Zone Divisions!!!

Well to say the least this week was very interesting…haha. Monday night we get a call saying that every companionship in our zone is going to do divisions Tuesday – Friday. There are like 20 companionships in our zone. It was nuts. I was put in the ward with the assistants to the President of the Mission, woah! My companion was Hermana Diaz we got to the mission the same transfer and she is from Chile! She was so much fun. I lived in a house with 5 other Hermanas. There were only two rubias (blondes), I think my Spanish progressed a lot this week.

The last morning I made cinnamon rolls with the Villa Mitre familia, it was so much fun. They were delicious! Who would have thought that I would learn how to make cinnamon rolls in Argentina…hahaah

Well I am back in Punta Alta now...Sofía and her family are back from their vacation...and she came to church yesterday and GUESS WHAT!? Her sister came with her AND their dad is the one that dropped them off! AHHH! She still doesn´t have a date to be baptized yet because we haven´t had time to talk to her dad, but she told us yesterday that she can´t wait to get baptized. How cool is that? I am determined to reactivate this whole family. 

I really love it here. We are super close to the ocean but I still haven´t seen it yet…what a bummer huh? BUT to answer your question mom, I CAN SEE THE STARS HERE!!! In Santa Rosa I don´t think I could...but honestly I never really checked...hahaha. I will look for the Southern Cross constalation.

We are working so hard right now to find new investigators...it´s been a long 4 weeks of doors in our face but we have found quite a few less active familias that we are trying to help come back to church. 

Argentina is just as crazy as ever nothing too interesting to report though.

I love you all, thank you for your love prayers and support. 

Always, 

Hermana Barker 

xoxo 

The Work is Slow

Well last Tuesday we had conferencia with the Mission Presidente. It was really cool.  Wow, he is such a powerful guy. The craziest part is that it is all in Spanish, 100%.  It´s a miracle that I can understand anything he says...haha. He talked a lot about urgency. Really I never realized how powerful of a word it really is. Elder Ballard in a talk in 2013 October conference talked about urgency too. He said ¨there exists urgency in each and every one of us to participate in missionary work¨ before my mission I had no idea what that even meant. How can we as members help the missionaries? If you have the same question please find the missionaries in your ward and ask them specifically, how can I help you? I have been learning that the work is significantly different in different parts of the world, but one thing that is the same in every country is that missionary work isn´t just for missionaries. It is for members and missionaries to work together, the missionaries are called to help members. The urgency exists in every country, in every mission, in every stake ward branch or district. 

Then on Wednesday our second counselor asked me if I could talk in sacrament meeting about exactly that, urgency of the work. And how to get the members involved. I will be the first one to admit that before my mission I had no idea how to share the gospel with anyone let alone people I don´t even know very well, but I can promise you that you can do it. 

Okay enough of that rant...haha the work here is still moving relatively slow. Sofía is out of town so we didn´t see her at all this week, that was kind of sad. We found one new investigator. She is 10 years old too, really, exactly like Sofía. Her mom has been a member for a really long time...but...inactive. So we have another family to work with and to help them realize the importance of the gospel.

Realmente. Yo sé que este iglesia es la única iglesia en todo el mundo que Dios esta dirigiendo. Dios quiere por cada uno de sus hijos a encontrar este evangelio que cada uno puede recibir los bendiciones. 

Por las personas que están leyendo esto y no pueden entender, por favor traducirlo. (Translate this if you can´t understand)

¡Tratalo! Encontrar los felicidades eterna. Yo sé que existe. Si piense que ya esta feliz, yo puedo prometer que puede encontrar mas con la ayuda y amor de Dios. 

Le amo cada uno de ustedes. Gracias por su apoyo amor y oraciones. 

Translation:

Really. I know this Church is the only Church in the world that God is directing. God wants for each of your children to find this gospel so that everyone can receive the blessings.

Try it! Find the eternal happiness. I know it exists. If you think you are already happy, I can promise, you can find more with the help and love of God.

I love every one of you. Thanks for your support love and prayers.

Always, 

Hermana Barker

xoxo 

 

Burritos!

