Tuesday, July 28, 2015

"The quest for Oreos" (July 28, 2015)

yay for anohter week here in the opposite end of the world althought seriously it doenst see, like im so far away...weird. haha well this week we began to see sparks of success! we werent able to see mery (the inv from the dominacan republic) but we did contact some referencias that were great and we did find some new families to teach!
first, family oviedo. a reference from a 15 year old member. her boy toy and family. we just contacted them but idk, i think theres alotof prmise. 
while we were looking for an old inv, we found a lady named cintia and her two sons. theyre evangelistas buttttttt when we talked about the restoration she looked at us like ¨man, i knew this already" it was so cool! 
and finally, we were looking for an inactive member, and when we knocked on the door, a girl answered, i started by saying, is there an eva that lives here, and she responded to me in english and said no she hasnt lived here since february! and we started to speak in english, she invited us in and we got to know her a bit. we taught a bit about how god is real and he knows her and loves her (she grew up catholic but did everything because of obligation) and she said she always knew god and had a realtionship with him but never had the time to research religion. we said well thats why we were led to your door, to help you research and find the truth. so we have an appt with her this thursday. her name in gisela!
well other than that we did alot of teaching to less active, capacitando familias to teach the lessons, and looking for our inv but not being able to find them. haha! mas que eso, no mucho.
oh!!!!!! wait. on tuesday we had an activity for all the hermanas! we had a lesson from hna zanni and then we did yoga, ate chorizo and hung out. it was a special pday. i got to see hna shotwell and it was literally the best.
transfers this week...hna valencia and i stay together!!! woohoo! i love this area seriously and i love my compy. my little peruvian <3
okay funny.....this week we ran out of money becuase of al the traveling we had to do so we didnt have money to buy a ton of food. well on thursday we were craving oreos...like crazyyyyyy and we had 50 pesos (we thought) on our card. well we went to carrefour a spuermarket like walmart. we went and grabbed a bag of oreos, our mouths salivating for the prospect of the oreos. whe the chica ran our card, it said insufficient funds...we had her try two more times but the same thing happened. we were so confused because we knw we had 50! well we went back into the store and bought a less expensive thing of oreos....the same thing happened! so without our oreos we left carrefour. the next day we were in the house of the martin family and we told them what happened. one of the sons left and came bach with two bags of oreos for the two of us! and she gave us milanesa for dinner. i almost cried becuase of the love the members have for us in order to go and buy two chicas oreos! theyre the best.
spiritual. this week the song wide enough by david osmond has been stuck in my head. on of the things he says is "is there room enough in his love for me" in 3 nephi 9:14, christ says that is arms of mercy are extnded to everyone who comes to him. so yes there is plenty of room in his for every one of us as long as we come back to him. and like the father of the prodigal son, when he sees us coming, he will run to us and meet us to give us a big hug and kiss. i cant wait for the day when i can hug my heavenly father when i come back to him. i hope we all can remember this and never feel like we cant make it back to him. we can. he loves us and is waiting for us to come back to him. his arms are extended and ready to recieve us. :)
i love you all soooo much. have a great week!
love hermana sanders

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

"Feliz dia del amigo" (July 20, 2015)

pday!
wow! this week flew by! its a good sign of now im finally getting used to being a missonary again! on monday after i wrote you guys, we had special pday with the zone. we just played games and took random pictures! i have some friends from my old zones here so its fun to see them again. well here to talk about an investiagtor! her name in mery, she is 15 years old and her family moved here from the dominican republic! she is an old inv butwe are trying to work with her again. her older sister just moved here to live with them and she has more potential than mery, shes 18 and has a little girl but the girl lives with her father in DR...were not sure of the full story but were going to talk about families and how the restortation blesses families! 
at church on sunday, it was branch conference and we had 71 people at church! alot of the less actives we visit made it! it was great! so basically we were working with a ton of less actives. but this week we are going to put a little more focus on finding people to teach because as of right now we only have 2 inv...and they are sisters which is great but we just need more people to teach and well, we know there are more poeple here who need the gospel!
one thing we are doing that is cool though is teaching 3 families the 5 lessons and helping them to be able to teach the new member lessons!
fun fact, in the winter, every person you visit as a missionary, either member or not, gives you hot chocolate...and let me tell you these argentines know how to make up some bomb hot chocolate!
well ffam bam thats about it for this week.
funny! hna valencia and i were the first to arrive for district meeting so we set up the room and put baby chairs for the elders to sit haha...also one of the games from pday was an egg toss, i was wearing my jeans and when it was my turn to catch the egg is cracked alllllll over my pants hahaha also idk if i said this last week but when we were visiting less active sisters...they are both like 100 years old, i was saying the closing prayer and i meant to say "por favor bendice a las que moran aqui con el espiritu" (bless those who live here with the spirit) but i said "bendice a las que mueran aqiu" which means bless those who die here....hahahahahaaha que verguenza but they didnt hear because theyre so old haha but i died and so did my comp!
the hnas are my comp, form peru, the dark taller one is from brazil
and the other one is from chile! haha so cool i love being the only yankee lol
spiritual! today i studied alot about the plan of salvation. first of all i know that we truly did have a close relationship with our heavenly father in the pre mortal existance. we spoke with him, hung out with him, and laughed with him just as we do with our earthly father. because he loves us he sent us here to gain experience and to mature into who he needs us to be. while we are here though we have our agency or ability to choose for ourselves, good or evil. in the end, we are going to answer for our own lives and our own sins that havent been taken care of. all im suggesting is that we choose today the path that God wants for us. there are two choices, 100 percent obedience, or not. we cant return to live with him if it isnt 100 percent. so put 100 percent of yourslef in the gospel. dedicate your self to him so you can return to him. 2 Nephi 2: 22-28
LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. congrats on joe for getting married!! so exciting. also can someone please tell me where rachel is going for her mission?? thanks
love 
me! hna sandersszz






