CHRISTmas

!Feliz Navidad!

Hermana Vawdrey con el Pte Detlefsen y su esposa

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas! My Christmas here in Argentina was a lot different than normal,  yet it was one that I will never forget. I'm sure it will forever be one of my favorites. This Christmas season has been really special for me because I have really reflected on the true meaning of CHRISTmas. Christ! (Alma 7: 7-13, Luke 2) What we really celebrate is that we have a Savior! Sadly, "V" and her kids didn't get baptized on Christmas, but we're not giving up on her yet! You don't need a special day like Christmas to have a baptism, because baptism will make any day special!

This past week we had a lot of fun things going on for the holidays. On Tuesday we had our "Super P-Day" in Bahía Blanca with half of the missionaries from our mission. It was really neat to all be in one place together. In the evening we had a talent show and a devotional with President Detlefsen. It was so good! My district did a musical number to the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". We all got Rudolph noses and played the song with glass bottles. Unfortunately, I didn't get a very good video of it, but it was really really funny. :)

A District of "Rudolphs"

Our rama had an activity this past week to go to rest homes to sing Christmas carols. We had a great turn-out from the branch, and the old people really liked it. There was this cute old man that kept trying to get us to take 2 pesos (worth about 50 cents) because he was so grateful that we came!

The best by far though was getting to talk to FAMILY! It was so great to see every one's faces again on Skype, and I'm so glad that it worked out for me to talk to Brian too.

Skype - one of the greatest Internet inventions!

But now it's back to missionary work, and I love it so much!!

¡Hasta la semana que viene!
-Hermana Vawdrey

Cardboard and Tin Foil

!Feliz Navidad!

Ohh Christmas is in the air, it's great. It turns out that "V" didn't get baptized on Saturday because she didn't feel quite ready. Long story...But! It worked out for the better, because now she and her three kids will all get baptized together on Christmas! We are so excited for them because there is no better gift you can give Christ to celebrate Christmas other than to follow his example and enter into the waters of baptism. :)

Since Vanesa is a single mom, they don't have much. Every time we go to their house I am reminded of how blessed we are. Four of her five kids sleep in one room, and only two of them have beds. The others just have matresses on the floor. Since money is tight they weren't able to get a Christmas tree this year, and since they are being so obedient to prepare for baptism, we decided we wanted to give them a Christmas tree. They have this little pine tree in their back yard, so we looked through our apartment to find things we could turn into ornaments to turn their little tree into a Christmas tree. We cut out shapes out of card board and covered them with tin foil. Hermana Freeman's mom sent her glow in the dark stars in a package recently, so we put string on them to turn them into ornaments too.

The decorations were so simple, yet "V" and her kids were so thrilled to have them. Once we started decorating the tree they really got in to the spirit of Christmas and got some old decorations out from their closet and started decorating all of their bushes and even the light pole in the back yard! It's amazing that all it took to bring the spirit of Christmas was the memory of Christ and some tin foil covered cardboard.

Yo sé que vive mi Señor. Jesucristo es mi Salvador y Redentor.

Suyo,

-Hermana Vawdrey

Eternal Investigator

¡Hola mis buenisimos amigos y familia!

We are really starting to have success in Pigué, it's exciting! It's interesting to see that on the days that we're almost exactly obedient, we almost get nuevos investigadores. The Lord is not kidding when he gives us rules to follow! As a companionship, Hermana Freeman and I are learning a lot. She is so awesome. Especially with having two latina sisters in the apartment, it's interesting to see different approaches and different priorities in missionary work. Yet it never does any good to compare yourself, you simply have to do your best for the Lord and he will bless you for your diligence.

The Cuatro Pigue Hermanas

So we have this investigator who has always been the "eternal" investigator. She wants to get baptized, yet she's living with her boyfriend and he doesn't want to be married. (Argentines are really weird about putting off marriage because divorce is really expensive. To avoid that they just live together for years and years without ever getting married. It doesn't make sense to me. You'd have so much more security knowing that you're married!) A few weeks ago we explained the Law of Chastity to her and told her that it is a requirement for baptism. She understood perfectly, but she wants baptism to be a family thing and told us she'll just wait until her boyfriend is ready to get married. Ughhh! If she only had any idea what she was putting off!

