June 29th

Well Wednesday is the day! I will become a missionary of the grand mission of Santa Fe Argentina!!! Whoooooo So exciting!!! 

Our week was really good! especially sunday!! We had a lot of inactives that decided to come back to church this week and we had some of our investigators come! It was great!! We had an attendance of 45!!! :) We were really excited!!

We have an Investigator right now and she is so great!! Her name is Natalie! She is 35 and has a little boy of 4 months! She is looking for a place to belong! The babys dad left right after he was born and so she has just been kind of hurting after that, she has just wanted to look for a place where her family could be together and then here we came!!! Its been really great! She couldnt come to church this sunday because its been really really humid (As you can tell from the foto!) and here baby has been having problems and so he was up all night sick and so she didnt want to take him out in the humidity! But we have taught the first couple lessons and she wants to get baptized! :) The people here are ready we just have to go find them!!! :)

Funny story of the week: We had a lesson with two of our investigators, Julieta (shes 10) and Javier (hes 8) they are kids of an inactive family and so we are working to get both the family reactivated and they both wanted to get baptized and so we are teaching them as well! The mom really wants to come back and she has come to church the past two weeks and has really liked the feeling of coming back! So we are really hopeful for them!! anyway, since both the kids are pretty young we decided to watch the restoration, its about 20 min long. Anyway, to make sure it worked we played it during our comp study and just made sure that it would play etc... anyway to have some fun we decieded to switch the language to Tagalog with english subtitles. we played it a little and laughed at how hard that language is! then took out the dvd and went to work. Well we get to their house and we put the dvd in and then it starts playing in Tagalog with english subtitles and they dont have an option to go to the menu and change the language! GREATTTTTTTTT........ So me and my companion start and attempt to translate from the english subtitles! haha Oh my goodness it was a train wreck! But their older brother came in to the rescue and pulled out their new dvd player hooked it all up and we were able to get the language switched back to spanish and such! But its a great memory to look back on a laugh about! hahahaha

Welll I hope you all have a great week!! Today i read in Alma Chapter 7 and my favorite verses from this chapter are 11-13 they say, 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

 13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me. 

These are some of my favorite scriptures i love knowing that no matter what i go through in this life i always have someone who knows exactly how i feel and knows how to comfort me exactly how i need it!

I know our Savior and our Heavenly Father know exactly how to comfort us and how to help us overcome our trials and problems in this life! :)

Love,

Hermana Armstrong

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The Church is True!! 

June 22nd

Well this week has been a little rough! My companion got transferred and we had to say goodbye and also we had to say goodbye to our mission president! Since the mission is splitting in two weeks our president wanted to give us a final goodbye! Friday we said goodbye and it was pretty hard! I have come to love both President Zanni and his wife Hermana Zanni! Its going to be really different in the next few weeks! Also, because my companion got transferred im now leading our area because i have somewhat of an idea of where everything is but its been really stressful because i still dont know where everything is and its just been a real stressfull and hard week!  But I know that our Heavenly Father doesnt give anything we cant handle and so it will all be okay! 

We got to watch Meet the Mormons at our little meeting in Santa Fe with Presidente Zanni! That was a lot of fun! It was all in spanish and it was really good as always! Afterwards i got the question of "Hey Hermana Armstrong are you related to the Elder Armstrong that´s in the movie?" haha it was pretty funny! 

This week we also got to use the elders bikes! It was fantastic!! Our area is really big and so to walk from one end to the other is over an hour and a half walk! And so one day we had so many appointments all over the place and so we asked if we could use the elders´bikes! It was great! It was a little scary and i was sure at one point we were going to get hit by a car! (There are no stop signs here in Rafaela) but it was all okay! We were able to visit so many people though! It was fantastic! Im pretty sure that we need bikes! It was a lot of fun!!!! :)

I read this morning in Mosiah chapter 24! It was a really good chapter especially with this week! In verse 13-15 it says, "Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

 14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

 15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." 

I love this scripture it gives me a lot of hope and comfort!! :) 

Well i hope that you all have a great week!! I love you all and will talk to you soon!!! 

Love,

Hermana Armstrong

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The Church is True!! 

Grafiti here in Argentina,

My Companion!!! :)

Our Zone!!! (Well most of them!! haha)

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The Church is True!! 

June 16th - Transfers!!!!

Hola everyone,

 

Well transfers came and went that is why my pday is on tuesday! But i get to stay in our pueblito Rafaela for another transfer but my companion got transferred out! :(  A little sad but i have a great companion! :) Hermana Thornton from wait for it.................... SPOKANE WASHINTON!!!!! How cool is that!!!!!  But this means that im going to be in the Argentina Santa fe mission!!! That´s going to be a lot of fun! :) Im excited to meet presidente Perez and his wife! Im just not really excited to say goodbye to Presidente Zanni y Hermana Zanni :( 

 

This week we had an awesome visit with a reference that our Zone leaders gave us! They are fantastic their names are Angel  and Martha! They are so ready! Its fantastic! They loved the restoration and love how our church is! They have a couple friends in our branch and just love the standards of the church! Its been really great to teach them we have a meeting with them this saturday but its the same day as a goodbye activity we have with Presidente Zanni! So we will have to swing bye and reschedule! 

