Congresso - Post 10

Simon's Day of Baptism

SImon is doing excellent!  He just soaks everything up like a sponge!  He has such a strong desire to learn and act.  It´s really amazing :)  We had a lesson with him and Hermana Villanova, an older member in the ward, about temples.  He´s really interested in the temple and wants to go.  They talked and talked and talked and he was just really happy.  And then this sunday we arrived a little late but when we walked in Simon was about to be confirmed. I just about cried because he looked so happy and content.  And then when he took the sacrament, participated a lot in the Class - I was on cloud 9. In the class he was talking about how now that he´s a member of the church he can see a difference in his life now he has the company of the Holy Ghost and wants to keep the commandments and is going to continue learning and growing as a member.  AWHHHHH! I just about cried right then and there.

Mission Temple Day!

Buenos Aires Argentina Temple

Adrian, He´s super awesome!  He has all the lessons, has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and received his answer that the church is true.  He told us in one of the lessons about an experience that he had.  He was in the Subway and people from some church were passing out flyers.  One of them asked him what church he went to. He said "I'm Mormon" they said "oh" and continued on without giving him a pamphlet.  WHAT?!? He isn't even an official member but he is living the gospel. Also, he´s already read the WHOLE BOOK OF MORMON!  He read it in 3 weeks! He will be baptized this sunday and he is ready.  He is a very nervous person so in one lesson we read Ether 12:27 (And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them). He started talking about how his nerves have helped him to take this decision seriously so that he´s sure that this is the right thing to do.  He said he is 100% sure that he´s doing the right thing and is ready to be baptized.  Talk about Elegido (Chosen)!

Playing with a Member's new pet!

We also found Edgar.  My companion had strong desires to eat cheese so we entered a chino and went to grab some cheese real fast.  They didn't have what she wanted but we began to talk to the guy who worked there.  He is 19 years old and reads the bible and is trying to do what God wants of him.  He told us that he doesn't smoke or drink or anything. We talked about the Book of Mormon and invited him to be baptized and he accepted.  He is learning and really interested.  In one of our lessons he said "I feel like God is calling me"  I was like yeah!  God is calling you.  He wants you to live with him again.  That's why he sent us to find you and help you.  He will be baptized the 2nd of March. 
  
SO yeah that´s what´s happening here.  It´s starting to cool off but it´s not quite as cool as it is there in NC.  Que loco no?  


 Ciao!
Hermana Allison Scarlett 

Sugary sweet popcorn snack - my new addiction!
In english,  the brand name is  "The Two Sisters"

Congresso - Post 9

This post covers several weeks of Hermana Scarlett's mission life....

January 20th email:  
Hello everyone!  This weekly e-mail isn't going to be as detailed as normal because today for P-Day we took a tour bus around the city of Buenos Aires (way cool!) Just want to say I love you all and miss you.  And also that I'm doing good :)  I hope to have lots of emails waiting for me next week because emails make my week so much better :)  I love you all and love to hear from you.  I'm trying to do my best to keep in touch and if I´ve been slacking tell me! I'll catch-up next week. LOVE AND MISS ALL OF YOU <3

PS:  Any of you who have served missions I would love to hear some different ideas and success stories about finding people to teach.  

January 28th email:

Last Day Together :(

Today we had transfers and I'm still in the same area but I have a new companion!  Her name is Hermana Pilliza and she is from Ecuador but has lived in Spain for a little while.  She has been in the mission for 6 months and is really short.  When I was with Hermana Mowry I felt pretty short but now I feel like a GIANT!  She seems really sweet but very different from Hermana Mowry.  I'm really excited to learn new things and to work with her here.  It's strange though because she doesn't know the area or the members or anything so I'm leading the area.  It´s kind of a stressful thought.  And crazy.  I mean I'm kind of directionally challenged so..... we'll see :)  (Editorial comment - "kind of directionally challenged" is an understatement!)

Me and my crazy Trainer :)

SO Hermana Mowry went to another area and Hermana Dunn also.  Hermana Escobar stayed (this is her last transfer in the mission) and her new companion is Hermana Keith and she is AWESOME!  I'm really excited for this transfer.  However Hermana Pilliza said that she forgets things a lot so I need to remind her of things, but then I was like, I forget things a lot too!  And then right before we left I was searching frantically for my wallet and Hermana pilliza was searching frantically for her agenda.  We just had to laugh.  We are going to spend a lot of time looking for misplaced things this transfer.  But yeah we're going to work hard and have lots of success.  As for the people we are teaching, we have Simon, Adrian, Oscar, Nacho, y Mariella.  I'll tell you more about them next week.  I don't really know what else to day.  I'm happy and safe and enjoying my time in the mission!  Love and miss you all!

