"eat, sleep, preach, repeat" (July 28, 2014)

about to go out in the coldddddd

so as the life of a missionary. haha well hmm where to start. so this week was just a little weird. im still getting used to this new area and the people but its good i love it here. the people are more receptive than those in sunchales but they are still very stubborn and not willing to do any commitments. its frustrating because we pray about every commitment and we know that what we ask people to do is what god whats for them. but hey everyone has their agency haha. that is one thing ive learned alot is that as a missionary i need to turn to the lord with everything and for everything. i am his servant and i really want to make sure that what i say and do is what he wants and asks of me to do. 

eating with the other hmas in esperanza at a members house

sooooo hmm. tuesday after district meeting (we only have to travel 1 hr to dis meeting instead of 2) hma wilde, a sister from the other companionship in esperanza,  and i went to rosario for tramites. we got there in safety not missing any busses and going where we were supposed to and all haha and we slept in the lovely mission home! it was lovely. in the morning we went to take care of our bizzznezzzz and all was well. i didnt need anyone to communicate to the people for me cause now i pretty much can understand todo of what the people are saying which is very helpful all thanks to the spirit. also they understand me which is a great blessing too haha. hmm so we got back and got back to our own comps and hma carlson and i just visited more people and taught a few lessons and tried to commit people to anything but as is the work here about 1 in 100 people do their commitments! hahahahahahaha ya. well i got a really bad headache again on thursday and got dizzy and in the morning i couldnt get out of bed so we couldnt work but in the evening we had a comp study with the zone leaders, i threw up, but we had appts. it took alot of energy but i knew we had to go out. we ended up teaching 2 really awesome lessons and we both feel they will progress. their names are mariana and gisela if you want to pray for them that would help mucho!! haha hmm what else. so i told president zanni about my transfer story in the email haha and last night he called us and asked all about it, he made it sound like he was going to get the zone leaders in trouble but he was just joking hahaha he was very grateful i made it haha and he sent me some money for reembolsos! what a good guy. haha we all lovveeeee this new president! he lets us take out the phone now so we can communicate and be more effective with the members. and he changed a few key indicators to make the work smoother less stressful and effective. he really is inspired and im so excited to see the fruits of these changes. well nothing much else happened this week but im continuing to be humbled every day and trust in the lord more and more. i want to end every day saying i gave my best and there isnt one way i couldve worked harder! also 

sunset

HAPPYYY BBIIRRTTHHHDDDAAYYYY MMOOOMMMMYYYYY i didnt forget! i was going to wish you it last week but i ran out of time. i felt awful and i hope you felt that i was thinking about you and sending my love telekinetically...(sp?) pues, i love you and i hope all you dreams come true!!

so funny stories.................................... we got chased by dogs on our bikes this week and i stumbled and almost fell in to the mud but thankfully the owner came out and yelled at them to leave...woohoo

spiritual! so yesterday we fasted to try to get more ideas on how to improve this area. well i was really tired during studies and to stop falling asleep i decided to find like, "liken the scripture" passages, and i drew pictures and everything. so! here we go. 

1 nephi 18:2. here we read how nephi, after he built his ship he is telling us that "he did build it after the manner which the lord had shown unto him" i paused and thought..."what ships do we build in our lives" haha claro. some could be our houses, our friendships, our relationships with others..stuff of that sort. we should build our "ships" in the way of the lord. have the gospel be the woodwork, and faith be our sails. and have christ be the wheel to steer the ship wherever he needs it to go. build our ship with strong tools, with charity, love, and diligence, being obedient always. and when we do this, any time a storm comes to tear us down, we will be strong and able to withstand all storms and waves that we encounter!!

hahah well i hope you enjoyed that :)

thats all i got for this week! much love and im grateful for all you! praying for yall everynight! 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

hermana sanders

dad! i love it. i hopè you can fix it and have a proper welcome for al hahahaha crazy to hear someone died though. wear lots of rubber. haha we had a really bad storm here and it was sad seeing all the houses after it, we have a lot of poor eara and its sad. but it makes me so grateful for what we have in the states holy heckl. haha love you and keep up the good work!

