WHITEWASH- Getting Lost in the work..... Literally.

Just saying goodbye to good ole Bishop Shopfer:) oink oink 

WELL it happened-- that t word TRANSFERS. Right now I'm sitting in a cyber in Las Flores Argentina, a teeny tiny town thats completely isolated from the rest of human society  haha but it's good to know that the Cyber music is still the same wherever you go- nothin like rockin out to "I'm on the highwayyy to Hell" as I write my spiritual missionary message to mi familia.     Well forgive the late letter, we traveled 3 hours in Taxi today to arrive at our new home and on top of that it took me and mi compañera about 15 walking blocks of asking directions to find this cyber! You may wonder why...This is the cool part about this transfer. 

Saying goodbye to mi familia. 

 It might look like we're crying but we're not

......promise

            So President Thurgood has been making a LOT of changes here in the mission. Today at the transfer meeting there were 86 companionships that had changes. It was HUGE! He is opening new areas and closing others, and one of those big changes is what they are doing to this isolated area of Las Flores. The Elderes have been in this area for over 20 years, without Hermanas and now he is taking the Elderes out of here and putting in us Hermanas. So we are doing what is called a complete Whitewash, where two missionaries jump into an area without knowing ANYTHING and they get started from there. I am so excited! My new compa is la Hermana Cóncenes from Peru and she is a newbie in the mish- just finished training. She is so cute and sweet and we've already had some good laughs together. It's the funnest thing in the world to do this whitewash thing cause neither of us know where anything is or what we're doing. We are completely dependent and guided by the Spirit. I feel so much like Nephi this week in 1 Nefi 4:6 "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing the things which I should do." or at least I think its that in English haha. "Y iba guiado por el Espíritu, sin saber de antemano que tendría que hacer" I am praying a lot more often cause I need the Lord's direction in every moment. I love it because it forces me to depend completely on the Spirit! Shouldn´t it always be like that? :) 

On top of opening up an area with a newbie, we are literally in the middle of nowhere. If you check out the map, Las Flores is completely isolated from the rest of the mish haha. We have to take a days trip to go to District Meetings and a 2 days trip to go to Zone meetings. Like literally we leave the day before and stay the night in another pench in Eseisa to go to the meeting the next day, and then we get back the next night.  It is super chill here. There are more cows than people haha. Our pench is one room in total. And we were happy to find out that the Elderes left in nice and clean and even filled our fridge with food before they left. Do you remember Elder Sandberg from my MTC District? He was here before so he is giving me all the advice.  

 We basically got sent out here with an almost broken cell phone haha and our District leader doesn't have one so..... we're gonna roll with it haha we don't even know where the church is! But we have the area book and a map so we're off to a good start :) 

I can't tell ya how hard it was to leave the people I love so dearly in Gutierrez. Especially saying goodbye to the familia Gonzalez. They played Soy un hijo de Dios as the closing hymn on Sunday and we all cried together. Seban and Aylen always wanted to sing that song. They are so special to me.

I know that changes are for our own good though. I have learned that here in the mish. Every change is coupled with new experiences and blessings. I can't tell you how excited I am for this new project :) I just want to lose myself out here... Not only like in the aspect of directions haha cause I already know that's gonna happen.. Shoot, it already happened today! But I feel like out here in Las Flores I can lose a little bit more of myself, consegrating my whole self to this work, being guided completely by the Spirit and no one else. Heck, it's either the Spirit or asking the cows for help for Pete's sake hahaha but no I am excited to get to know the people too not only the cows :) 

 I love this work so much. I know our Heavenly Father doesn't call us to do something unless we are completely capable of doing it. 1 Nefi 3:7  I know that we must depend on Him always in prayer and speak to Him all day in our hearts. If we do this we will never fail. 

I love you all so much! Go LOBOS! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Flake 

Just chillin with the Argentinan One Direction here. 

My compa just carries around a dead body bag while we proselyte sometimes.....

WE'LL BE BUNKIN IT THIS TRANSFER! I CALL THE TOP! 

New home! Clean Pench! 

Hola Hermana Thurgood! 

I just wanted you to know that not only did these Elderes leave our pench looking fabulously clean, they also filled our fridge with food to start off a great whitewash! We are in good hands! Thank you for everything! My mom told me that you called. That is so sweet of you :) You are in our prayers! 

Hermana Flake 

We made pizza to celebrate our first lunch here! 

