from two weeks ago.........

What a week!  

Wednesday morning Hermana Salazar left for home and we spent the morning cleaning up, organizing a bit, planned for the week, had lunch, had lessons with Daniel and Gerardo and had our correlation meeting. More or less normal.  

Thursday morning we had zone meeting.  We traveled 30-45 minutes to the chapel in Ballester and there wasn't any light.  SO we had to travel 30 more minutes to Jose Leon Suarez and have our meeting there.  Then we traveled another 40 minutes to lunch and another 20 minutes to visit Gerardo and some other people in that area. That night the office elders, Elder Pereyra and Elder McLain, brought us some stuff for our apartment.

Friday I had to do tramites (paperwork for Visa) - hopefully for the last time - so i can get my Argentine DNI. That took forever! We had to be at the mission office at 8:30 and travel 1 hr to Retiro, wait in a bunch of line and we finally finished after some hours.  We had to go back to the mission office but on the way we stopped at a member's house for lunch.  After we went to the offices to drop off the papers and pick up some new stuff for our apartment.  There is another apartment here in VIcente Lopez and we talked to Elder Pereyra and Elder Lines about the bills that we needed to pay for the other apartment and see what it was like and the possibility of us moving there.  So we got back to the apartment, dropped off the stuff, and went by the other place to see how it was.  The last people who had lived there were Elders.  We entered and it was a DISASTER!  I was shocked at how Elders could leave a pension (apartment) in such a MESS! We were talking to the administrator of the building, and turned around and there was a FREAKING CAT LIVING IN THE APARTMENT!  Scared the bajeebies out of me.  Ww checked to make sure it was the only thing living there and then got someone else to get it out.  He said that it seemed like a house cat that got loose and entered because the Elders left a window open.  And the cat left a nice little present in the bathtub.  And it started rubbing against my leg like it thought it was MY cat or something.  I don´t like cats.  There have been only 5 cats in this whole world that I have liked - Aunt Pat's kitties!  There is no way i am going to move into an apartment where a cat had been living.  QUE ASCO (YUCK)!  Also the light in the kitchen was left on so we tried to turn it off and we couldn't because the wiring was bad. The Elders didn´t say anything to anyone about it so we got the bills and left.  

Saturday we saw Daniel and Gerardo again.  They were good lessons and on Sunday they both attended church. We had Ward Committee Meeting (Ward Council - Leadership in the congregation meet to discuss how to serve and meet the needs of the members) then afterwards we had lunch with a North American family.  They had JIF PEANUT BUTTER!  Oh man I was in heaven.  They also made pizza and it was yummy (to defend my self the tomato sauce here is better than in the United States.) and chocolate chip cookies too :)  It was super fun and my companion enjoyed a typical American meal.

And today we are going to go shopping for winter clothes.

And yup that was my week.  Gerardo is progressing well and is really excited for his baptism this sunday :)

This is your favorite sister missionary signing off

Hermana Allison Scarlett

Vicente Lopez - Post 6

Sorry for the delay in posting - this is from 3 weeks ago....

Me and Hermana Salazar - Sending her home!

Well we´ve been working with Gerardo.  We met with him and were working with him to stop smoking and the lesson went really well.  That night he called us and told us that he won´t get baptized because he doesn´t believe in the Book of Mormon, that it seems more like a novel than scripture to him.  All I could think was "no no no!"  This is his time, this is what he needs and I wasn't giving up on him.  I was praying and praying in my heart to know what to say to help him.  The thought came "Invite him to keep reading and praying about it and he'll know it´s true."  So I invited him to keep reading and keep praying.  He agreed and said to give him some time.  So we let him read for a couple of days and then met with him again.  He said he ALMOST believes in the Book of Mormon.  Again I kept praying and praying to know how to help him.  Then I thought "He needs to read in 3rd Nephi when Jesus Christ visits the Americas, then he'll know it´s scripture."  So I invited him to read that section and said he would.  Saturday morning he called us and asked us if he could still go to church with us. OF COURSE!  Then I asked him if he had read 3rd Nephi yet.  He said he was reading another part the day before but that he was going to read it that day.  Sunday morning we received a text from him saying that he got sick and wouldn't make it to church but that he had read 3rd Nephi and believes the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.  I was doing the happy dance!  We got ready for church and were waiting for the collectivo (bus) when we saw Gerardo running to the parrada (bus stop).  I wsa shocked!  He said that he miraculously felt better and rushed to meet us in the parrada before we left.  What a miracle!  And we met with him yesterday and he´s gone from 40 cigarettes to 7.  We are working with him so that he can be baptized the 4th of May.

And we have ANOTHER investigator :) His name is Daniel and he's 26 years from Peru.  HIs friend told us that we should meet him, so we did.  He had listened to the missionaries before and has family who are members. He´s really receptive, he just has a LOT of questions, philosophical questions.  But were working with him so that he can be baptized on the 11th of May.  

The Congresso Gang - Love these people!

Well tomorrow I officially kill my Grandma.... Don´t be so shocked! :P  When your companion goes home, it´s called killing.  Hermana Salazar trained my trainer so she´s my Grandma.  She has finished her 18 months of serving and heads home tomorrow.  It´s a bit sad but we´ve enjoyed our time together :)  Sunday we had the farewell of all the missionaries ending their missions.  All the missionaries and members who are able meet in San Fernando and each of the missionaries give their testimony and we watch a video of them and some of their converts.  Then the Mission President speaks and we watch a video of his choosing.  This time it was the video "He is Risen" which is about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Afterwards everyone mingles and I saw some people from Congresso!  My convert, Edgar, was there and he´s doing great.  I told them they have to come to my farewell and Edgar asked when it was because he is planning on serving a mission next April!  I just about burst into tears of joy right then and there.  They also told me that Adrian is planning on going to the temple to do the baptism of his father.  And SImon is studying a ton and shaved his face and has new clothes and looks like a new person. To see converts, especially those you've taught, progressing and continuing faithfully in the gospel is way better than the day of their baptism. That´s why I'm here!  I´m not here just to baptize people.  I´m here to help people better their lives by accepting the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  I really do have the best calling EVER!  Well I love and miss you all! 

Ciao!  

Hermana Allison Scarlett