Identity Crisis!

Well I already told you the story about my new name Sofia but now I´ve got one more...Hermana Baker...haha. Presidente Parreño ALWAYS calls me Hermana Baker. At first I just brushed it off and thought maybe there was a typo or something and he just was saying it how it was typed... nope. He thinks my name is Hermana Baker so just as a joke one day I put a sticky on my nametag to change my name...The worst part is it´s been 7 months of Hermana Baker and I feel like it´s just too late to correct him...oh well. 

Yo Soy Hermana Baker 

Can you believe I have been on my mission for 7 months!!! I FEEL SO OLD! It´s so weird. I feel like I have been here for years, but also like I got here like last week. I will never get used to this feeling. 

7 Months!

This week not a whole lot really happened so I will just tell you some funny mission stories...haha. So the Elders in our ward are always messing around and this week they decided to pull a prank on a newbie on p-day. They put black glue all over the floor in their bathroom and lit it on fire…so the smoke came off super black then they woke him up and told him the house was on fire and he ran from the house screaming...hahaha don´t worry Hermanas don´t do things that crazy.

We ate tacos on Friday for lunch it was so nice. Don´t get me wrong I like Argentina food but they have 7 things... 

1- Milanesa 

2- Empanadas

3- Tarta

4- Gieso 

5- Pasta

6- Asado

7- Pizza 

We eat one of the 7 every time we eat with members so it´s always nice to see a little variety. 

This week a volcano erupted in Chile and there was a ton of ash in the sky so we spent a lot of time bonding this week with the other Hermanas in the house. We played a lot of phase 10...It´s super funny to play games and speak in Spanish because it is just vocabulary that we don´t have...haha 

Thank you for all your love support and prayers!

Always, 

Hermana BaRker

xoxo

Some times I doubt the choices people here make. This is our neighbors car...They drive it all the time. The trunk is completely unattached...The other day when the took off it fell off...hahah 

Noche de Hogar con la familia Fuch!
(Family Home Evening with the Fuch Family) 

Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening)

Hermana Greene, Moria, Me & Michelle

MILAGROS - Miracles

Well remember how last week I told you that we found Moira. Well. She is GENIAL! (Like way cool) She had been investigating the Church for a while before she moved here and she was so ready. We taught her almost everyday last week and well...

SHE GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! 

The coolest lesson last week was on Tuesday. We just wanted to get to know her and figure out where she was in her investigation and her faith. So we just asked if she had any questions...she did, about the Word of Wisdom, crap…haha. No, but it was so cool. She wasn´t like an alcoholic or anything but she wanted to know why it isn´t okay to go to a bar every now and then with friends and drink a beer. We really just taught her the doctrine behind this commandment and she was teary by the end. She bore us her testimony and told us that she knew it was true. So we invited her to be baptized and she said YES!!!! (After teaching the Word of Wisdom...what?) 

Then we talked for a little while longer and we found out some pretty cool stuff. Ready? 

When she moved from Mar del Plata she was praying to know if the Church was true and if what the Elders had been teaching her was really something she should change her life for. She prayed twice a day for like a week.

Any way the day we found her we were walking in Centro. (We don´t work a ton in Centro because everyone is always in a HUGE hurry) But I felt like we needed to go get our money for rent, but our money wasn´t supposed to be there until the following Monday, but I just felt SO strong that we needed to go look for our rent. Well…we went. No money in our accounts...We were kind of bummed we walked so far for ¨nothing¨ and as we were walking to lunch...We found Moira. 

Well our side isn´t the only cool part. Turns out Moira was walking to a store and she was already on the side of the street the store was on and she was only like a few blocks from it but she didn´t like that the sun was in her eyes...and she felt like she needed to cross the street...one block after she crossed the street...she found us. 

Tuesday she told us that it was the second we found her that she knew the Church was true because she had never seen a sister missionary before she lived in a really dangerous area in Mar del Plata where there are only Elders in the WHOLE ZONE. She had never even seen a sister missionary before and she felt like she needed to ask us what time church starts. It was super funny because she wasn´t even sure if we were Mormon...

Anyway - This week I got to learn and experience how fun and how satisfying it is to be a servant in the Lord´s hands. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what is going to happen and we need to listen to the still small voice every chance we get to follow his directions. 

I am so happy and so blessed to be a missionary in Punta Alta Argentina and Hermana Greene and I have another 6 weeks to work together here! (i.e...transfers - nothing changed).