Hermana Flake & Hermana Cóncenes

Yeah.... look up the scripture on the bathroom door......You can tell the Elderes were living here last hahaha   ( 14:23 And the scent thereof went forth upon the face of the land, even upon all the face of the land; wherefore the people became troubled by day and by night, because of the scent thereof.)

Hey Distrito hashtag viajealtemple hashtag estadosunidosmasuno hashtag mascasenmcdonalds




Hey Distrito hashtag viajealtemple hashtag estadosunidosmasuno hashtag mascasenmcdonalds I dont know how to do the hashtag on these dang argentine keyboards. 

 Vive Yankees 




Visiting la hermana Bouquillard cause she broke her arm. We made lunch together 

It's been a great one just like all the others! The Familia Gonzalez is so happy. We have felt such a difference in their home since Aylen and Seba's baptism. We have been teaching them how to do a Noche de Hogar and they love it. I think I've said this before but I have never felt so much love for another family here in Argentina. I feel at home with them. Sebastian got confirmed this Sunday and the whole family is being accepted into the ward with a loving welcome and I'm super grateful for that. 

We're just being locas 

This week we finally found ourselves a service project and painted a members door. It felt so good to get dirty in paint haha. 


Her names Vanessa, she needed her door painted... Shes a mormon. 

CAPAS 



LOOK AT THAT CONCENTRATION! 



YOU BOYS MESSED UP MY DOLLAR......AMA! 

We have an investigator right now that basically is teaching herself. Right when we were about to talk to her about the Word of Wisdom she told us "I talked to God and He told me I need to stop smoking before I can be baptised. So I'm quitting this month" It's amazing how the Lord answers our sincere prayers! 

umm mom? I DONT KNOW WHY I'M GETTING FATTER I'M NOT EATING HARDLY ANYTHING! said no one ever in the mission Buenos Aires South. 

hashtag iloveneukies 

We celebrated the Bishops birthday this Sunday with a little ward party. I think he invited the entire town. He is so friendly. 

We love being awk. 

I went to Quilmes this week for an intercambio and we had a lesson with a past investigator that told us she really knows she's going to be Mormon some day, but just not right now. We testified of the Book of Mormon. It's amazing to me how when the Spirit testifies, it can literally not be denied. She told us she knew it was true, but didn't want to change. I have realized here on the mission the divine role and mission of the Holy Ghost. Every day I am recieving answers and inspiration from him. We truly can have spiritual experiences EVERY DAY. (Nacho voice) 

Chillin with parrots.... They talk but not in English 

I love you all so much! I really dont want to get transfered haha I'm nervous for Friday. This place is my home! 

Elder Nord - He gone.

escritorio



La Cocina



El Bano

dormitorio



The Zone

 

ITS A MONDAY (Olan Rodgers voice)

Here I am sitting in Argentina Cyber. There's 90's music playing in the background, I can hear buses passing. I smell burning weeds and there is an old dog sleeping at my feet.

I am so happy here. 

 

This week was one of the happiest I've had because it was filled with so many beautiful events. We woke up early thursday morning at like 5 30 to take the two hour bus road trip to arrive a short walking distance from the beautiful Buenos Aires Argentina temple. I have never been so excited to see one in all my life. I have been SO blessed all my life to have one so close to me! The Spirit's the same wherever you go around the world. The feeling's the same. I felt such an overwhelming love there that day and I am newly renovated to dedicate my whole being to this beautiful work. 

We decided to celebrate and do the whole temple- Mickey D's deal afterwards and our District had so much fun! We are all Yankees (northamericans) and so we enjoyed comparing the Mickey D's here to the states. It's basically the same, only they have 4 menu options, there was a hair in my mcdouble, there was a dead fly on my companions tray, her bacon wrap was baconless, and my mcflurry had cremeless oreos hahaha. No big deal! It was still really good! We were laughing so hard cause one of the Elders said "These mcnuggets are NOT the same, they taste super weird!" and I said "Thats because here they probably actually use chicken" haha. It was a good experience. 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday two of God's precious children entered into the waters of baptism and I was so happy to be able to be a part of it. Sebastian and Aylen got baptised just after church yesterday and everything was so beautiful. I loved seeing the entire Familia Gonzalez sitting together in the same row at church, taking the Sacrament. Their mother, Celeste, gave the opening prayer and cried in gratitud for her childrens decision to follow Christ. Hna Ostler and I sang "I like to look for rainbows" one of my favorites! There was such a strong spirit there from the very beginning.

