Hola from San Luis!! - March 20, 2012

Hola from San Luis Argentina!!! I absolutely love it here!! It reminds me of San Rafael, small good town people. The first day I got here I thought of it as a mix of Silver City NM, Mexico, and Ecuador if there is such thing. It has hills like Silver City and mountains in the background and the houses are similar to what I remember Ecuador feeling like. My companion is awesome, very good missionary for the time she has in the mission. Like I said before, she was my athletic trainer at Weber and knows a lot of the same people I do like Karlee and Ali and Abby. We live with Hermana John (who reminds me a ton of Erin and who I lived with in San Rafael before) and Hermana Shampiama (from Peru). Hermana Shampiama is teaching me how to cook Peruvian food :)

President Avila came yesterday to interview us. He is such an amazing leader. He said I am doing great and try not to run my companions to the ground haha. Just kidding, he just said that he knows I have lots of energy for the work and wants me to finish strong like that. 

The ward here is AMAZING!! It is like a ward in the US. Like 120 people! It is one of the biggest and best wards in the mission. We share it with the zone leaders (Elder Roche from California and Elder Allen from Salmon, Idaho) who are awesome Elders. This Sunday we even had and Argentine BBQ or ¨ asado¨ with them and the bishop and his family after church. It was a great way to start off the transfer haha! 

We have a few investigators but will have to find a lot more here soon. It is ok, there is tons of potential here. We found a family yesterday who look like they live in Africa literally because they all are so skinny from hunger. The dad was abandoned as a child and has had a terribly rough life getting jobs, loosing them, trying to keep his cute family alive. He is married and his wife does all she can too to keep the 3 kiddos happy and healthy. They have a Book of Mormon from old missionaries years ago and it seems they are ready to accept. Life is hard, but the gospel makes it worth living. 



Hna Farris, Hermana John and Shampiama. Hna Shapiama taught me how to make my favorite Ecuadorian dish- ¨ Arroz con Pollo¨ and then we ate it on our balcony!




Dana. 18years old. Similar story to Flavia. She hadn't been to church in years and we worked wit her a ton. We asked her to do divisions with us and now she goes every week to church and just got called as teacher for the gospel principles class!! I was so proud of her!!




 The Familia Benegas. Super fun family who has 11 kids (all not there for the pic) They fed us a lot athough they had nothing and we spent New Years eve with them




Flavia. 16 years old. We worked a ton with her getting her active. I insisted that every week she did divisions with us. I think it worked :) Now she goes to seminary every day!!




Familia Duran. The dad just got baptized and we got all the family to come back to church in our ward




Familia Polo. Our neighbors in front who take care of us and rent us the apartment




Hermana Call and I our last night with our Argentine jerseys.




Our small room! We live in downtown San Luis and it is a nice apartment but very noisy haha



The zone in San Juan!

 Some pics of San Luis!

Our chapel on Mariano Moreno. Good memories.

 

Until next week. The church is true. Miracles exist. I am the luckiest person in the world to be able to put on the Lord´s name everyday and serve his children here in beautiful Argentina!!