Hermana Silvester Made a Super Yummy Potato Tortilla

Thanks for all your love support and prayers! They are deeply appreciated! 

Always, 

Hermana Barker

xoxo 

Hermana Baraker Inspecting Her Dinner - Squid

I Will Never Get Used to Argentina!

Squid

Well last P-day we went to Bamboo it´s like a really nice place to eat here and they had squid so I just went out on a limb and tried it...it was not that good. Another thing to add to the list of ¨not ever going to recommend to anyone¨.

This week we found a freaking MIRACLE. Her name is Moria! We were walking in centro on miércoles and she stopped us and was like you are Mormons right? Yeah! What time does your church start here? ...what? She then informed us that she had already looked online and that it said it started at 10 but she thought that was weird so she was going to come at 9 anyway...THERE IS NO WAY SHES NOT A MEMBER, right? Nope turns out she had been investigating in Mar del Plata and she moved here last week. She has been to church there and she came on Sunday! WHAT? She told us she is ready to be baptized. We have an appointment with her tomorrow so we are hoping to put her date for this weekend before transfers...but we´ll see it is a little fast but she is AWESOME!

We finally made it to the beach!

Today we went to a little tiny town like an hour from Punta Alta to go to the beach (it was covered in turtle eggs!)...yeah the bus picked us up late so that is why I am e-mailing so late and why I am completely out of time...because I never really had any in the first place. Anyway... 

The pictures are from the beach and from when we climbed on the roof to watch the sunset.

Always, 

Hermana Barker

xoxo

The Elders

#onlyinArgentina

This week was so AWESOME!

First off! SOFIA FINALLY GOT BAPTIZED! Friday! It wasn´t easy...Last weekend the other ward had a baptism and they didn´t drain the font...so they just shut all the doors and called it good...nope. It turned into like a NASTY fish tank. It smelled SOOO bad and it was FULL of nasty water. So Thursday night we drain it all and come to find out, the drains here aren´t just drains they are like suction things so if it stops sucking out water it stops working so we had like 2 inches of water left in the font and we had to drain it by hand...with towels...so we would put towels in the water then wring them out in buckets.

Friday, we needed to CLEAN the font! Yayy...and so we got to drain it by hand again after cleaning it like 4 times...and then! WE LOST WATER in the font...a sink in the kitchen and 2 faucets outside still worked but nothing else...so we spent 5 hours filling the font. With huge pots of boiling water and lots of buckets...haha, it was quite the adventure. Another one of those #onlyinArgentina moments. The elders helped us a ton. They came over and brought us lunch and helped us all afternoon fill the font.

Her baptism was amazing! Everything went perfectly. I was so happy to see her whole family at church even her dad came! Hermana Greene and I sang Cuando me bautize (When I am Baptized). We sang one verse in English because Sofia asked us too and then after her grandpa told us we have to be angles to sing that pretty and then another lady told us we can´t speak Spanish very well because she couldn´t understand one of the verses...i.e. the verse in English...Great.

I hope that EVERYONE had the opportunity to watch conference. I think I have to admit this is the first time I ever got ready conference weekend (other than the few times I actually WENT to the Conference Center...) haha. Another struggle...We still don´t have power in the chapel, so we didn´t have internet...so we couldn´t watch it in the church. So none of our investigators got to watch it with us. I think one watched it alone but we´ll see! Haha. Anyway we went to a recent converts house and watched it with her and the Elders because no one was in town. It was super fun, but sitting for that long killed my back and my DL wouldn´t let me go out and work after (keep in mind that conference ends here at like 7:00 because of the time change and we had to wait for the translation so we didn´t really finish until 7:30...So we had to go home and rest. Anyway we got a little bored and had some fun with tape!

They talked a ton about families and getting married and at first I was just thinking...how in the world is this supposed to help me I´m on a freaking mission. Then today I was studying and I realized, it wasn´t for me. It was to remind me what I can do FOR my investigators. Elder L Tom Perry talked about how many world and religious leaders are coming to realize the importance of the family and that is so great (A Muslim quoted 2 paragraphs of our Family Proclamation to The World in a huge meeting in the Vatican). But the gospel of Jesus Christ is the one and only place where we can have our families for eternity.

Anyway I hope that everyone that had the chance to watch conference did and loved it and for those of you who were too busy, IT´S ALL ONLINE NOW! I highly suggest EVERYONE watch it.

I love all of you! Each and every one. I thank you for your love support and prayers.

Always,

Hermana Barker

xoxo