Try having a list of like 20 things to do on the computer (all mission approved of course) and only having an hour to do them...hahahahaha

Anyway, this week was good. Nice and warm. Lots of rain, but only at night thank heavens. 

Okay so we had a Noche de Hogar this week we watched 17 miracles and ate popcorn, a ton of popcorn. Thank you mom and dad for teaching me how to make it haha. We also found a burrito stand! Nothing like Cafe Rio but nonetheless...burritos! Oh and the picture of me and the girl with pink hair, she is less active but has such a strong testimony we are working a lot with her right now and she came to the activity!!!! AHHH!! Oh and she loved my CTR ring and since it hasn´t been robbed from me yet and I brought extras...I gave it to her(: now we´re twinners! 

Burritos - yumm

Twinners!

Anyway not a whole lot happened this week. We are working so hard and are contacting like crazy but we aren´t seeing a lot of success, but it´ll come. We are working with a lot of part member families right now. The mom and dad and one daughter are baptized but one daughter isn´t, we are working with her and she came to church it was a miracle because we couldn´t visit her this week because her family was sick and her mom said no every time, but she came to church!!! We have a cita with them tomorrow and we are going to try to put a fecha! But they are going out of town on Friday for like a week and a half! Ah Pucha! Oh well. She´s still gold! 

I love the area really, it´s super nice! Thank you everyone for your love support and prayers, they are needed and much appreciated! 

Always,

Hermana Barker

xoxo 

Americans are Like Aliens

Pucha! Today has been a freaking CRAZY day! We have spent all morning trying to find a bank with money...ha we had to travel to a different city to pull out money...so right now we are in Bahia!! haha and we´re going to go to lunch really soon at a buffet but for Argentina food...hahaha YES! 

I´m not going to send pictures this week either just because we aren´t in a super safe c-berg and I don´t want some one to rob my camera or anything...hahaha but don´t worry, I´m safe, just not all of my belongings are...Argentina is so weird. 

Okay so Punta Alta! It´s completely different than Santa Rosa. The work here is like...dead. When I got here we had one investigator but we ended up dropping her because she refuses to pray...this week we found 3 new investigators though!!! They are all pretty dang solid...so here we go. 

Lydia, she is like 50ish years old and we found her because her 3 year old daughter was running around in the street and the kids here always come up to us when they see us, Americans are like aliens. So we started talking to her mom and she is great! She got baptized a few years ago in an Evangelical church but now the pastor that baptized her is like in jail or something so she is worried that her baptism isn´t vaild anymore...She accepted a fecha (date) but it fell through because she was out of town this weekend, but she called us on Sunday morning telling us how excited she was to come next week! 

Next, Gustavo. He is an ancient investigator that we felt like we should go talk to. He still hasn´t accepted a fecha but he is keeping all his compromisos except going to church, but he was out of town too...(it´s the last week of vacation for lots of people here) He is praying and reading the BoM AND praying in lessons...that hardly ever happens week 1 in Argentina! 

Third. SOFIA!!! AHHH!!! I love her so much already. She is 10 years old, her dad has been a member his whole life, her mom was baptized 6 years ago and her older sister 5 years ago but then the family became  inactive...we haven´t figured out why yet...I think the dad likes to drink...pucha. But! She´s absolutely adorable. Her dad won´t let us put a fecha because he doesn´t want her to feel pressured or like a number in our statistics...which I understand so we are going to work really hard with her this week and she already has all her asistencias so she can get baptized when ever she feels ready. More than just baptizing her we really want to reactivate this family. They have one more daughter that is 3 years old! They are going to get sealed, I just know it!

So those are our investigators! Now more about the area; the city of Punta Alta is like 50% military because there is a HUGE military base on the coast. So like everyone Navy lives in Punta Alta and if they aren´t Navy they probably do something on the civil side of things, haha. It´s been interesting. Also our house is TINY! I´m going to send photos I lied you need to see it. We have a kitchen a living room and one bedroom. Me and my companion sleep in the living room and study in there too and the other hermanas sleep and study in the other room. We have a tiny bathroom but the toilet flushes so that´s good. Oh and our washing machine is outside...hahaha like outside our back door...hahaha only in Argentina. 

Thank you everyone for everything! 

Always,

Hermana Barker 

xoxo