There is always a way

Wow. What a week. I don't know where to start. We honestly had the lowest lows and the highest highs. I learned so much, and my testimony and my desire to work harder is so much stronger! That's life though, right?

First of all, things are unfortunately a little rocky with all of our investigators right now. Hermana Orton and I were getting a little discouraged at one point because of how hard we are working and how little of a reward/success we are seeing. We know logically that every bit of missionary work is important even if you don't immediately see results...but sometimes it's hard to really remember that. Satan is so good at making us feel discouraged, it's not even funny.

One of our ward missionaries had a day like this too this week, and we learned a lot with him. I was reviewing lesson two one day--the Plan of Salvation so that I could be ready to teach it to one of our investigators, and I re-learned something really important. When we came to the earth we passed through the veil, which means we forgot a lot of things about our pre-earth life. We lost a lot of our perspective, and we are now here to learn again what the purpose of life is. But what helped me so much is that Satan didn't have to pass through the veil. That's why he's so good at making us feel discouraged sometimes, because he knows just what to do, and just what thoughts to put into our mind so that we feel inadequate. Yet! The gospel is a gospel of hope because the Lord sent us to Earth to have success! The Lord called me to the Bahía Blanca mission to have success! The Lord gave all of you the challenges and trials that you have because he believes in you and your strengths, and knows that you will have success! I love it. With the gospel there is always a way.

Our ward mission leader gave both Hermana Orton and I a blessing this week. It was really neat to hear in Castellano what my Heavenly Father specifically wanted me to hear in that exact moment. I know he knows me personally, better than I know myself! He knows where I am, what my questions and concerns are, he hears my prayers, and he blesses me every day! All I have to do is look for the little blessings!

One of the recent converts in our ward got really sick this week. In all honestly, I'm not really sure what exactly happened, but she had to go to the hospital for some heart condition, and then the rest of the week she has been home pretty much on bed rest. She and her husband are some of the humblest people I have met. They live in what the call here: ¨the Villa." It's an area of old train tracks where the more poor people scramble anything they can find to try to build a house. Their home is so simple. (It'd probably fit in our garage...with room to spare!) They have dirt floors, a door that stays shut only when tied with rope, a hose for their kitchen sink, a tiny little table, and random little odds and ends that they have probably found in abandoned houses or in the street. Yet they have both the picture of Christ and a picture of the temple that the missionaries gave them when they were baptized. :) It's amazing how strong the spirit is in their home. We went by to visit G a couple times, and I am humbled every time to see how much more "rich" they are now that they have the gospel. All the little material worldly things really don't matter!

Thank you everyone for your support! I hope you're all doing well!
-Hermana Vawdrey

After eating our Valentine's ring pops! :)

Mire, we found a restaurant called La Restauración! We HAD to take a picture.

The famous calendar

The beach!

The famous spot on the pier! Mar del Plata!

The beach!

The famous lobo statues

Mi compa y yo

One of our ward missionaries

 

A yummy pizza we ate with our ward missionary

A view from our roof

Another view from our roof

Barrio Puerto es buenísimo!

It's been an eventful week! In ways that we hadn't planned...but it was good! I'm probably going to say this every week, but I am so glad and excited to be companions with Hermana Orton. She is great. This week she celebrated her one year mark in her mission! We celebrated with Oreos and peanut butter--her all time favorite foods. I think she's got me hooked.

Happy birthday, Hna Orton!

Oreos and Peanut Butter. Mmm!

We've been teaching this cute little boy lately. He's eight, and is the cutest thing ever. His parents aren't members and really don't want to have anything to do with the church, but they live in an apartment behind his grandma's house, who is a member...so that's how we got the reference to start teaching him. He has already been to church several times, so when we had our first lesson with him he was practically teaching us! So awesome! We got to the part about Joseph Smith, and he was like "Yeah, I already know about him. He was a prophet!" haha And then we started talking about the Book of Mormon, and he was like "Yeah, I know. El Libro de Mormón es verdadero!" He's practically teaching us! It's awesome! We're just praying that his parents will still let him keep preparing himself for baptism.

The ward missionaries have been helping us a lot, and it's great! They come with us to lessons almost every day, and it is so fun to see them bear their testimony and get a love for missionary work. Our ward missionary leader is dynamite too. Barrio Puerto es buenísimo!