 

This week has been kind of slow! We have a lot of investigators that arent progressing and so we are kind of in the process of finding more and trying to excite the others to progress so its been kind of slow here but there are a lot of areas that we can try! Im excited!!

 

I love you all and love this gospel and I know that it can bless so many lives and so many families! 

 

Love,

Hermana Armstrong

 

p.s. Sorry there arent any pictures i couldnt get it to work! but i love you all So much!!! :)

The Church is True!! 

June 8th

Well this week was kind of a slow one for us! I finally had the day where you go the entire day without a single visit!! That was a little rough! haha but that day we had planed for the whole week and then went to our lunch appointment and they are having some health issues and so they just sent us with food we came back did our studies and then EVERY SINGLE appointement fell through! It was harsh! We went to about 16 peoples homes all over just trying to talk and find someone to let us in! haha but no such luck! We walked all over and would find some people to talk to but only small chats where they just came outside to tell us that they were busy but that was few and far between only 5 people opened their doors and talked to us outside. 

But its okay! We are given the hard days to help us appreciate the good days! :) 

I love this gospel with all my heart! I love the opportunity that i have to wake up each morning and be able to go out and share what i know to be true with the people of Argentina! The missionary life is pretty great! We have a really good area!! I love The Book of Mormon! There is such power in the pages! I know that this book is true! I know that Joseph Smith translated it by the power of God. I know that any question a person could have there is an answer in the pages of The Book of Mormon! I love being a missionary! I love this great opportunity! There´s nothing like it! 

I love you all and hope that you all have a fantastic week! 

Hermana Armstrong

we found some pretty huge apples and just had to take a foto opportunity! haha

And here missionaries have a weird tradition where they do what´s called milking an alfahor! its where you take the cookie and bite one side and bite the other and then drink the milk through the cookie! It is divine!! haha 

So weird that all my photos this week are about food! HMMMmmm.... I do promise that we do, do other things than just eat! hahaha 

June 1st

Hola,

This week went by sooo fast!!! I cant even believe it! Time is really so weird! haha 

so a couple really cool things that happened this week are;

We met with this lady, Her name is Fransica! She is so great! We have been contacting this same house for like 3 weeks because one of the members gave us this address because she felt like her friend who lived there could really use the gospel and so we have been trying this same house for like 3 weeks and no one ever answered until this one day! She answered and its not the same lady that was the reference but she was just like i have seen you walking and have always wanted to talk to you!!! It was so cool!!! We had our first lesson with her and she just cried the whole time because she says it was just something she needed to hear!! It was the best!!! 

Today we had a Pday special! Where we went to Santa Fe and got together with a lot of the other Hermanas in the mission!! It was sooo much fun! We learned a lot of things and had a lot of fun playing games together it was a fun road trip! haha 

Something funny that happened this week: 

okay so our schedule is a little different from other missionaries because of winter and then Argentina is wierd with time! haha And so usually we wake up at 7:30 in the morning but on Friday, Hermana Randall and I accidently woke up at 5:30 in the morning! The night before we had dropped the phone and as older phones do they come apart when you drop them and so the battery had popped out and everything. Anyway, we forgot to set the time and so our alarm goes off and we both get up and are so tired!!! But we got up made our beds, had our personal and companionship prayers and were in the middle of exercises when i look at my clock and see that it is only 6 in the morning!! I then told my companion and was like "hermana son las seis!! Im going back to bed!!" It was really funny once we woke up a bit more and could look back and laugh about it! haha 

Well, It is that time to say goodbye!! but until next monday!!! 

I love you all and hope that you have a great week!! 

Love,

Hermana Armstrong

A little bit of the Argentina country and then our Pday special picture!

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The Church is True!! 

May 25th

Hola,

 

Can you believe I have been gone for 2 months already!! its so crazy!!! it really only feels like 2 weeks! People werent kidding when they told me that the mission passes by really quickly!!! haha i love being a missionary!! I love Argentina!! I just am loving life!!! I have learned that just be happy through it all!!! Just the overall lesson for the mission because missionary work is fun!! Its hard work but it is fun!!! Nobody told me that it was fun! I just heard that its hard and so worth it but i have leared that it is so much fun!!! 

 

This week has really been a true roller coaster ride! haha We had the best week and the worst week all at the same time! Its like taking all the emotions one could think of and smash them all into the week! It has been a week of learning many lessons!

 

Lesson number 1:

The flu shot that they give in the US means absolutly nothing tp the flu down here! Haha on Wednesday i woke up with a bad sore throat and thought i had just gotten a cold or something then came thursday... I woke up after a night of absolutly freezing! haha I had a temp of about 102! Needless to say i felt like i got hit by a train! haha we got permission from the mission nurse to stay in the pension to let me sleep because if you dont get permission from the mission nurse to stay inside you dont! haha anyway we got permission and i slept from about 7 till 11:30 and then was awake from 11:30 to 12 for the only purpose to walk to the chapel so i could recieve a blessing from our elders that live kind of close to our area. then went back asleep until like 5:30 or so! haha i was just wiped out! It was just an interesting day!