February 10th email:  SO this week has been pretty flipping awesome :D  

First of all, we had a Sisters Conference where all of the sister missionaries gathered together in the mission home and talked about a lot of stuff in classes or sessions.  We talked about getting along with companions, how we're all children of God and also Representatives of Jesus Christ and how if we want to love and serve others we first need to love and serve our companions.  My companion and I are doing much much better.  There are still some rough moments and sometimes I just need to remind myself we're from different places of the world with different cultures and I need to have a little more patience.  But we're doing really well.  Also they talked a lot about the vision of missionary work, how to gain it, and how to keep it in focus.  Everyone always says the vision is Baptise!  But for me it´s so much more than that.  So I set out to figure out what my own vision is.  

Sunday, I had my first baptism, Simon.  He's super awesome and was ready for this.  It was kinda stressful trying to get everything planned and ready and we had to work out some last-minute kinks but it was great.  I spoke about Baptism (my first discourse to give in spanish!)  everyone was laughing because I got up there all smiley and I was just like "What a great experience this is to have the Baptism of Simon today.  I'm happy, Simon's happy, We're all just really happy."  Everybody chuckled and now it's a joke, but that's how it is. And it was true :)  So what I was honestly expecting for my first baptism was a huge grand experience where everyone is just whalloped by the Spirit, but that's not how it was.  It was just a simple and beautiful experience where we helped a Child of God make a covenant with his Heavenly Father.  Just so simple, sweet, and beautiful.  

And today we went to the temple as a mission.  It was such a great experience to be able to go in and just feel peace and the love of my Heavenly Father and remember a little bit more of why I'm here on my mission.  My Vision for my mission is to help others accept and live the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ through making and keeping sacred covenants.  Yes, that includes baptism, but it includes so much more.  It includes the things we have to do each day to continue to progress and to make all of the covenants necessary in order to return to live with our Heavenly Father again.  That is my vision and I will keep that as my focus.

My District - Playing Pool on P-Day

Funny moment for the week:  Recently, more and more Young Single Adults (unmarried members between the ages of 18-30) have been moving into our ward and are helping us out with missionary work.  Two in particular, named Harold and Edgar (Edgar is from California),  are pretty cool.  One morning, Harold came with us to an appointment and after he went back to his house.  About 2 hours later, we got a call from his roommate Edgar and he was asking us for a huge favor.  Edgar had left to travel about 1.5 hours to visit his Grandfather and accidentally locked Harold into the apartment and couldn't get out! SO we run to the rescue.  When we got to the apartment, Harold dropped the keys out the window and we came up and unlocked the door from the outside. We couldn't stop laughing!   He had been locked inside the apartment for 4 hours!  Their door has 1 lock on the inside and 2 on the outside, so they don't lock the second one on the outside because you cant unlock it from the inside.  We we're just laughing really hard. Pobrecito.  But yes that´s my week.  I love and miss you bunches!  

Ciao!  

Hermana Allison Scarlett

Don't you love my form!!!!

Congresso - Post 8

Me with my self-cut bangs!

Wow what a week!  First off, we aren't teaching Felipe anymore. We went back for our appointment with him but he wasn't there. We tried time and time again to set another appointment with him but he was never there when he said he would be so yeah.  

But We ran into Patsy in the street!  Patsy was one of the investigators Hermana Mowry had taught before I came but Patsy got busy and stopped taking lessons.  Hermana Mowry always was talking about how awesome Patsy was and how ready she was for the gospel.  She is from Mexico and is super fun and sweet.  We went by her house and had a mini-lesson.  She had been on vacation to Peru and Brazil and now she´s back.  We invited her to come to church and continue reading the Book of Mormon.   She wasn't sure if she would be able to come to church but she´d grab her Book of Mormon and start reading again.  We passed by Friday and she said she would come to church!  Yes! She came sure enough and afterwards there was a baptism and she asked to stay. It was such a beautiful baptism for Cintia - she is 15, super mature and on fire!  Even though we didn't teach her, I feel like she´s one of my friends :)  Well Patsy thought it was so beautiful and really felt the spirit.  So we invited her to also be baptized.  She took a moment to think about it and then decided yes!  She knows that this is the true gospel which was restored to the earth through a Latter-Day Prophet and she knows that this step will bless her life. We are super stoked!