mom!!!! crazy story i dont think we have missionaries in that area (San Carlos Centro) yet but i hope i can go still how cool would that be! also thank you for donating the money to my mission fund! im grateful for all the sacrifices you are making for me! tell all the show choir mommys i say hi and i love them! yeah so hma nelson is in a zone nearby me and at a conference we met eachother, she asked where i was from and one thing led to another and bam! hannah trained her! haha the new pres is super cool with that so any music is good<! some people even have pentatonix christmas on it which is awesome!!! and rascal flatts. so idk just uplifting. also you can send cds in letters if you want like, they would be a wonderful little gift hahaha just an idea ;) what a blessing for ally and aaron and tell me what you think about al when he comes. he emailed me and i think hes really cool. it makes me so happy to hear about what a little missionary kaiten is. and the others too. how wonderful!!! also tell her props from me! so excited to get your letter! i sent one to you and dad and hopefully it gets there...well see.


welllll I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

chao <3

cake

a member who wont take a pic haha

my gospel principles board! oh i dont think i told you guys, i am in charge of teaching gospel principles every week, hma carlson teaches Sunday school and the other hermanas teach primary, we have a church building and on this last sunday we had 32 members!! what a blessing it is to have a place to meet in every week. haha

In this last part of the email, Jessica said a few things to me and Jeff. In the "Dad" section Jeff is working on our pool trying fix a couple of things and he told her about the young man that died as a result of the freak lightning strikes at Venice Beach. In the "mom" section, she is referring to some family history that my Aunt Marta told me about after receiving last weeks email. I told her that in this new area (Esperanza) she is close to where her great great grandmother was born(San Carlos Centro). And if she could go there she could go the cemetary and see if she can see there burial sites and possibly fine more family members. She then says "hi" to the show choir moms that ask about her. Then she met a missionary, Sister Neilson, who was companions with her friend Hannah Smith who is serving in Colorado. Sister Neilson was there waiting for her visa to Argentina. Small world! Then I wanted to ask her if this new mission president changed the rules on what music they can listen to before I send her some cds. The blessing she is referring to for Allyson and Aaron is that he got a job in his field while he is attending law school. And yesterday in church, Kaiten Baldwin gave a great talk in church and is sharing the gospel with a lot of her friends.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts prayers on her behalf,

Stacey

"a few tears, and conquering fears" (July 21, 2014)

let me just start out by saying how thankful i am for god and for the spirit. as missionary we really are protected and guided! 

so i left my sunchales. i was able to say bye to the members and especially familia cauda!! oh how i love that family. its so awesome to have a relationship with them all!

and last pic with hermana moberly

familia cauda!

saying bye to memers

and then let me just start with the transfer. we had to leave sunchales at 4:00 in the morning. then i had to catch a another bus in rafaelato connect to esperanza. the zone leaders waited for me and helped me buy the tickets and all. so then i get on the bus to my new area.HAH. well, its an hour ride and after one hour and 15 minutes i was getting  a little worried. come to find out the bus wasnt going to the terminal in esperanza but going straight to the routa...idk("I don't know") what that means but it wasnt where i needed to go. so! the bus driver told me to get off at this random spot with all my stuff, at 6:30 in the morning, with no cell phone. he pointed to the dirrecion where the terminal is and said to turn at a random spot......so there i was left alone in a new area with all my stuff. i had no choice but to start walking and pray for a miracle. not going to lie maybe a few tears came down too. well i was looking for anything that was open and after about 20 minutes, i felt like i needed to go down a random street. so i did. there was a panaderia that was open so i went in and used their phone to call a remis (taxi). it came and got me and took me to the terminal.- which was a 15 minute drive. i even taught a little of the 1 lesson to the driver! gratefully i had some personal money that i could pay him. haha. well we finally got there and i met my new compy. hma carlson. she is great and very calm cool and collected. very different from moberly but she is great. i took a nap and then we studied. 

bikes!!!!

also guess what! this is the only area where we havebikes! hahahaha i dont ridebikes and im terrified of them right? well i knew i had no choice but to face my fear, say a little prayer and i learned how to ride again! i was so shaky at first but after riding in dirt roads, in the rain, in the mud, and with groceries and all, i think you could say im a pro. i literally pray the whole time im on it but i am protected and helped so much it is insane. in both these trials, i learned that really we have to put 100 percent of our trust in god. when we live worthily of his spirit, he will bless us in ways we cant imagine and when we are in a real bind, he will not leave us alone. even though i was really alone i felt his help and i knew i wasnt by myself. how crazy! but yeah i am so thankful for everything this week. so! whats up with esperanza!

