Whew! I can`t believe Christmas is coming up so fast! For
the most part I haven`t been home sick about it because it is SO
STINKIN HOT. Seriously I can`t even imagine Christmas time when it feels
like Lake Powell in July. I literally sleep with the fan on, my hair in
a bun on top of my head, and without any coverings of any type. I would
pull the wet sheet trick, but I don`t want to get eaten alive by the
bugs either. Yes Kyrst, I think I have the best tan I`ve ever had in my
life, but it is definitely a sister missionary tan. (Farmers tan and
everything.)
Anyway, to answer some questions, mom, the language is
coming along great! I can always get my point across even if it is in a
very round about way sometimes. My companion is great at helping me with
vocab specifically of Argentina. Also, it seems I have the gift of
being able to speak with the accent. Most people think I have been here
for like seven months until I have to ask what a word means purely
because I have the accent down. Also, I play the piano ALL THE TIME now
because our branch is so tiny and other than the other American sister
missionary, I am the only one who plays the piano. Oh and I am supposed
to ask you if you know a Salvador Molto from your mission in Mendoza.
The family whose computer I am using to skype you guys is like the
greatest member family in the WORLD! They are a cute young married
couple with a very spunky two year old daughter. Brother Cortez served
his mission in Ogden, and Sister Cortez is from Mendoza. Her dad is
Salvador Molto and she said he was one of the pioneer members as well as
a bishop and a ward mission leader there. So maybe you met him? Hermana
Cortez is really excited to know if you did. Yes we will be making
another five hour bus trip to the offices for the pday before Christmas.
We get to go to the temple as a mission, have a Christmas lunch, and
then a musical program that I am singing in. SO EXCITED!
Also, I don`t know if you are sending a birthday
package because my birthday is so soon after Christmas, but the next
transfer meeting will be the day of my birthday and so I will be able to
have the zone leaders bring it from the offices if you send something.
Really, whatever you send would be great, but a couple of ideas you
could choose from that I would like. Bug spray with 35 percent deet (
they don`t sell anything more than 15 percent here) whatever american
food (instant oatmeal packages, hot chocolate, mint oreos, peanut
butter, waffle crisp, starbursts), and some really great MOTAB CDs. The
weekend that we had exchanges and I went another area, my ipod broke
somehow when I was gone. It won`t hold battery anymore and so I would
love it if Dad could maybe put a bunch of the music on CDs and send
them. Every apartment has a CD player.
Bueno, this week has been great! The most exciting
thing has been that we are preparing two fantastic women to be baptized
the week of Christmas. The first, Rosa (the woman in the picture that I
sent last week), has been such a miracle. Hermana Medeyro and her old
companion found her a couple days before I arrived here in Junin, and at
first she didn`t want to let the missionaries into her house. Its crazy
to think that she is even the same person because the change has been
so crazy. Yesterday at church, my companion and I gave the lesson in the
Gospel Principles Sunday school class about service. Her hand was up
every two minutes with wonderful comments. After sacrament meeting, we
lost track of her and were afraid that she had left, but we found her
talking to the relief society president asking if she could come and
clean the chapel one day before work. We were shocked! She is so excited
to be a member and her baptism will be another amazing experience. The
second investigator we have is Ana Maria. I don`t think I have ever seen
someone so excited to be baptized. She is an older woman with flaming
red hair and an attitude to match it. Because of health problems, she
is unable to work and her lifestyle is very simple, but she has so much
faith in the Lord. This week she had a power outage in her building and
she didn`t have a flash light. I remembered I had one and so we decided
to head back to the apartment to get it and bring it to her, but we only
had seven minutes until we had to be in the apartment and it was about a
fifteen minute trip. I don`t think I have ever ridden so fast and hard
in my life! When we got back to the apartment in the nick of time, we
collapsed on the floor laughing and covered in sweat. I think this is
what it means to be a missionary sometimes. You love your investigators
so much that you are willing to sacrifice so much for them! She was
orphaned at age eleven and during a lesson I had the strongest prompting
to teach about the temple and family history work. Now she is even more
excited to baptized because she wants to be baptized for her mom in the
temple afterwards!
We also had our branch Christmas party here. South
American schedules are different and so the party started at eight
thirty at night and finished around midnight. Of course we had to leave
early, but our investigators stayed the whole party and now have good
friends in the branch! Such a blessing. I will send pictures next week
because I don`t have time today.
Some Argentine cultural stuff, I saw my first
cockroach in our apartment. We screamed a lot and threw shoes and
whatever else until it was dead. The next morning we woke up the and
there were a ton of ants on our floor. Luckily we had the ant poison to
get rid of them, but when my companion saw them she said. `I think its
going to rain today`. I looked at the cloudless sky and thought `shes
crazy` but later that day a crazy storm blew in from nowhere. Apparently
when there are more cockroaches and ants it means its going to rain?
Lots of Love
Hermana Millett!
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