We made cookies!

Saturday, we had 2 members accompanying us and we walked past this man sitting outside his apartment. Hermana Mowry stopped and started talking to him. His name is Nestor. I asked him what he was doing sitting outside.  He said he was just thinking.  SO I asked him what he was thinking about.  He said, Just stuff, the world, my life.  SO we just started talking and we gave him a Book of Mormon, read the introduction with him, and invited him to be baptized!  He didn´t say yes but he said he was interested in what we were talking about. SO we invited him to church and he said yes!  I could tell just from talking to him that he likes to think about things before acting.  So we passed by Sunday morning and rang his bell and he came down and was ready to come with us and everything!  THen he asked if he needed to bring his LDM (Libro de Mormon or Book of Mormon) and we said if he wanted to he could.  He came back down with his LDM but he had changed his mind. He said he want more space and time to think about it.  This broke our hearts because we know that he will learn so much and feel the spirit at church but we also respect the agency of others.  SO we asked him if we could come by and talk later and he said yes. In the collectivo (entryway) Hermana Mowry started crying and during the sacrament meeting I started crying. I was pretty sure he had some kind of concern or doubt in his mind, but we weren't sure what. We were super sad about Nestor changing his mind about going to church at the last minute, but then in walked Patsy and we felt better.

My Argentine Oxfords - super comfy!
The best tan my legs have had in Winter!

So we went by Sunday afternoon to visit Nestor and brought Hermana Diaz with us.  We started talking and we were talking about the Restoration and he started talking about making decisions.  We tried to talk about how we are here on this earth to make good decisions and try to follow Christ and do the will of God.  It became very apparent that his concern is that he´s been trying to make good decisions but they just never turn out good.  We tried to resolve his concern but he was being very vague and very intense.  I got lost in his words too. We just invited him to read a part of the Book of Mormon to resolve his concern and we are going to talk about the plan of salvation to see if that will help him.  He really is a great person looking for help and guidance but is really hung up on whatever these decisions are that he´s made or has to make.

Other than that, we contacted someone in the street last night that we feel super good about.  Her name is Paula and her husband´s name is Peter. (She´s married!  That´s a big deal here.) And she said she was Christian but hasn´t been attending any church since she moved here from Uruguay. She has 2 dogs, which is how we started the conversation because i LOVE dogs, especially Golden Retrievers :)

As for my Companion and I, we have learned how to work together well and are having a lot of fun together.  I feel like one of us is going to get transferred in 2 weeks and I´m going to miss her when we do get transferred. 

Oh and one more thing!  I cut my bangs! by myself!  At first I was panicking because i thought I did them wrong, But now they´they've grown on me :)  Although they are nowhere near as good as when Juliegh does them :)

I Love and Miss you all and thanks for all the prayers and Support!
Hermana Allison Scarlett

Congresso - Post 7

Sorry this post is a week or so late - the New Year has us running in ten directions at full speed!  So without further delay, here is Hermana Scarlett's first post for 2014......

So what happened this week?  Well, IT´S 2014!  QUE LOCO! It´s even crazier to think that I will be in the mission THE WHOLE YEAR!  It´s kinda awesome because I can focus all of my goals and what I'm going to accomplish here in my mission this year.  What a blessing :)  So how did we festivate this holiday?  Eating of Course!  We had a HUGE lunch and 2 HUGE DINNERS New Year´s Eve!  Oh man I was just way super stuffed.  As for the rest of this week, just the norm - talking to loads of people, visiting the members - both less active and recent converts.

As for Santa.  We had 2 more REALLY great lessons and set an appointment for another one, but she cancelled. All week we've been trying to set another appointment but she kept cancelling or wouldn't set a specific time. Then she stopped answering our calls and texts.  I was super worried about her.  We saw her Sunday morning in the street before church and stopped and chatted with her.  She said she's grateful for our help and what but decided she doesn't want what we have. I asked her if she prayed about what she taught.  She said yes.  Then I asked her how she felt and she said "I just want to continue with what I´ve always had."   What can we do?  She had it set in her mind that she was just going to continue in her old ways.  She didn't want to change.  It was sad because she is looking for more in her life to help her and I KNOW without a doubt that we have it. I want to help her so much and really have a lot of love for her.  But what can we do?  Everyone has their own agency.