we have a branch of about 25 members! we have family home evenings and english classes. the members feed us every thursdayfriday saturday and sunday for lunch! what a blessing. the people here are more prepared i feel and i know we are going to see miracles one way or another. we have to drop alot of investigators this week which will be really fun...not, but i know we will find new ones who will want to listen and grow their faith. hmm what else. the apt is really nice here but i didnt have a blanket ( i got one today) but i still dont have a pillow. but who needs pillows anyway haha. ive had to make a few repairs on the bike to make sure it is safe for me to ride but guess what, no one told me that all the money that is spent on bikes is personal so i cant get reembolsed for it....kind of really makes my annoyed but i didnt know. if i knew i wouldnt have done the repairs. or ridden it...its really not a smart system and imgoing to talk to president about the whole situation. so mom when you see ive taken out money, i took out alot just because it costseverytime i take out money. so yeah. right now money is really tight and i have to take our money to pay for a few trips but im going to talk to the financial guy in the office about it and get my reimbirsements. 

so funny!- it was a rough week but the other hmas in our area came over last night and we all had a sleepover and made brownies and watched legacy! haha and we still got to bed on time! haha

and spiritual- so bike story! my first night riding it we had to go to this one area in the middle of nowhere. i was shakey and really wasnttoo keen on riding a bike yet... we were on dirt roads in the complete dark. besides my companion all i could see were the stars above me and the road for about 20 feet in front of me. it was so dark. well thats like life isnt it! here we are going through life with nothing to guide us. the darkness is limiting and scary. its like we are trapped not being able to see what is in front of us. the lady we were trying to visit wasnt there so we had to turn back. riding back we could see the lights back to the city. and then we got back onto paved roads. when we are in the dark we are humbled and realize we cannot do and go through life without a guide like my comp was for me. and when we are humble we will be helped and delivered and make it back... (mosiah 29:19-20) well this week was an adventure and let me just say how grateful i am for all that has been given me in this past week. by being obedient to all the commandments and rules and living worthy of the spirt, we will be guided and helped thorugh whatever thing is thrown at us. always remember, god never gives us a challenge that we cannot overcome.  :)

and that is that for the week. i love you all much mucho mucho! 

xoxoxo

hermana sanders

saying bye to tati, our friend who worked at the kisko we always went to for chocolate.
she gave me some for free when i said i was leaving 

opening cans the argentine way, with knives 

"Aguante los mormones"-chicos in a car after the game (July 15, 2014)

"Vamos Argentina" World Cup Day Final

so what a week...haha so this monday we had special pday with the zone! we saw a movie called "turbo" about racing snails haha and played futbol. i made about 3 goals and i think i could be a soccor star when i return haha jkjkjk. anyways that night we slept over at the sisters pension in rafaela and in the morning we all went to santa fe to meet the new presidente!! woohoooo!!!! he is only 43 and him and his wife have 7 kids! they are very young and energetic and will be very awesome. they give us 1 and a half hours for emailing!! and guess what....because argentina made finals, they gave us permision to WATCH THE GAME aaaahhhhhhhhhhh. so i got to watch the world cup with the family cauda! it was so fun. but before i get to that, after the trip to santa fe we worked in sunchales wed, and thurs and then we had divisions with the stls ("sister trainer leaders")! i stayed here (in Sunchales) and hermana boren came. we worked and man there were so many miracles! i learned that i know more spanish than i thought and also that when i rely on the spirit, MIRACLES WILL HAPPEN. first we had a lesson with sylvana WITH A MEMEBR the first time since ive been here! and after that we were going to see this other family but i had the feeling we should visit this other girl eliana. we went and had an amazing lesson with her and she really seems like she will start to progress! then after we had the feeling to visit jyt (Jorgelina y Toto). i havent seen them for about 1 month now and for some reason moberly and i felt that we needed to go back we werent sure when.