Barrio Puerto ward missionaries

This week was interesting because we didn't necessarily find very many new investigators like we had planned...but we found several recent converts that seemed to have "dropped off the face of the earth!" There were three of them that no one has able to find for months, yet we were able to find all of them this week! It was interesting to see everything fall into place because at first we were a little discouraged that we were putting too much thought and effort into following the Spirit to plan where we needed to be to find new investigators...but really the Lord had something different in mind for us this week. He needed us to help strengthen His other children right now. It was humbling to see that even though we weren't finding new investigators, we were still where we needed to be, at the right time, so that we could help the Lord with His work. :)

On Friday we had an esfuerzo in our area. This is where our District Leader and our Zone Leaders came to our area for a few hours to help us find new investigators. They weren't able to find new investigators like we had originally planned, yet it was a little comforting that it's not just us that have trouble finding nuevos! But we're all learning together that all missionary work is important to the Lord. This area is where I specifically need to be right now and I have experiences that remind me of this each and every day. :)

Amigos, la iglesia es verdadero! No tengo ninguna duda que la iglesia es la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días. ¡Él vive, y va a venir otra vez!

Su Misionerita,
-Hermana Vawdrey

We wake up to a sunrise like this every morning. :) HERMOSO!! 

This morning!!

20 minutes later. haha

We got our Valentine's day package! Thanks!

You know you're a sister missionary when you have weird tan lines
on your feet... (These are after they have faded for 2 months too!)

New mission president announced!

Here's a letter Brittni's current mission president sent out to the missionaries of the Bahia Blanca mission.

Queridos Élderes y Hermanas de la Gran Misión Bahia Blanca:

Es grato para mí anunciarles quien será su nuevo Presidente de Misión, ahora es momento de que mantengamos la visión en bautizar cada semana para recibirle de la mejor manera. Preparémonos espiritualmente y sigamos trabajando con diligencia en esta gran obra.

Manuel Parreño, 53, fue llamado para presidir la Misión Argentina Bahía Blanca. Está casado con María Magdalena Piñol de Parreño. Asisten al Barrio Elche 1 de la Estaca España Elche. El hermano Parreño es 1° Consejero del Obispado, también sirvió como Presidente de Estaca y Distrito, consejero de la Misión Barcelona España, presidente de rama, y fue misionero de la Misión Barcelona España. Trabaja para el Sistema Educativo de la Iglesia como Coordinador. Nació en Elche, España.

La Hermana Parreño ha servido recientemente como Maestra de la Escuela dominical, misionera de barrio, consejera en la Presidencia de Mujeres Jóvenes de Estaca y como maestra de seminario. Nació en Elche, España.

Con amor en Cristo.
Presidente Jorge Detlefsen

And now in English (this is Brittni's dad testing out his rusty Spanish skills)...

Dear Elders and Sisters of the Great Bahía Blanca Mission:

It's exciting to announce who will be your new Mission President, and now is the time where we maintain the vision and baptize each week so that we receive him the best way we can. Let's prepare ourselves spiritually and continue to work diligently in this great work.

Manuel Parreño, 53, was called to preside over the Argentina Bahía Blanca Mission. He is married to María Magdalena Piñol de Parreño. They attend the Elche 1st Ward in the Elche Spain Stake. Brother Parreño is the First Counselor in the bishopric, and has also served as Stake and District President, counselor in the Spain Barcelona Mission, Branch President, and served as a missionary in the Spain Barcelona Mission. He works for the Educational System of the Church as a Coordinator. He was born in Elche, Spain.

Sister Parreño has served most recently as a Sunday School Teacher, Ward Missionary, counselor in the Stake Young Womens Presidency, and as a Seminary teacher. She was born in Elche, Spain.

With love in Christ.
President Jorge Detlefsen

Pictures will be posted as they become available.

The best kept secret of the Church

Hello Hello!

I'm trying to get used to living in a city again. I've gotta tell you...it's still very strange to come from a little pueblito to go to una ciudad gigante. Here in Mar del Plata there are paved streets! Street lights! People out during the siesta! Weird! haha But I am enjoying it. I really feel like this is where the Lord wants me to be right now, and there is nothing more reassuring than that. On top of that, I'm loving the change.

Yesterday I seriously felt like I was in a dream! The ward here is so strong, and the members are great. They are very friendly, and we have lunches with members pretty much every day except for P-day. Whoot! What I am most excited about, however, are the ward missionaries. We have about five of them, all of which are youth who are preparing to go on missions. It's awesome to see their excitement. We are going to start having a "companionship study" with them each week and practice teaching the lessons. Then we are going to start going out on divisions with them and allow them to help find and teach  investigators! These kids have such powerful testimonies. I am so excited to work with them.

