I love...

Hello Hello!

Happy Holidays! Ha! How weird is that? Thanksgiving has past, which makes it truly Christmas season. There are Christmas trees all over the place here at the stores in Centro, and I still can't grasp my head around the fact that Christmas really is coming because it's so stinkin' hot outside! But that also makes me happy because that means that in less than I month I get to talk to all of you!

Jordan! I hope you have a super special day this weekend when you get baptized. I am so proud of you! I'll be thinking of you and I hope, like mom said, that you picture Jesus smiling at you when you get baptized. :) By getting baptized you walk into the door that leads to the Celestial Kingdom! After Jesus Christ got baptized Heavenly Father said that he was "well pleased," and I know that Heavenly Father is really proud of you too for following Jesus Christ's example.

Well as you can see from our pictures, even though we were far away from home we still celebrated Thanksgiving. On Thursday we had weekly planning, and we were all able to make some yummy burritos together to celebrate. We even made the traditional placemats by tracing our hands to make turkeys, and we wrote on them the things we are grateful for. I feel like by being a missionary I have really learned what things I am grateful for. The Lord has given me so much and I am so grateful to be able to dedicate myself to Him 24/7 to try to give back a little bit for all that He has given me.

I'm thankful for...

This week we saw many miracles, as usual. We had a Family Home Evening with some recent converts: R and F. We all shared our favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon and I was blown away at how strong their testimonies are for just being members for 7 months. It was so neat to be able to hear them talk about the changes that they have seen in their lives since they have joined in the church. And it's true! The gospel only brings GOOD changes! Sometimes they are hard changes, but they are always good.

With the air of Thanksgiving it made me think about how much I love Argentina. I LOVE Argentina!

• I love these people. 
• I love this language. 
• I love the culture. 
• I love the funny quirks and "backwards social norms." 
• I love the obnoxious business men that get on the buses and say the same thing over and over again for 5 minutes straight to try to convince you to buy something.
• I love the flame throwers that go into the street when the light is red to try to earn some money.
• I love the silly cow bell music Argentines listen to all the time.
• I just love it all.

I love being a missionary. I love the challenge to constantly keep going, to keep the faith, and to trust in the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And I do it because I know it's true! I know this church is true. These truths and the doctrines of Christ are being etched upon my soul. And even though the journey is sometimes difficult, I've never been happier.

Family, friends, abuelitos, etc..... les quiero!

-Hermana Vawdrey

Hermana Squire

Hermana Carson 

Hermana Batista

Mi Distrito 

Thanksgiving burritos!

Las Hermanas en el Dia de Gracia 

First letter!

Hola!

The MTC is so great, I absolutely LOVE it! Right now I have my first P-day...well kinda of a mini-P-day because it's only about two hours long. I am very excited to have a chance to email you though because I can type a lot faster than I can hand write letters. Here I am on only my fourth day, but I have been learning so much. Yesterday was kind of a hard day because my companion, Hermana McWhorter got switched to another district. Since her Spanish is already very good, she skipped a whole level and moved up to advanced. She now is scheduled to leave in two weeks! Her visa will most likely not be done so she will probably get assigned state side. It is very crazy how quickly we bonded in just the two days that we were together. I am expecially grateful that I got along with my first companion so well because not all of my companionships will be like that.

I am now in a trio with the other hermanas in my district. Their names are Hermana Baker (the one I met before the MTC) who is also going to Bahia Blanca, &  Hermana Griffin who is going to Denver Colorado Spanish speaking. Hermana Baker has a very contagious laugh and is quite enjoyable to be around. Hermana Griffin is from Canada so she always says funny things like "beg" instead of bag, or "washroom" instead of "bathroom." We get a pretty big kick out of it.  Our companionship has been great so far. I was worried at first to be in a trio, but it has been good!

Yesterday we taught our first investigator, Jorge, and it had to all be in Spanish! AH! But it actually went really well. I am really proud of us! It was definitely our first time and we have a long ways to go, but we felt the spirit! We said a prayer before and I really think that made all the difference. There were many times when we would ask a question and then we would only understand some of what he said so we wouldn't really know how to respond! Or we'd be speaking en Espanol and we would "hit a wall" because we wouldn't know how to say a certain word. We kinda had to play charades with him to get our point across, but I think he knew what we were trying to say. At one point I was supposed to teach him how to pray and then say a prayer as an example...only I forgot to teach him how to pray other than the fact that I told him to close his eyes! haha My companions & I laughed about that for quite awhile afterward. It's crazy to think that in a few weeks I will be able to truly carry a conversation. I now know how to pray in Spanish and testify in Spanish, and it has only been four days! I can already feel the gift of tongues working in my life. I have made so much progress, it is unreal!

We have a great teacher and a great district. I will be the junior companion for the first half of my stay at the MTC, and then probably senior companion for the next half. There are now three hermanas in our district, and six elders. I think the elders are a little intimidated by us since we are older so we are trying to get to know them better. Life as a missionary is awesome, but it is non-stop. It's funny how much joy we get from the simple things like laying on the ground for a minute at the end of the day, or on P-days when we have longer than five minutes to take a shower.  :)  From all of the studying and workshops I've realized that I am here to learn how to speak Spanish  for my future investigators, not for myself. :)

I'm sorry this is short, but my time is up. Thank you for your letters! Te amo!

-Hermana Vawdrey