Locro, rain...and an invitation

Hola!! 

I have officially arrive here in wonderful Argentina. When we got here, we took a bus to a different airport, and waited for our flight to Resistencia. I had to say goodbye to my mtc friends and MTC companion Sister Dixon.... and it was so hard. I miss them SO much  

We had to wait in the airport all day, and our flight was delayed, so i didnt get to Resisitencia till late. It was like midnight when we got there, so we met our president, took our luggage to a chapel, and then they drove us to a hotel. I was dirty, could feel mosquitos eating me already, and they were giving instructions in Spanish that i didnt understand. But they had given us food in the church, so I just stared out the window and ate my empenadas. and in that moment everything was perfect. Seriously the food was so good! 

The next day we met our companions... mine is Hermana Allred, from Syracuse Utah. She{s super great. Her Spanish is way good... which is a blessing... because mine is not. I actually do understand a good amount for only being here for 5 days. I´ve had to have a lot of patience with myself. Apparently we´re the only gringa companionship... everyone else has at least one native speaker. I´m glad to have someone who speaks English, but at the same time, it makes it way easier to only speak English. 

So my first day we went to a lunch for the ward... it was the 25th of may, which is a holiday here. So they had a big lunch of this stuff called Locro.. its basically a soup with tons of meat (they just like throw a cow in haha) and mandioca.. and then the soup part is basically oil. Then they eat bread with it.. a ton of the members were eating lemon with it because they say it helps it go down easier.. haha yikes. I ate it though.

We have our studies from 1:30 to 4:30, because that's the siesta. I actually really like it. It splits our day in half, and you get to come home and rest before leaving for the day again. 

Everyday we have members bring us lunch... its super nice. Apparently it isn't like that in every area, but here the members have volunteered to feed us everyday.. so my comp said she´s gained weight here . 

Then after studying, it was my first night in the field.  We clapped some doors (we clap instead of knock) and we visited a menos activo named Alfonzo. He had like 3 teeth, i kid you not. And so i understood NOTHING AT ALL. After we left, my comp told me that she can´t even understand him a lot of times, and that the members of the ward have a hard time. She said hes probably the hardest person i´ll ever have to understand.. so i guess that was good news haha. That night i got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, and i accidentally set off our alarm.. yikes  The next day we walked in the poorest barrio (neighborhood), and it was super muddy. 

It's been rainy and muddy ever since I got here. I already wore my boots! so lucky I brought them. Also my shoes are already getting trashed. Theres just soooo much mud here. We contacted some people... but when it rains here, the people think that it affects their bones and stuff.. its weird. So not many people wanted to talk. We read a scripture to a less active though. 

There´s this girl named Nadia... and she´s dating a guy from the ward. So she was at the ward activity and we asked if we could visit her and she said we could. So we went there on Friday, and taught the restoration.. Then my comp turned to me.. and i invited her to be baptized. AND SHE SAID YES!  Ah it was amazing. She said that she hasnt been feeling good about life in the past. And that she gets angry sometimes.. but that since shes talked with us and attended church, she feels good and wants to join the church. She came to church yesterday, and took notes the whole time. She is so prepared. We´re going to teach her lesson 2 tomorrow!

Hermana Allred says I'm doing good. When we taught the lesson to Nadia, we spoke basically an equal amount of time. I told her i want to participate a lot, and that i need to talk in every lesson. I also told her she can correct me whenever i say something wrong, and that i want to learn a lot. She said im going to learn fast, because she says i already know more than she did when she got to the mission. And when she arrived she hated being corrected, or even learning Spanish.. but i´ve been showing a desire to learn. 

it rains sooooooo much here. Its gonna be pretty chilly for the next couple of months. But everyone says that Resistencia is one of the hottest areas.. so we´re gonna die when summer comes so I"ll enjoy the winter while I can.  Anyway, i´m doing good! its a culture difference for sure.... but im going to be okay :) 

-hermana hall 

(i pracitce teaching the lessons to a pic of Jimmy Fallon everyday. He´ll be baptized by the time i leave this area)

She Has Arrived in Argentina

Skye left the MTC Monday morning the 22nd of May. She said all of them loved their time there, were glad to finally leave the limited campus they had called home for the last 6 weeks.  She successfully juggled her 2 huge bright blue hardtop suitcases, a carry-on and a back pack on the bus, to the TRAX train, to the airport shuttle, and to the airline drop off.  Flight plans indicated a long layover in Atlanta, Georgia before heading to Resistencia, Argentina.  She called us from the SLC airport Monday afternoon about 1:15PM.  The calling card wasn't working, so a nice lady who was there picking her daughter up from her mission offered her phone. Then we spoke with Skye again once she arrived in Georgia about 6 PM. There were no payphone there so an airport worker offered her phone.  At each stop along the way she had to say goodbye to friends in her MTC district - and that was hard.  Particularly her companion Sister Dixon who will be serving in a different mission in Argentina.