Las Hermanas con Ward Missionaries

The young women in the ward had their New Beginnings program this week that we got to help out a little bit. From what I understood, they had the theme of how modesty never goes out of fashion. All of the Laurels got all dressed up in old wedding dresses and had a little modesty fashion show. The Priests and Teachers got all dressed up and escorted them around. So cute.

Missionary work is going well! We've been able to set several baptismal dates and there seems to be a lot of potential in this area. My Castellano is really coming along! I don't stutter as much (ha thank goodness) and I daily surprise myself with what I can say with the help of the Holy Ghost! I'm realizing more and more every day that a mission is the best kept secret of the church. You learn so much, you grow so much, and you get to help and serve your brothers and sisters all day, every day!

I love you all,

-Hermana Vawdrey

!Mar del Plata--Barrio PUERTO!

!Hola Hola!

Big news! I got transferred!! I am now in Mar del Plata--Barrio Puerto. It's a big city, so it's quite the change from where I was in little Pigüé. But I can't tell you how excited I am to be here! Everyone says this is "the ward" (yes WARD...not branch) to be in because it is so strong. Our area is huge. There is a lot of missionary support, so we get invited to lunches a lot. :) And I hear that there are so many members that it is to the point where they need to split the ward soon! I arrived here just last night after a really long 8-hour bus ride...alone. The zone leaders and my companion were in the terminal to pick me up luckily, so it wasn't scary.

My companion's name is Hermana Corinne Orton, from Provo Utah! She is full of energy and lots of ánimo por la obra misional. We haven't even been together for more that 24 hours yet...but I really think we're going to get along great. She seems to be a hard worker, very organized, diligent, and has a great love for our brothers and sisters here in Argentina.

Hermanas Orton y Vawdrey en Mar del Pata (Barrio Puerto)

Since I am now on the other half of the mission, I have a chance to serve with many of the missionaries that I haven't met yet. I met my district leader and zone leaders yesterday and was impressed by their support and ánimo to have me here in Puerto.

Right after Internet time we've got a cita with some conversos recientes. I'm excited to get to know the area! It's currently pouring rain, and it's very humid. Yes, I am wearing my rain boots!

Ohh, other random things:

• You can see the ocean from our apartment window.

• Mar del Plata is very famous for its strong-and-extremely-stinky smell of fish and lobos (seas lions). Lovely. My comp said I'll get used to it after a few weeks... :s

• Hermana Freeman will "die" in Pigüé. She will be companions with Hermana McWhorter (my comp in the MTC!)

I have now been on my mission for 6 months! I honestly CANNOT believe it. It went by so fast. It's kinda scary because now I only have a year left...which is a long time and a short time all at once, but I am so grateful for the opportunity to dedicate another year of my life to the Lord!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines day and that you are all doing well!

Mucho amor!
-Hermana Vawdrey

Sorry, I don't have much time today so I'll attach a bunch of pictures!

Hermana Chento finally got her Visa! She left for Mexico on Jueves.

A true Argentine Gaucho (and a recent convert!)

Hermana Freeman y yo

El Campo en Pigue

A member from la rama en Pigue gave me this skirt!

Hermana Patricia (gave me the skirt and shirt on my last Sunday in Pigue)

Pigue branch members

This sweet couple faithfully had the missionaries over for lunch every week!

Una familia bien querida

Nuestro distrito: Elder Vazquez (Lider de Distrito) y
Elder Marambio (now serving in Mar del Plata as well)

Hermana Arancibia y yo

Our apartment building in Pigue
(Our apartment is the one with the window shades up)

Pigue!

Mi companera from our apartment balcony

Right before boarding the bus for Mar del Plata
(the drivers wanted to be in the picture!)

En el colectivo en camino por Mar del Plata!

Opposition in ALL Things

Familia y amigos,

Update: All of our investigators "died" this week. Either they moved, decided they weren't interested, disappeared, avoided us, or are on vacation. Pigüé has been hard because this happens almost every week. Yet, we're really learning the importance of hard work and dedication. When we give the Lord our heart He always blesses us, and even on those days when we don't have "success," we still feel of His love and we know that our desires to do our best is real success to Him.

Lately I've studied agency a lot since we have had a lot of our investigators choose to not progress. It's heartbreaking to invest so much into them, and then see them throw it all away. I'm learning how the Lord must feel when I choose to do something when I know better! Yet this is part of the Lord's plan for His children--an opposition in all things! If there wasn't an opposite to everything, we wouldn't know what true joy was! With the gospel and with this knowledge that everything has a purpose, we learn that:

"Weaknesses become strengths,
challenges become opportunities,
trials become temptations,
and adversity becomes an adventure
in the service of the Lord." 

