9.05.11

My dearest family and friends!
This past week marked my 6 months in the mission. Its kind of crazy to think that I have already been out on my mission for 6 months but at the same time it seems super slow. I dont really know how to explain it. We had a pretty interesting week this past week. The heat is starting to come and I already know that I might die here in Argentina. Man I dont know how to explain how horrible it is and especially when you are a missionary and you cant just chill in your house all day. We had a nice week this past week of lots of rejections. The thing is is this is pretty normal for me because its pretty much always like this but for my comp it is kind of a shock because she said that her other areas were not like this. I think that this area is one of the harder areas of the mission. As I think about that I think I am grateful to have started in this area because I dont know any better because a lot of missionaries that come here from other areas struggle a lot. I consider it a blessing that I started my mission here.
Our dearest friend Francisco was able to go to church this past sunday. On saturday night we talked to some members of the branch presidency and asked them if they could give Francisco a blessing of health that he can get better and so that he would be able to go to church on sunday because these past couple of sundays he hasnt been able to because he feels sick in the morning. Well I think heavenly father helped him because he came to church and we are scheduling his baptism for this saturday! pray that everything will work out!!!
We started teaching this family about two weeks ago that have 6 children ages 2-11 and they came to church with us yesterday. The thing that happens a lot in the mission is that a lot of people say that they will come to church and that we can pass by in the morning to find them but they arent home or something. Well we passed by this families house yesterday morning to bring them to church and we knocked on their door about 3 times with no answer. We stood their super sad and started to walk away when all of a sudden one of the daughters came out the door in her dress and one by one the children walked out the door in their nicest clothes. Aww it was the sweetest thing ever. and the mom had been working all saturday to fix her skirt so that she could have a skirt to wear to church. The mom said that the kids are suppose to be baptized on the 25 in the catholic church. but little does she know that on the 24 they will be baptized in the mormon church. haha but ya those were the two great things of the week! we are continuing to work hard to find those people who are ready but man are the people super closed here. They are very very catholic and have no desire to change those traditions. any suggestions??? a lot of the people here have a lot of fear too because of things going on in the world so they dont let us into their houses a lot. my zone leader told me i need to be more insistent. uhh i have never been a very insistent person. this should be interesting...
things are good. we have tranfers on wednesday and we find out tuesday night what happens. so we will see what happens. i literally have no idea. its possible that i leave or stay. but i will be a little bit sad to leave because i wont get to see the baptism of Francisco but we will see... I know the lord will do what he feels is right. It it incredible how much my testimony has grown in these past 6 months and I can only imagine how much more in will grown in the next year. I know without a doubt that this is the true church. That God lives and that he is there for us blessing us. I was studying about faith yesterday and how we cannot see miracles if we dont have faith. I feel like my faith gets tested so much in my mission but I know that in the end it is always strenthened by the trials. Love you all lots! thanks for the support!!

-Hermana Van Wag

p.s. does anyone have ideas of games to play for FHE? we want to have an FHE but I seriously cannot think of games?? any ideas are great!!!