When she arrived in Argentina they had to drive to a different airport and wait all day for another flight to Resistencia.  There, she met up with other missionaries going to her mission who were from Paraguay, Colombia, and Argentina.  No one in the new group spoke English. After arriving in Resistencia, they stayed at a hotel for the night and were served Empenadas which she loved cause she was starving.  The next day they went to the mission home and met President and Sister Franco, and her first companion/trainer, and got her assignment.  They were sent to open a new area.  I will hear from her on her P-day but I'm sure she had more travel ahead of her as Formosa is about 2 1/2 hours north of the mission home.  Viva la autobus!

Trainer:      Sister Allred from Syracuse, Utah
Area:           Puerto II  in Formosa  (far North bordering Paraguay)

Letters to Skye can be sent to the mission home at 

Hermana Skye Hall

Misión Argentina Resistencia

Entre Ríos 435

Resistencia Chaco CP 3500

Argentina

Or her email is:  skye.hall@myldsmail.net

Last 48 hours in MTC

Well people.... its finally getting real. I leave for Argentina in less than 48 hours. Never thought this day would come. The MTC has been a great experience.. full of immature elders, a lot of bottle flipping, dumb jokes, feeling the spirit, role play, incorrect grammar, cafeteria food, and journal entries. I loved it all. 

I got a couple packages from my mom/family this week. And a letter from Nika.. (where she painted a picture of me and my companion... it is sooooo cute. I'm going to attach a pic of it. We made copies so we could both have it in our journals.)... My family is the best and so supportive. Couldn't be more grateful! Today i have to pack all my bags, and pray that they're within the weight limits.. Pray for me haha

My Spanish is soooo not good enough to be going to Argentina.. But then i realize that everyone else in my zone is basically at the same level as me and then i realize that i can survive. Also the teachers keep reassuring me that when they left, they knew the same amount, or even less Spanish than me. It really doesn't feel real that i'll be leaving! It almost felt like i'd never be leaving. I'm going to miss everyone a ton!! And my teachers.... i looooove my teachers. But im going to email them when i need help haha. And leaving hermana Dixon and elder Lumsden will be hard. They're my two closest friends here.

So heres some stuff about my week: 

• I talked to my mom and family on mothers day! We had exactly 30 minutes.  Itwas so fun to hear their voices

• In our devotional on Sunday, the speaker had us turn to our companion and tell them a Christlike attribute they had. Dixon told me that she really admired my knowledge. She said that every time i share a comment or a thought, she loves my perspective on things.. and thinks that im really smart. That meant so much!! Cuz i always think that about other people, but never really thought my insights were anything special. Really touched my heart.
  
• We did a tracting practice this week. e did a tracting practice this week, where we went down hallways and knocked on tons of doors.... so we could practice getting rejected a lot haha. T'was super fun. 

• a bunch of people going to panama, got reassigned to Arizona for 6 weeks bc their visa wasn't ready! So sad! And one guy got permanently reassigned to Chile! And panama is 90 degrees all year round.. so they were allowed to wear sandals, and weren't required to have a suit.. and now he has 3 days to buy suits and stuff.. crazy! 

• This week i studied Jesus Christ.. and i was looking in the index of the book of Mormon. There are like 4 pages dedicated to Jesus Christ, and I found that there are different sections which address his different roles or titles. So i studied each one.. ( the advocate, the great shepherd, creator, lamb of god, etc). It was amazing to see how many different roles Jesus Christ has in our lives. You should do it. 

• One of the elders had his mom send him all these Mexican candies.. they're called "De la rosa"... They taste like peanuts mixed with powdered sugar. They're so unhealthy but me and Dixon love them, so he gave us so many haha. I taped the wrapper in my journal so i could remember what they are called. 

• We had in-field orientation alllllll day on Thursday.. it was so boring. It was mostly about using members effectively. Which is super important! But they could have condensed it into like 2 and a half hours.. but it lasted all day long. 