(M. Russell Ballard, Our Search for Happiness, pg. 104)

On Friday we decided to go out to Puan (a little pueblo outside of Pigüé, that is part of our area). There actually used to be a ward out there a few years ago, but after several families moved, the ward was combined with the branch in Pigüé. It was fun to be in a different place and we enjoyed getting to know it a little bit better. It brought back lots of memories of our first few weeks here in Pigüé because we had to take the time to get a new map, get to know the members, and really start from scratch to see where to start to help the pueblo grow in the gospel again. We're looking forward to the next time we get to go out to Puan.

Next week is transfers!! Hermana Chento got her Visa and will be leaving for Mexico on Thursday! There is also talk that I could be going to another area, but we'll have to see. We find out Friday. :) I'm hoping for a change, but we'll see what the Lord has in store for me in just a few days!

Las Hermanas de Pigüé!

Celebrating Hermana Chento's birthday with ice cream

Our bulletin board

Hope all is well on the home front!
-Hermana Vawdrey

Nothing is too insignificant for the Lord to heal

Familia y Amigos,

One day this week we had another day where everything was falling through, and no one was home when they said they would be. Yet we are learning that a lot of times that just is proof that those people aren't really ready for the gospel yet, and we then have an opportunity to find someone else that is! With that attitude we just kept going and eventually we saw this guy smoking outside of his house, and decided to go talk to him. As we got closer we saw tons of old beer bottles and old cigarettes, and we wondered if he was drunk. Yet, we introduced ourselves anyway and ended up having a really powerful lesson. It turns out he lives with his brother, his cousin, and two other guys--who all work for the same construction company. They grew up going to an Evangelico church and had a good basic testimony. It was really fun to teach to their needs. We challenged them to read part of el Libro de Mormón to find out the truth for themselves. They committed to do it, and seemed sincerely hopeful to make a change in their lives. We're hoping that they will stay willing to learn more and to change their lives for the better. :)

Unfortunately on Thursday I woke up and my ankle was sore. By lunch it was getting swollen, and by night I could hardly walk on it! The swelling kept getting worse and worse and it was all discolored. Sadly I don't even have a good story because I don't even know what happened! I don't remember twisting my ankle or falling or anything. Maybe it just happened over time after walking so much? Eventually we went to the doctor to get an opinion of how to treat it and he said to rest for three days. 3 days??? Are you kidding me! I wanna work! But to make a long story short, I've been taking it easy for the past few days, got a Priesthood blessing yesterday, and today when I woke up the pain and the swelling was gone! I keep waiting for the pain to come back but it seems to be gone! It's a miracle! I have truly felt the power of the Priesthood and the power of prayer and fasting over the past few days. As a servant of the Lord I know I have work to do, and the Lord has helped my body heal so that I can keep going!

Hope all is well!
-Hermana Vawdrey

How to build the "boat"

¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?

Besides the fact that we were fed cow tongue for lunch this past week...it was a good one! (And the cow tongue really was not that bad...just the fact that I could see the taste buds? Not okay. :s)

Cow tongue

Instead of district meeting this past week, we had interviews with Presidente Detlefsen. The meeting before the interviews went really long so the interviews ended up being quick. Yet it was great to see our Mission President! He taught us a lot, but focused mostly on 1 Nephi chapter 17 where the Lord commands Nephi to build a boat. The catch was that Nephi was told to build it "after a manner which He (the Lord) would show unto him," not after the manner of man. For this, Nephi had to go to the Lord in prayer many times to be able to find out where to go to find the tools and how to do each step. Presidente related it to us as missionaries that we are trying to build the Lord's boat too! His church! We have to rely on Him to tell us where to go to find the "tools" (investigators) and then we have to rely on Him to learn how to use them or teach them so that we can build this boat. It was such a great analogy, I loved it! All of us are building our own kind of "boat," and if we rely on Him for the help, we'll be able to successfully build it after the manner of God.

We did divisions this week too between the hermanas here in Pigüé. I went on divisions with Hermana Arancibia, and we had a really successful day! It was fun again to see different work ethics, different contacting approaches, and to see her great eagerness to share the gospel with everyone! She's a great missionary. Since I'm used to being the junior companion, she had me be the senior companion for the day and choose where we would go. At one point I decided to go by a house that caught my eye a few days previous. When we walked up there was a man out standing by his fence. We introduced ourselves and chatted for a minute. We then asked him (Ernesto) why he was outside, like if he was waiting for someone or something? He replied and said, "No, I just felt like I needed to go outside for something!" It was such a powerful moment, it was so cool! I know it was the Holy Ghost that was preparing him to listen to our message. We were able to teach him the first lesson, and he committed to baptism! Whoo!