Divisiones with Hermana Boren

this night i just had the impression that we needed to go so we did. no lesson plan nada. i just told them straight up that the only reason we were in their house again was because their family wants them to be baptized. i said a few other things that i was really prompted to say by the spirit. they were silent and j(Jorgelina) said that earlier that day she had burned all her cigarettes....WHAT A MIRACLE OF TIMING. she wants a blessing to help with the temptacion. so we will see what happens. they are so special and i just hope they get things figured out. but yeah, hermana boren left, hma hohermuth and i were companions while i waited for moberly to return Saturday afternoon. then Sunday we tried to bring people to church but no one was home and yeah. but again it was us, the family of president quintana, and the family cauda! we may have 2 familes but they are solid. i love them so much! but yeah. so! after church we studied and then went to watch the game with the caudas!!!!!!!!! we brought our argentina shirts from the ccm and put them over our skirts! haha they were all wearing their messi jerseys. well we watched the game, ate cake, and cookies and then we lost. after germany scored joel did the catholic cross thingy haha and the youngest bautista was crying, joana was on her phone, felipe slammed the flag pole he was holding on the table and irene just covered her eyes. i got teary eyed and moberly just yelled. so sad but the game ended and they drove us home. the people here were nice and were still festijando! partying haha so thats good. we are sad we didnt get 1st but are very thankful for how far we came. and now im commited to watching the mundial every time! it is so fun!! haha yesterday we had day of cleaning haha every new transfer we clean and then have pday on Tuesday and for transfers we usually find out today but if someone is training they found out last night...so we got the call last night and hma moberly is training again!!!! haha how crazy! but she will do fantastic again! 

Onward ever onward...It's a girl!! (Moberly is Jessica's "mother" because she trained her)

so that means i go and my new area is esperanza! with another american named hermana carlson! want to know something cool? ITS IN THE SAME ZONE hhaha so im still going to have zone meeting with moberly!!!! such a blessing! and i already know carlson and it is going to be an awesome tranfer!! im excited its just annoying having to pack haha so that was my week. a few miracles and blessings and surprises.

funny¨¨ the only thing i got is this. on our way to santa fe, the elders in our district were listening to there ipod. they listened to "sons of provo" and asked us, what does "diddly wack mack mormon daddy" mean. hahaha we just said es una expresion..no sabemos. lol also for work out this morning we danced to efy. best. workout. ever.

My District in Sunchales

spiritual¨¨in between divisions on satuday when hermana boren left and we were waiting for hermana moberly, so hermana hohermuth and i left to visit some menos activos. one was named carmen. she is super tall and buff. shaved head with a bunch of earrings and tattoos of bugs and frogs. haha she has a talking parrot and it was funny hearing it speak in spanish haha but anyways, shes been inactive for 7 years or so and we are just trying to get her back. we are really good friends. so in this visit we read mosiah 4. i love this chapter so much! even though it speaks about alot of things we wanted to focus on repentence and persevering to the end. after we read the chapter i had her read again verses 6 and 7, and 9-12. i love these verses because it is infinitly true. we are 100 percent indebted to god and jesucristo. because of jesus christ we are able to have salvation. but once we do repent and exercise our faith in him we have to endure to the end and continue to repent daily, more than once a day haha but really. it is important to always remember him in our lives, and serve him for all our lives. these are they who get salvation. it has taken me until a little before my mssion to realize that and to always repent sincerely. i know that when we do these things we can walk through life knowing we are clean and with our trust in god and his son, we are able to endure everything.

Carrying the piano to church

james bond

us and the district leader

Gracias por todo Hermana!!

"Finished with training!!!

Killed scorpion with broom

Biggest, fastest scorpion del mundo

My Zone

Sunset

well i love you all ssoooooo much! things are cool here and thank goodness the mundial is over and the real work can start! im done training and i can totally understand everyone and respond. and i am happy. on to esperanza where i hope i can help give more hope to the people there. (esperanza means hope) well, have fun at home and all. i love youzzz

chao y con amor

hermana sanders xoxoxo

cuidense and i love yall

"We are bold, and bold is we, take no from nobody" (July 7, 2014)

this week we made up songs to pop songs but made them missionary. we've done one to justin bieber,"boyfriend" and this subject line is our version of "we cant stop" by miley cyrus. :) were getting really good and will try to do one to "thriftshop" but have the rap be in spanish! wee!!!