• Exercise time was fun the other day.. i got a mitt and played catch with one of the elders. It was super relaxing to be out on the field and just play catch.. 

• We had a substitute teacher yesterday who served in Argentina!!! So he taught us tons of words and phrases that are unique to Argentina. :) He also told us a couple of words that are just regular words in mexico, but in Argentina they are really bad swear words.. so we can't say them! That was helpful to know. 

• Saying goodbye is gonna be weird! Even to my branch presidency.. i love them all. Tomorrow they are going to all sing "god be with you till we meet again" in church, to all the departing missionaries (us).. and then we have a departure devotional tomorrow as well. Gonna be a crazy couple of days. We don't leave until 8:50 in the  morning... but one of our roommates is leaving at 3 am... and we have to wake up and walk her to the travel office.. yaaaay

• We had a district testimony meeting last night... the spirit was so strong. 

Next time i send an email i'll be in Argentina! Wish me luck. I'm definitely nervous, but excited for this once in a lifetime experience! Love you all. Have a good week :) 

hasta luego 

90% is Showing Up...Flight Plans

Hola amigos y familia! 

Well to start off, Spanish grammar is ruining my life, but we'll get to that later. 

Best part of my week was that i was sitting in class studying Spanish and my district leader handed me a letter from home  and then Nika sent me a little package the next day! She sent me a little scrapbook thing with a bunch of quotes and letters of advice. She had asked some of our friends to type missionary advice, and then wrote it out for me. Also she sent me a talk called "Becoming a consecrated missionary". I read it and then had Dixon read it and we were both way motivated to be better missionaries.

I'm excited to get to go to the temple today! Its seriously what i look forward to every day... i'm going to be so sad when i can't go every week in my mission 

I really love my teachers here! Our main teacher is hermano Parker.. he's the best! He is so in tune with the spirit, and is 100% dedicated to the church. Me and Dixon have decided that he has raised the bar for the kind of guys we want to marry. Our other teacher is Hermana Evans. She is the example of what i want to be like. At one point me and Dixon were a little discouraged, and we were alone with her.. and she told us that she has so much faith in us. and that she prays for each of us by name every night. It made us tear up.. she's the best. 

Sunday was fast Sunday! We still had to be in class at 7:30, so i did some good studying, and then during district meeting, me and Dixon lead the discussion about having faith in the atonement. I shared something that i had read in a book called"The peacemaker" a couple months ago.. (which you all should read btw). And it talks about the Abigail and David story. Where David was about to go to Carmel and attack Nabal. And Abigail met him halfway, gave him gifts and asked for his forgiveness, even though she did nothing wrong. But it related Abigail to Christ.. and how she took Nabals sin upon her and asked for forgiveness, not because she needed forgiveness, but because David needed to forgive. The book talks about how through the atonement, not only do we get a remission of our sins... but we can have faith that Christ took upon the sins of others. The atonement offers the sustenance we need to be made whole, after being hurt or affected by the sins of others. 

I hope that all made sense. Then in fast Sunday we all shared our testimonies in Spanish.

Yesterday we had our last lesson with our TRC investigator, Diana. It was so sad.. we bore our testimonies and gave her a little picture of Jesus from the MTC store. I got a picture with her.. i'll send it. We also did a skype lesson with a member from mexico... the lesson was pretty short, but it was good. She was nursing her baby while we were teaching her.. it was hilarious. 

The joke in our zone lately... is that we were picking spirit animals.. and elder Lumsden goes "hermana hall would be a lemur!".. and everyone was freaking out and thought it was spot on. They say its the shape of my face apparently. And not that i have super big eyes.. but apparently they stand out a lot,( "bright eyes" they say) so they are lemur eyes. I dont get it, but its funny haha. 

This week we learned subjunctive... which turned my world upside down. I have to change basically everything about how i speak. Its a little frustrating.. but the teachers keep telling me that i'll eventually catch on and speak correctly without even thinking about it. Its kind of hard to believe, but they've all been in my position before so i trust them. 