 

 I felt so happy, they were so happy, and I knew most of all that our Father in Heaven was happy. He was rejoicing. I love Doctrine and Covenants 18 and totally felt the truth of it this week- How great shall be our joy with them in the Kingdom of our Father! After the baptism we all walked to their house and ate pizza and cake, and shared testimonies. It was just a happy day all in all. I've never felt so much love for a familia that wasn't my own. 

Okay we turned on the font water without having the keys to the other door so we had to Tarzan it over the water haha! BLONDES!

 

 

 

This Pday was so fun. We had a huge activity with football bball soccer volleyball, bobbing apples, flag football, water balloon fight, flour game and more soccer. It was super fun. Workin hard playin hard! 

 

 

Love you all so much. I know this is the Church of Jesus Christ. I know He lives. I know that more and more every day. 

Con amor, 

Hermana Flake 

Do Chickens Have Large Talons?

 

"Do the chickens have large talons?" I wanted to ask him that so bad but I didn't know the word for talons. haha!

We found this yummy critter underneath our water filter haha..... We put him in a bottle and let him suffer for a week. We were gonna let him go down the Coca Cola river (We live right next to the Coca Cola factory) but we didnt have time. Maybe we'll give him a proper burial this week.

It was a good week like most of them out here are. We practiced our baptismal interview questions with Sebastian and Aylen in game form and it was super fun. Haha I loved hearing their testimonies as we asked them "who is Jesus Christ?" or "What did Joseph Smith do?"  before they had to jump to the next square. But my favorite moment of the week was when they had their real interviews by Obispo Shopfer. We honestly have the best Bishop ever. He is so kind, loving and welcoming to every person and he just makes them feel so important. He's the kind of Bishop I want ALL my investigators to meet! Cause once they meet him they're like sold! Haha he let us sit in in his office before the interview with little 8 year old Aylen for a little and talk together. I'll never forget that feeling, seeing little timid Aylen tell the Bishop that she wants to be baptised so she can follow the example of Jesus Christ.And then after the interview with a big smile on her face after the Bishop gave her a brand new hymn book and a candy. She was so happy. And Sebastian too. Their mom Celeste was so happy she cried when we all sat down in the church to sing together a couple hymns from Aylens brand new hymn book. The Bishop joined us and made us all laugh when he started to sing a solo with his half tone deaf voice haha. Their baptism will be next Sunday right after church. We decided to move it cause their dad wants to be there. I can't even explain how happy I am for them. I feel like they are my own family. And even though only Seba and Aylen are getting baptized right now, I know and hope one day they will be a family sealed in the temple because that is what the mom is striving for. I am so happy for them!!!!! 



Argentina skiessssss

We are finding new people to teach every week. On thursday we were looking for a refferral named Elizabeth but we couldn't find her house anywhere. We were asking all the neighbors, and they pointed us to another house and said there's an Elizabeth that lives there but shes just a young girl (we were looking for a mom). So we clapped on their house anyway and found a humble Familia Lopez. They invited US to come in and teach them in that very moment. They don't know much about the bible but believe everything that we taught them and are excited to read el Libro de Mormon. And then we also found another girl named Glesia who has been looking for the missionaries and wanted to read el Libro de Mormon again, and we found her cause I was hungry and wanted to buy an Alfajor at her Kiosco haha. It just shows that God knows what he's doing. 

My compa was really sick this week and we were stuck in the pench for a couple days without work. One day the water completely went out and we couldn´t leave cause she was bedsick. Very often here in the summer water can just cut out and one can be without it for who knows how long, and you always need to have backup cause it is dangerous in this blistering heat. Well we didnt really plan ahead and had almost no water . . .We didnt know what to do haha so we said a prayer and the next day we had it again. The Lords looking out for us. 

This week I'm trying real hard to learn how the Spirit works. Elder Henry B Eyering says that it really is possible to have the Spirit with you every day, every hour, even though sometimes it doesnt seem like it. I am striving to feel its guidance every day. At the end of the day I ask myseld "Have I felt the Spirit's influence today?" I invite you all to try it! The Holy Ghost wants to direct you every day and is waiting for you to just take a moment to ask, and then listen. I know God answers. 

I'M SO EXCITED TO GO THE THE TEMPLE THIS THURSDAYYYYYY!!!!! 

I just had to get that out. Its been six months without it and it will be almost a year afterwards.. Only the Spirit filled, busy mission can fill the gap I feel without going for so long. 

Funny moment of the week: Clapping in the door of the Familia Fernandez (remember them? the familia that was with us during skype?) and finding giant Hno Fernandez mowing the lawn in his little boxer underwear. These Argentinans have NO shame.