Thursday, July 16, 2015

(July 13, 2015)

okay welllll this week was mas o menos!! i got sick!ยช go figure. it was like a cold but super bad. the humidity affected my lungs pretty bad. i couldnt breathe well and had the cough from hell. so we mainly stayed in the apart because it was so cold and every time i left it got worse!
Jessica and Valencia with Martin family
for Family Home Evening.
but when i did go out it was great! i freaking love the members here. there is this one family , the martins. theyre converted like 10 years ago i think the have 5 kids from 17 years to 5. anyway they are like our family here in venado tuerto! but seriously every family seems to be so great! the martins brought lunch to the apart on Saturday becuase i couldnt leave! so sweet! we had a family home evening with them on monday. hna valencia shared a story about a girl who went inactive and when she came back had to deal with her consequences. how hard it was to come back but also the strength she received as she did come back! it touched every ones hearts and we were all crying. but after we played the funnest game and i suggest everyone play this in one family home evening. its called the tower. so you have a plastic bottle, could be like a normal sized water bottle. and a box of matches, or even toothpicks. you have to lay them on the bottle and build your tower but if you place a stick and it falls, someone has to draw on your face with lipstic! hahaha i have pics. its so fun. 
we mostly met with less actives and spoke about the importance of the sabbath day so thats good! oh! hha so rememebr how i was in pergamino? well now the sister training leaders are there. we had divisions on Thursday and valencia and i had to go there. hahah i was so nervous about the cckroaches but it was like a whole new apart. so clean luckily! i was with the nurse of the mission who is so great and we went and visited some more less actives but then we had dinner with one of the families i knew...they remembered me and were very happy to see me! they said they were sad when i left! haha it made me feel alot better. 

1. Sign from Pergamino STL's "Hi beautiful...make me milk!"2. Friendly prank from Pergamino STL's3. Hna. Valencia, Pergamino STL's, and Jessica
okay spiritual!!! i want to talk about prayer! here is something i wrote during studies. we have a grand divine potencial as children of God. as his sons and daughters, he will never leave us to be lonely. he will always be there to give us guidance, comfort, and love. he will answer our prayers and administer to our needs if they are righteous. okay and here are some scriptures. dyc 8:10. dyc 19:28. pray vocally! it might feel weird at first but after you start, you will rally feel as if you are having a conversation with our father in heaven.
IM HEALTHY NOW so this week ill have more things to write hahaha just know hna valencia is the best cook of my life haha except for you mom. ;) and i will have many funny videos to put on facebook when i get home. haha okay love you with all my heart everyone. keep in touch! 
loveeeeee hna sanders 2.0







Monday, July 6, 2015

"say shama shama. (Se llama llama???)" (July 6, 2015)

Jessica and Hermana V. at their apartment in Venado Tuerto
the subject is in reference to me talking about llamas. hahaha
WHAT A WEEK. my goodness. soooo for 
ya´ll who dont know, i was on my way to newport to visit a friend on wednesday when i get a call from my dad saying i needed to turn around because they called and said i could go back to the mission and my president wanted mye to leave that nihgt....so in shock, i turned around came home packed and then left thursday morning! sooooo
here i am! after like 30 hours or so of travel i made it to rosario and was able to visit my aunt monica who lives right close to the mission home! we spoke and she ordered pizzas and so we stayed for dinner! 
Jessica and cousin Monica...finally we got to meet!
it was so nice. when i finally arrived in my area the next day (saturday) we went to a members house for an asado and ice cream!!!! then we had to return to the apartment at 5. there was a big game for argentine soccer and pres. zanni didnt want to hermanas outside, so i had a nice long time to unpack!! while i was unpacking i discovered i forgot sheets and tights for the cold! hahaha so im going to having to buy sheet (15 dollars) and tights which shouldnt be too expensive. but i guess this is what happens when you have to pack like a mad woman! haha ah whatever. sooooo
sunday!! we have the best branch of 70 people. really it shouldbe a ward but the stake is just a district so it cant be a ward. haha but its so fun! the members are so funny and welcoming. thankfully my spanish is coming back super light speed fast! it helps having a latina companion and all we speak is spanish! i already think in spanish again! im getting lots of help. (cue pointer finger signaling upwards with smirk) haha
in terms of investigators...we have about 0. haha but were going to find them! 
the mission is very different but it runs more smoothly and i see why he changed so many things i freaking love it! welllll it was a mildly short week
oh! so the memebers feed us everyday here hahahso im gonna get fat. but we only bought healthy foods and i havent had one piece of chocolate yet! i know that once i have one itll be harder to resist hahaha
okay so funny moment ! my subject line...so hna (Hermana/sister) valencia and i were talking about animal...practivcing spanish, and i said llama (shama) thats how its pronounced. she laughed at me and i said what? its called llama right? but it spanish it sounded like K? se shama shama verdad?  and we laughed so hard just because it sounded hilarious! so now its a joke. i freaking love this area, and my companion and the memebrs here its insane! in terms of spiritual things here is just a thought.
we cannot do and live this life alone. yes we are strong but we need the savior to help us and to give us the strength to continue on. we cant do what is required of us. no way! without the help of the lord. so just remember that. we are weak but we are made strong in christ. we are nothing but with christ we are everything. i love you guys and im so happy and thankful im back here.
con mucho amor
hermana sanders 2.0
Oscar (friend of Monica), Monica, me, and Monica's son, Benjamin. 

with Hermana Valencia (from Peru) at my cousin Monica's house in Rosario