On another note, we have another investigator.  His name is Felipe and lives with Jose Navarro, a less active member we are working with.  They are friends from Colombia and came here to study together. We passed by to have a lesson with Jose and Felipe and his girlfriend were there.  So we invited them to join us in the lesson and they said they would.  We talked about the Book of Mormon and why it´s important.  I invited them to be baptized and they said Yes!  They are so sincere and really want to have God more involved in their lives.  The girlfriend doesn't live in our area though.  We gave them each a Books of Mormon to read and are excited to continue working with Felipe.  

As for my Spanish, I am doing WAY better than my first day here.  I am able to have conversations with people and I'm really working hard to have good grammar.  Sometimes I'll be talking and then a minute later realize I said it wrong!   But I am doing so much better.  It´s so much easier and I am loving every second here.

So that´s pretty much it.  Feliz Año Nuevo les amo mucho!

Hermana Allison Scarlett

Congreso - Post 6

We were able to skype with Allison on Christmas Day and she was exuberant!  She looked great and sounded even better and was obviously happy.  It was a joy to see and hear her but more than that, it was wonderful to know she is well and enjoying missionary work in Argentina.  Allison asked we pass along her love you you all and her gratitude for the emails and letters - keep them coming!  Here is her letter for this week and a list of things she'd like if anyone is inclined to send a care package (see Contact Info post for instructions).

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

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.)

Congreso - Post 5

Hi everyone, this is Mom with a few editorial comments.  

First, every six weeks, on Tuesdays, are transfers in Allison's mission.  This is when the Mission President decides which companions stay together or get switched, and if switched, who moves to which area within the mission.  Not all missionaries are switched and moved each transfer - usually a missionary is moved to a new area every 4-6 months and stay with the same companion every 2-3 months.  This past Tuesday were transfers.  

Second, every Monday is Preparation Day aka P-Day.  This is the one day a week when missionaries take care of temporal needs - do laundry, go grocery shopping, clean apartments, go sightseeing, write home, recreational fun, etc.  The rest of the week is focused on serving others and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So, when transfer week comes around, all missionaries in the mission take their P-Day on Tuesday rather than Monday so those moving or getting switched use that P-Day to pack up and move to their new areas and get settled without losing a day of doing the Lord's work.

Why all this - well Allison's email came late this past week which is causing this blog post to get done late.  Sorry to the regular readers and just know every six weeks, the blog will be late.  Oh - I'm having to do more and more editing too.  Allison's emails have horrid spelling and grammar now - which only means her spanish is getting much better!  And now, here is the latest from our Hermana Allison Scarlett :)


So today was the big day of transfers!  (Drumroll pleaseeeeee)  WE ARE STAYING IN CONGRESO!!!!!  Last night we got the call that all 4 of us Hermanas are staying here in Congreso.  We are all SUPER stoked (excited).  We feel like we have so much more work to do here and we are ready to hit the ground running and have some miracles happen these next 6 weeks.  

As for this past week we have been working really well with the less-active members.  We´ve visited Andres and Milagros who are awesome :)  We were visiting with them but their cuadra (city block) didn´t have energy (electricity) so we were sitting around 2 candles in their living room talking and mentioned that transfers were this week.  Milagros said "we don't want you to leave.  You´re our missionaries."  Oh man my heart just melted!  We´ve challenged them to read the Libro de Mormon (The Book of Mormon) in one year.  I told them that I read it in 2 months, so they can do it in 12 months :)  They are just super great!  I´m going to miss them when I eventually leave Congreso.  

Another less-active member we´re working with is Alfredo Morrency.  He´s a super tall, skinny man from Haiti.  He´s in his mid 30s but totally looks like he´s early 20s.  He served a mission there in Haiti and is here in Buenos Aires studying and working.  We had a really good chat/lesson with him and he came to church on Sunday.  He´s a very calm super nice guy and we´re excited for our next visit with him this afternoon!

We are also working with Jose Navarro.  He´s 24, from Colombia, and is here studying and living with 2 of his friends.  He wants to serve a mission and go to the temple along with many other big goals.  We´re helping him to do the little things that he needs to do, such as reading the scriptures, going to church, paying tithing, in order to achieve his big goals.  He has such a big desire and he´s so dang busy!  Everyone is so dang busy here!  But we can see him doing great things.  But by small and simple things do great things come to pass.