 

Lesson number 2: 

The people here are the nicest people you will seriously ever meet!!! While i was sick my companion called our investigator Jesica (The one that got baptized on Saturday) to tell her we wouldnt be able to meet with her today and she was totally fine with it and then asked if there was anything they could bring us and that they are more than willing to serve! It was awesome!!! 

 

Also w have this one family that we go visit, the no longer come to church they are members but the dad started drinking again and they just stopped coming. Because of him drinking they are like dirt poor! They have no money whatsoever! The mom was telling us how she is going to make something called papas fritas which is basically like fry bread and how that is going to have to last them for the next week because they dont have money to get groceries and they are going to go to the dad´s brothers place who grows oranges and pick some so she can make marmelade and that is what their family is going to eat for the next week. Anyway, even though this lady has NOTHING she gives us this jar of orange marmelade that she made!!! She has no reason to give it to us yet she does happily and so willingly!!!

 

 Its insane how nice the people are here!!! Then we also were given Asado today!!! because its basically Argentina´s 4th of July today and its just a huge celebration! Asado is the best!!!!! oh my goodness Argentine people really know how to bring out the natural flavors of the food and make absolutly EVERYTHING taste amazing!!! haha so we had this family that gave us Asado and Asado here is SUPER Expensive!!!! SUPER!!! And right now Argentina is going through a depression where there isnt very many jobs and so most of the people we visit dont have jobs and money is super tight but this family was willing to give us everything that they have and they want us to come over again a couple more times this week so that the mom can make empanadas for us!! We just have the best people here!! 

 

Lesson number 3:

 

Baptisms are so stressful but so worth it!!! We had a baptism on Saturday! the first stressful thing was that every place that we went to try to make copies was either closed or broken!!! haha we tried like 7 different places before we found one that was open and wasnt broken!!! it was a miracle another miracle that we had was that the church had hot water!!!!! That was amazing to find out because we were thinking and even planning on having to fill up the font by buckets of hot water!!! So when we found out that we were going to have hot water it was amazing!!! Also the church here only has two different outfits for women to be baptized one tiny jumpsuit and a HUGE dress made out of two huge towels sown together with arm holes and a head hole cut out and we were just really worrying about it because the jumpsuit wouldnt fit and the other one was too big!! But the Family Rohrmann came to our rescue by giving Jesica a dress to wear that was just right!! We just witnessed so many miracles this week that made me realize that if we trust in our Heavenly Father everything is going to be okay!! :)

 

I have been asked about the weather and really the weather here is just super humid and typical fall weather for washington!! just more intense because of the humidity!!  hahaha 

 

Well that was my week! I hope all is well with everyone its great to see pictures and hear that everyone is doing well!!! I love you all! ¡Tenga un buena semana! 

 

Chao,

Hermana Armstrong

The Church is True!! 

May 18th

Hola!! 

Well this week i have been learning on how to be patient with myself. Its hard to leave behind english and pick up a new language but slowly and surely i know that i will be able to pick up spanish soon! 

This week was so great! We were able to watch the dedication of the temple in Cordoba! That was such an awesome experience! President Uctdorf was able to come and dedicate the temple! Also Elder Christofferson came and spoke too! I had no idea that he served his mission in Argentina too! They both had really good talks about the importance of temples here! A good quote that President Uctdorf had was "Always walk before God with All your heart"A few other people spoke as well but i didnt pick out a lot since it was all in spanish. That really was hard for me because i knew that what they were saying was important but i just couldnt get what they were saying! but It will come soon enough! You really just have to keep your head up and dont dwell too much on the fact that you cant understand! But it is coming, everyday i notice that i can pick up more words than i could a week ago or even the other day! 

I have also noticed the importance of working hard but the need to have fun! My companion is the best! We are just able to work well and laugh together! Which is so nice because there are just some days where you just need a good laugh! haha for example by our like appartment plaza there are a ton of smokers and one of our neighbors is pretty old and has smoked his whole life basically and he coughs! and it always makes us laugh because he just sounds like a pirate and it will be while we are getting ready for the day and we hear this ARGGGGGGHHHH sound coming through the walls and it just makes us laugh! 

Some exciting news is that our investigator Jesica is going to be baptized on Saturday!!!!! :) She is so sweet and so ready! We love her to death and she is just such a happy person! She is going to be great! 

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love you all! 

Love Hermana Armstrong

P.S. the First picture is my first whats called an alfajor! its basically like the better version of a oreo! Its got caramel inbetween 3 layers of cookies and all dipped in chocolate! Argentina knows how to do desserts! They are so good!!! 

The second picture is me with the little card that they give you to go to the temple dedication! 

The last picture is what we bought today for food for only 45 pesos the conversion rate would put that at about $4.50! We were reallly excited!!!! :)

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The Church is True!!