We're still struggling to get investigators to go to church, but we are finding a lot more new investigators lately! Things are improving paso a paso. :) Hope you all are doing well!

-Hermana Vawdrey

What can we do better?

Familia y Amigos,

We talked to a lot of people this week who have had a lot of tough trials in their lives. It really made me reflect how lucky I am to have the gospel in my life--and to have been born into a family that is active in the church!! It's hard to see so many people struggling to keep going, but it's incredibly humbling to see them allow the gospel to give them what they can't provide for themselves.

Our investigator Y unfortunately didn't go to church yesterday, yet she is making so much progress with her smoking addiction. She used to smoke at least three packs a day! Last time we saw her it had been more than 24 hours and she still hadn't finished a pack! At the moment she's scared to keep going because she's afraid that life is going to get hard again...so we're working with her to help her strengthen her faith and trust in the Lord.

This past week we taught more lessons than we ever have! Now we need to keep on working really hard to make sure that our investigators keep progressing. Our new district leader has been really good for us. He has a really aggressive way of teaching and leading, yet I am starting to see why the Lord assigned him as my district leader now rather than later. Each night we call him to check in and tell how the day went, pass on dats, etc. Every night he asks:

"So what can you do better?" 

We respond with something, and then he asks:

"And then what can you do better?" 

We then respond to that, and then he asks:

"And how can you do that better?"

Sometimes it's really painful. haha But that's my question for you! What can you do better? And how can you do that better? The only way to improve and learn is to ask ourselves that question: What can we do better?

I know the Lord micro-manages all of the details in our lives. If we take the time to see what He has done for us, and what He has given us, it makes it that much easier to ask ourselves how we can be better for the Lord.

¡Yo sé que El Señor nos ama más que podemos imaginar!

-Hermana Vawdrey

Just keep going!

Familia y Amigos,

Lately Hermana Freeman and I have been working really hard, but haven't had a ton of success. This passed week we decided to work on being more grateful. We did this so that we can at least notice the little things that are going right...among the big things that are going wrong. I have learned SO much! We have recognized many little blessings and tender mercies, and by doing so we have recieved even more.

Earlier this week on Thursday, we had four citas (appointments) in the morning. We were so excited! All of them were on pretty much completely different sides of town, but we didn't care! We were still thrilled to have such a promising morning! But then,

every

single

cita

fell

through.

Every one! We were crushed! Why couldn't the Lord bless us with just one appointment when we had been so diligent and so obedient? I don't know. But the spirit helped me learn an important lesson when I was reading in the Book of Mormon later on that day. I read in Alma 21, which is about Alma the younger, the sons of Mosiah, and the missions that they served. Chapter 21 is mostly about Aaron, and I learned so much from his example. He went alone to teach the gospel to this group of people who was really wicked. He was rejected, mocked, and later cast into prison. But I noticed one re-occurring thing throughout all of his trials and troubles as a missionary. He kept going! He always kept going, and eventually the Lord blessed the people and there was much success. :) I don't know how far out that day is for me, but until then I just gotta keep going!

Since then things have improved. We have an investigator that is PROGRESSING! Finally! I can't tell you how happy and grateful I am. It's a neat story how we found her too. One morning we were out working and we saw this cute little girl with crazy curly hair, sitting out on the front porch step. I thought maybe she was in time-out or something. We asked her if her mom was home and she mumbled something that we couldn't understand. We then kept on walking, but right when we were about to turn the corner she yelled "¡Chicas! ¡Chicas!" and motioned for us to come back. We did, and her mom let us right in!

Her name is "Y". She has three daughters: 5, 3 (the one that was on the step), and 1. She is a single mom and has been through a lot. She came to church yesterday, and I know that was only the Lord's doing. There is no way that we could have gotten her there by ourselves! The youngest had cried all night long, so she hadn't slept at all. Yet when we went to pick her up she was still willing to go to church and got ready in 10 minutes! With three little girls! That's a miracle right there. She later told us that she has never let in any other missionaries before. Jehovah's Witnesses come by a lot, but she said she will only talk to them outside. She said, "I don't know why I let you in, I don't know why I went to church, because that's so unlike me!" Yet we know why. It's the spirit! It's really fun to see it working in her. She accepted a baptismal date, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to teach her more about the gospel and the love of her Heavenly Father.

Hope all is well at home!

¡Chow! ¡Chow!

-Hermana Vawdrey