Earlier this week the new hermanas just happened to knock her door and had a lesson with her. And to make a long story short, she now has a fecha for December 25th to be baptized!! Hermana Freeman and I, along with this eternal investigator and the other hermanas, we had a group fast this week to help soften her boyfriend's heart so that he will be willing to get married, so that she can get baptized on the 25th. When we talked to her on Thursday she hadn't told her boyfriend anything yet about how she needed to get married so soon for baptism, yet on his own he'd payed the payment for their engagement rings! We are so excited for her.

"V" y su hija get baptized this Saturday! We are soo excited.

Here are some pictures, with love, from Pigué!

Our Christmas tree!

How do you like our ornaments?

The Four Amigas!

The clouds are SO beautiful here!

Cars are so tiny here!

Hope all is well at home!

-Hermana Vawdrey

The Lord is STILL a God of Miracles

The Lord put me through a whirlwind of learning this week. I had challenges. I had struggles. (Don't we all?) But I saw blessings and I saw miracles. I know that Lord is a God of miracles and they still happen now as they did in old Bible times. Miracles are a response to faith. "They were never wrought without prayer, felt need and faith." (Bible Dictionary -- Miracles) If we have the faith to allow a miracle to occur, and if we reach for the Savior's help, He will reach back, and He will lift and bless us with miracles.

One day this week Hermana Freeman and I were out contacting and were about to head back to our apartment, when we felt like we should knock this little house on the corner. It was about 8:45pm, it was getting dark, and this house had all its windows open and all the lights inside appeared to be on. We knocked--nothing. We knocked again--nothing. At this point I was confused why it seemed so obvious that someone was home and that they wouldn't answer. But for some reason I wasn't ready to give up yet. We knocked again--nothing! As we turned around to head back home, there was this man walking towards us with a huge grin on his face. It turns out that he lives there, and he said that he'd go in and ask his wife if she was interested. The next second she was there and told us to come in. We taught them about the Restoration, and the Spirit was incredibly powerful. They both accepted a baptismal date, and then the wife said the closing prayer! There is something so powerful about those simple, heart-felt first prayers. It's incredible! In it she promised the Lord that they would be baptized! YES! I think I was grinning the whole way home after that. :)

Two more hermanas arrived here in Pigué on Wednesday night. Both Latinas! Hermana Arancibia is from Chile. She goes home in March, so this will most likely be her last area. She is really bubbly and energetic, and surprisingly knows quite a bit of English. Her favorite phrases are: "Let's bounce," "freakin'" haha, and she is always trying to say "Vawdrey" correctly. Hermana Chento is from La Plata, Argentina. It's just a little bit north of our mission boundaries. She was actually called to Mexico on her mission, but is waiting for her Visa. For this reason we have no idea how long she will be here, but we'll keep her! She is awesome! She speaks sooooooooooooooooooooooo stinkin' fast, it's not even funny. However, I am grateful because it's like I have never-ending language study when we're in the apartment! ha

Pigué celebrated its 127th birthday this past weekend. It was basically their 4th of July, you could say. They have a tradition of making un omelette gigante. And by gigante I mean HUGE! They used 15,000 eggs! They had all the shells piled up in a pile...We used the big celebration for missionary work! Lots of people set up stands in this big park to sell stuff. They had a rule that we weren't allowed to teach or proselyte, so we set up a stand and handed out pamphlets. We're hoping that we will be able to have success from those that read them.

The world's largest omelette!

Other random things:

• Hermana Freeman got pooped on by a bird this week when we walked under a tree.

• An investigator farted during a prayer yesterday. hahaha I swear the Spirit was the only thing that kept me from laughing.

• Our rama (branch) has a goal to be a ward either by the end of 2012 or by Enero (January) 2013!! Whoo!

I'm soo sorry, but the USB port doesn't work on this computer so I'm not able to send pictures this week. I'll be sure to get a different computer next week though. I'll be sure to send pictures of the new hermanas, our christmas tree, etc.

Hope you all are doing well!

¡Chow!
-Hermana Vawdrey