so after futbol with the elders on monday we were so sore!!! we could barely walk the next day and hermana mobes was really hurting. we were contacting and this lady told us to come back at 7. we came back to find out that is when she started work...haha. that describes our luck with contacting this week. on saturday everyone was watching the partido and didnt even come to the door. haha yay. well on wednesday moberly and i had a good lesson with an investigator family but right when we left their house we felt sick, we went home, mobes threw up and i had a migraine, and couldnt stand because i was dizzy. this lasted the rest of the day. on thursday we woke up with fevers, hermana hohermuth came over and made us soup! she is literally so wonderful i love her so much! well after that we slept and studied, and felt well enough to go out in the night. we visited with the caudas and had a lesson about the sabbath day with joana. she said she wouldnt be able to make it this sundaybecause of a soccer game, and that felipe wouldnt come because he had work. well sunday came along and guess who was there?? the whole family. they are growing and becoming stronger every week and it is so great to see how strong and true it is that the gospel unites families and brings them closer. 

well on friday we met with a lady we contacted last week.her name is sylvana and turns out she had met with the missionaries for 3 years before they got pulled out 7 years ago. she has gone to baptisms and loves coming to church and now that she has contact with us she will start coming. lets hope she is more prepared now! 

the rest of the week was coldy and rainy and sad haha we were sick and all, but on saturday night we were about to go home early cuz of sicknes but we decided to visit this one lady ivana and invite her to church. we go and end up meeting with her younger daughter. we have a wonderful lesson on the plan of salvation and she asked many questions. we spoke about baptism but didnt invite her yet. she will come to church next sunday hopefully. she wants to find a religion for her baby and really she is great. so pray for her! her name is diana and is great. well other than that, nothing too spectacular happened.

the world cup is really kicking up especially since argentina won again! woohoo!!! our neighbors had a party so when we were sick we peaked through the window to watch them...haha were so creepy. we probably wont be able to go out for the day of the game because doing so would be so ineffective and maybe peligroso...haha idk

so funny!!!

 so after the argentines win a game they go in their cars and drive in the center and honk and yell and all. we live in the center and after the argentines won on saturday i think the cars honked for a good 1 hr and 5 min!!!! aaaahhhhhh and then there were these two old men on bikes...two separate occasions and they were staring at us, we said chao and they like mumbled and said something we didnt understand haha...typical here. when we walk around, men randomly whisper "Hermosa" to us..its creepy and we just walk emotionless until they cant see or hear us and we start to laugh. well yeah this week was just sickness and the game. nada mas.

so spiritual!!

this week in church we were taught about the fast. we know when we fast we dont eat or drink as a sacrifice and such, and pay fast offerings for those who dont have much. read helaman 3:35. fasting is also a way to show our faith and love for the savior. when we fast we humbly and prayerfully submit ourselves to the lord and ask him to help us out with specific things. fasting may seem like a sacrifice but when you look at all the blessings, it really is just another blessing the lord gives us. we have the oppurtunity to be even closer with the lord every month. it is also a sign of obedience to god. and when we are obedient we are blessed as well. we should constantly be grateful for the lord and his sacrifice and for all the oppurtunities we have to serve him. i like this from pmg (Preach My Gospel". "humility is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of spiritual strength." we can have complete confidence in Him. and i hope we can all work on being a little more humble and giving more thanks to Him for everything because really we have nothing, we are nothing without him. also look up job 11:16. so good

well i love you all and i hope all is well at the homefront. 

love 

hermana sanders

mom, chorizo sandwiches are called choripan. how cool for the piwos! i love them, tell em i say heyyy. and dang what the heck with al!! they are so cute, when you meet them tell me how he is for real. haha but they look so happy together its disgusting hahahaha well yeah i love you mucho! also batteries for the package, AAA 

dad, no bug bites, and skin is great.  love you mucho

ally, hi, also im glad you are okay. just saying hi and i love youu

aaron, how cool, i will be praying for you and your speech to them. rock it !

emily, you are looking so happy it is ridiculous. i hope to hear from you next week but i gotta run 

family, send me some pics! and yeah i love ya'll mucho mucho mucho

little masitas 

bana bread mobes made...sooo gooodddddd

painted our nails

our outfits for july 4th...very discreet no? 

brushed our hair hahaha 

died mobes hair again this time darker 

mobes and i with karen. 

she is so cute!!

in rafaela for special pday. were here for the day and night, sleep with the sisters and on our way to santa fe to meet the new president! he seems awesome. we now have 1 and 1/2 hours on the comp so thats awesome. and hes really loving.- they are young and have 7 kids! they are also argentine haha

"Each leaf that touches ours for good" (July 1, 2014)

This week we found heart shaped leaves and we decorated our planner with them haha! So man what a week. This has been probably the most rewarding week i think...of my mission.