One thought for the week that hermano Parker shared. He was leaving on vacation with his friends, and none of them wanted to attend church.. but he said he was definitely going to. He said that 90% of being a member is showing up. I was thinking about that.. and i dont think that just means showing up to church. It means that we take action. We attend all of church, repent daily, look for ways to serve, fulfill our callings, attend the temple, even cleaning the church on Saturday mornings when its our turn ;)... basically we need to "show up" in our discipleship. God needs disciples, and he needs them forever. Lets all try harder to consecrate ourselves to God this week. 

oh yeah we got our flight plans yesterday!!! FLIGHT PLANS We were all freaking out! We leave at 8:50 am next Monday! My mind is blown! 
1) i dont know enough Spanish 
2) I'm  way excited 
3) I'm sad to leave Dixon 
4) I'm excited to eat food in the airport that is not from the MTC cafeteria! Time has just flowwwwn... only one more pday left! 

hope you all have a fantastic week! sending much love 

Elder Rasband, Cartwheels and Enduring Cheerfully

Hola mis amigos! Como estan?

Only 18 days to go??? Oh my... time has just flown. Its weird though, because i feel like i have been here forever... the first day of the MTC seems like ages ago. But at the same time, times gone by super fast. 

The weeks are just so short. I feel like yesterday was Sunday, when we taught the relief society lesson. And now here i am again, typing a weekly email. 

This week we learned a lot of tenses. (future tense, perfect and past participle, imperfect, passive voice, commands, and preterit.) Yeah... its a lot. A new thing every single day. There are like 3 different kinds of past tense, and its super important which one you use. It's so hard.. me and Dixon are struggling a little bit with it. But also, know we know a lot more information, so this next week we can start applying it. Also our goal this week is to only speak Spanish when we're in our classroom. I thought i would know a lot more Spanish by now .. being more than half way done. But i probably know more than i think. Also everyone tells me to just accept the fact that i wont know the language when i get to Argentina. I'll understand it like 4 or 5 months in haha. Even though i can understand everything my teachers and investigators say.. they speak slower Spanish so that us missionaries can understand it clearly. 

On Tuesday we were all given a print out of a talk by Elder Rasband called "Let the holy spirit guide"... and were told to study it before the devotional that night. That talk is sooo good. I realized that i can actually pray in the morning to have spiritual promptings throughout the day, so i can exercise my willingness to act on nudges i get from the spirit. (everyone go read that talk). For choir that night they said we were being recorded and broadcast to all the MTCs all over the world. So we knew something special was gonna happen. And turns out... Elder Rasband came!!!!!!!!! That means i've heard from 2 apostles while in the MTC. Whooo. He had microphones set up, and we all were allowed to go up and ask him questions about the role of the holy ghost in missionary work, and then he answered them. He also spent a lot of time testifying that Thomas S Monson is the true prophet, and how much he loves us. 

I really do like the MTC...my district is so fun. Me, Dixon, elder Harper, and elder lumsden all hang out the most. I have honestly laughed with them so so much. There have been times where we laugh so hard that my abs killllll afterward. Maybe we're just delirious because we study so much, so we'll laugh at anything.. idk. But i love it. 

On Monday they had CHICK-FIL-A. Anyone who knows me... knows that i almost cried from pure happiness. I took some extra chick-fil-a sauces and stashed them in my purse. Don't judge me haha. 

On Wednesday we were able to be hosts! So we stood on the curb and got the new missionaries, and took them to their rooms with their suitcases. My girl was crying when i got her and i didnt know what to do. So i just talked her through what her first day would be like, and told her she was going to have lots of fun.. told her about the devotionals and everything. When i dropped her off at her classroom she thanked me for helping her and lifting her mood. I hope we get to be hosts again next week! 

The grass field opened up for gym time! And it has been SO  hot outside for the past 2 days. But its so much fun.. we usually just play frisbee and hang out with our zone. Me and Dixon did one of those two person cartwheels.. and everyone thought we were soooo skilled haha. 

Me and my district were all talking the other day about how in 2 weeks we'll be at the airport together. It seems so surreal! Can't even believe it. Its crunch time.. i really need to crack down on Espanol

Something cool that happened this week was during our TRC lesson. That morning i had prayed to be able to recognize promptings and act on them. Then during our lesson, our investigator was asking us how we're supposed to "endure to the end, and have a perfect brightness of hope", when things are going wrong in our lives. and that she's prayed for god to help with her trials, but he hasn't taken them away. Then the scripture Mosiah 24:14-15 popped into my mind, and i shared it with her. It totally answered her question.. and explained that God doesn't take away our burdens.. he just helps us lift them. He gives us strength to endure, and to serve cheerfully. I was so grateful that those verses were able to come into my mind by the Holy Ghost.. cuz they weren't originally in the lesson plan. 

Hope you're all doing fantastic! Tengan una buena semana!