Also, we have the Familia Miño.  They usually come the first hour of church and then leave because the son who has the car doesn't want to stay.  We've been working with them and especially their other son, Freddie.  He is such a goofy guy.  He is so animated always having something to say and it´s never boring when he´s around.  We were meeting with their family and we were talking about doing the good things and he was like "Well I'm not a bad  person.  I don´t going around doing bad things."  Then he looked at me and said "What do you think?"  SO I said, "NO, you´re not a bad person, but we can always do better.  For example, before my mission I didn't read my scriptures EVERY day."  Everyone gasped - It was really funny!  I continued, "But now that I'm reading every day I've seen all the blessings it´s bringing into my life and realized all of the blessings I missed out on before because I wasn't being exactly obedient.  Heavenly Father blesses us according to our obedience.  Now that I know these things I´m going to read my scriptures every day in order to receive those blessings.  It´s not that you´re doing bad things.  It´s just that there are always better things you can be doing."  He is now coming with us on our visits and he got his family to come to church and stay all 3 hours which was a MIRACLE!  And he really enjoyed himself and he is really going strong and is just a fireball right now!  It´s quite amazing to see.

Friday night the ward had a Christmas activity and it was super great!  The youth decorated the church and it was absolutely beautiful!  Lots of members, less-actives, and non-members were all there together fellowshipping and coming together for the holidays.  They cooked asado, which is argentine barbecue and it´s LA MEJOR (THE BEST)!  Andres and Milagros came and they really enjoyed themselves.  It really brought the ward closer together and I feel like many good things are going to come from that night.  We are working on strengthening our relationships with the members in the ward (a ward is the local congregation) and strengthening the ward so that we can all work together to crecer la obra misional aca en Congreso (to grow the missionary work here in Congreso) and I´m so happy and so excited to be a part of it for at least one more transfer.  Miracles are going to happen, i can feel it.  

Love you all!

Hermana Scarlett

Congreso - Post 4

Hello everyone!

So this is my last week of this transfer! QUE LOCO!  I´ve been here for 5 weeks.  Sometimes I feel like I´ve been here forever and sometimes I feel like I just got here yesterday!  To be honest I really don´t remember much of what happened this week.  We still don´t have any investigators.  It´s frustrating because we are working hard and every day are thinking about what we can do better as missionaries to find those who need this message in their lives.  It´s hard in the city and we realized that we need to strengthen the ward here and help them to have the vision of missionary work in this area because without their help, missionary work here is next to impossible.  So we´ve been visiting with the members and teaching lessons about la obra missional and helping them to remember why this gospel is so important to them and help them to have the desire to share the joy and happiness that this gospel brings and how important it is for everyone to have the chance to hear this gospel. Also, the ward is working on putting together a ward mission plan to help the ward work together to crecer the obra missional aca en congreso (grow the missionary work here in Congresso).  We´re really excited to work better with the members and ward leaders here!  I just hope we stay here another transfer to help continue the growth in the missionary work and work with the ward to bring more souls to Christ.

Hermana Mowry and our
Littlest Christmas Tree

We´re still working with quite a few of the less-active members here and we´ve had some really AWESOME lessons with them-full of the Spirit!  We are working with Andres y Milagros.  They are a brother and sister that got baptized when they were very young and became inactive very quickly because they didn´t really have the support of their family.  Right now he´s 19 and she´s 22. It´s crazy to think I´m the same age as Andres!  We were teaching them the Plan of Salvation and talking about what we need to do in this life.  One of which is keeping the commandments so I mentioned the law of chastity, and he was like what´s that?  SO we set another appointment to teach him the law of chastity.  It´s so crazy that we're the same age but I'm on a mission teaching him about the law of chastity.  It was a really good lesson though, both of them were.   

I got the first 2 boxes on Tuesday from Mom!  Muchas Gracias!  I finished off the bag of white cheddar popcorn yesterday.  I made it last 6 days! haha you should be so proud of me :)  I am doing pretty well rationing out the rest of the edible things you sent me.  Our apartment is now very much christmas-afied and it´s awesome :)  We rearranged our apartment for the 2nd time this week and now it´s super spacious and awesome. 

En realidad (Really) I have no idea what else to tell you all.  I´m doing well and enjoying my time here!  I miss  you all and wish you a very merry christmas season and will see you in about 15 months!  

Lots of Love,

Hermana Allison Scarlett

My first bowl of grits since leaving the states - YUMMY!!!