Well we met a lot of awesome people this week and we accomplished all the goals we set! except the "no chocolate" goal...i dont think that will be possible..haha!

putting chocolate in our teeth...haha im a big girl now!

our cookies

But this week I'm just focus on the baptism! We held a baptismal service for Joana y Joel Cauda! 14 and 11. We made cookies and after all of our failed attempts from before, I tried a few diff. things and we finally made a successful batch! We made the bus to Rafaela! And then we got to the church building safely! The zone leaders were already there filling up the font but it wasn't filling up fast enough so they had to go back and forth with buckets of water for 2 more hours for it to be full enough! What awesome leaders they are!                                               

us with felipe!

Then everyone arrived on time and the Caudas were so excited it was so great to see! All the baptismal clothes fit well and then we started only 20 minutes late which is "on time" Argentine time! haha Joana and Joel had asked me to give the baptism and Holy Ghost talk so I did, in all spanish! haha Well I shared part of  Roman 6. It's really good in talking about the symbolism of the baptism..i suggest you read it! well after that, they got baptized! It was so great. Their father, Felipe, had just gotten the priesthood back and was able to perform the ordinance! I cried haha. We helped Joana change with her mom but she asked us to help her and then we went back out. Hermana Moberly, Hermana Hohermuth and I sang the "I Like to Look for Rainbows" and "I Know HeavenlyFfather Loves Me", we mashed it together and did a little arrangment and it moved a few to tears. I almost cried to but I'm thankful it was spanish so i understood like 70 percent of what I was actually saying haha. Well after all was said and done, we left and went home. The Caudas were super great. The next day at church they received the Holy Ghost. They were so happy and Felipe and his wife, Irene, were holding hands during sacrament. I love seeing how much this family has changed and become more unified and happy. The gospel really does bring happiness to families! Well that was the highlight of my week, and really nothing could have gone better. Every slammed door, being made fun of, or any other trial weve experienced, or any missionary experiences is totally worth it even for one baptism because this is why we are here. Even if it is just one soul...Alma 26. Also for any future missionary out there, read 1 collassians 23-28. Substiutue Paul´s name for yours. siigghhhhh so happy and content. So other than that here are a few funny things!

us with the Caudas, the senior couple from Switzerland we work with

 

funny:

While walking during "siesta" these events took place. We only do things like this during "siesta" because everyone is sleeping...well almost everyone... one day we were quoting "princess bride" quotes. We got to the dream Buttercup has and the old lady is yelling "boo! boo! boo!" and without realizing two girls heard us and we saw them, and they started to run away from us...oops haha! And then the other day, I was practicing whistling and I did that like woo wooOOoo one...ya know? ...and we walked past a garage and a lady was cleaning and it was just embarrassing. A 90 year old man told us his wife just died, and then proceeded to hit on us, another old man said that he didn't understand the language I was speaking when I contacted him and asked if I was Brazilian, and yeah. Also this week we celebrated Christmas! because it was cold and it was half christmas anyways. haha!

 

spiritual!:

I was reading this week in "Our Search for Happiness" and this is what I read, "the quality of our lives has more to do with substance than style. A quality life is one that positively influences others and makes the world around it a better place in which to live. A quality life is constantly growing, expanding its horizons and enlarging its borders. A quality life is one that is filled with love and loyalty, patience and perseverence, kindness and compassion. A quality life is one that is based on eternal potential and not confined to this life only. A quality life is a life well lived.". Let us all work on making our lives well lived and modeling our lives after Christ.

 

I love you all and hope all is well.

xoxoxo

Hermana Sanders

celebrating christmas

hang drying clothes like "little house"

the baptismal font! 

us and the chicos

on my way back from district meeting

the Cauda family! Don't they look so happy...hahaha latinos

played soccer for pday with the elders from san cristobal...but this is just me holding a soccer ball...i thought it was cool i actuallty played haha and i made 2 goals woot woot!