Called To Serve. Kara's Argentina Adventures.

2.6.12

2012-02-06T14:55:00.000-08:00

Hey there!

Well this week was an interesting week. So I told you last week about that family that came to church last week right? We had been teaching them for like 4 weeks and for 3 sundays we had called them and passed for their house in the morning to go to church but they were always sleep and didnt want to go so honestly we were about ready to drop them because they didnt seem to have interest. One night we were working and we didnt have plans to visit them we had other plans but my comp felt like we should go and i agreed that yes we should go see them. So we went to visit them and had a great lesson with the mom and she told us that they were going to go to church on sunday like they always told us so when we past on sunday morning they were all up and getting ready for church. It really was a happy moment for us so show up to church with a family of 9. ya a big family! We then past by their house the tuesday after church and had an amazing lesson with them. THey said that they loved church and without a doubt would be going the next sunday. We didnt even ask them but they both told us that they have desires to quit smoking and follow this path and they also told us that they want to go married. We were pretty stoked after tuesday. We then set up an appt for thurs and when we went they werent there :( so we went by on friday and the mom told us that her "husband" doesnt want to go to church until he stops smoking but she told us that she is going to make him take her because she wanted to go. we then past on sat and it is like he doesnt want to talk to us. We are super said. We then went by on sunday morning to go to church and they wouldnt get out of bed and wouldnt talk to us. they made their kids tell us that they didnt want to go. It is super sad. I swear that when things are going super great satan steps right in and does his work. I am super sad because I truly saw so much success with this family. I guess we still have no idea so I am truly hoping and praying that there is still hope with them. we need your prayers!!!!

A funny thing happened this week so the past sunday we only thought that we had this family that went to church but on tuesday when we went to visit one of our investigators they told us that they really enjoyed church on sunday. My companion and I looked at each other and asked them. Oh what church did you go to on sunday? the catholic church? they responded and said no we went to your church. luckily we were with a member with us that backed them up and said ya they were in church on sunday. what??? how did we not see that they were there? hahahahaha that never happens. I think that we were so occupied with helping the family on 9 that we didnt even have a chance to look around and see that other people that we invited showed up. Honestly we had only taught this couple one time and they went to church by themselves. WOW! as a missionary i can say that this doenst not happen often. honestly that is the first time that I have ever had that happen in my mission. ALmost always the first time an investigator goes to church we have to go by their house in the morning to go with them. Ya it was a miracle. We were pretty happy about that. haha

This past sunday we also witnesses another miracle. We have been working for several weeks now with this less active family to help them. They have a son that is 20 and isnt a member. So we have started teaching him and he has never visited the church before but he is very receptive and listens and really likes to listen to the lessons. He told us that he would like to go to church but his goal would be that all of his family went to church together. Wow wouldnt that be incredible we thought. But this past sunday we walked into church and looked and saw the whole Romanuik family sitting together. Wow it was seriously an incredible experience to see.

I guess the thing that I am learning is that is truly is amazing how much love I gain for the people I am teaching. Its not just because I want to see numbers for the work we have done for the week. More than ever I want them to go to church so that they can go to the temple and be sealed as a family so that they can see the blessing I have seen in my life from the gospel. This gospel truly is amazing and I know without a doubt that it is true and this is the work of the lord. We just have to endure to the end. That is def the hardest part but it is possibe with the help of the gospel, scriptures, family, and friends to help us. The lord has promised us that if we endure for the end we will have eternal life. I have always loved the scripture in 2 Nephi 31:20. Things are good. I am happy. I hope you all have an amazing week1! love you lots!!!

Love,
Hna Van Wag

pic 1: my district

pic 2: A NUN! :)

1.30.12

2012-02-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

Hola!

Man do the weeks seem to be passing fast.. Yesterday I was telling my comp I swear that I just wrote home to my family yesterday but it is already time to write again. Dont get me wrong I LOVE writing home and hearing from all of you!!!! Hear I am again to tell you about another week in the life of a missionary in Argentina.

Well this past week we had interviews with our mission President and we had to travel almost 3 hours to another area for interviews. It was actually kind of fun to see other missionarys because here in my area we are a group of 6 and are isolated from everyone else. Other than interviews this week was great! We are teaching this family and have been trying and trying for 3 weeks now to get them to come to church and finally yesterday they all came to church all 9 of them!! You bet I was pretty stocked. Can I just tell you that the mission is def an experience where you have to learn patience because it can be super frustrating to work all week teaching and helping your investigators go to church on sunday and then when none of them show up it is so sad and frustrating. but then when they finally show up it is a very happy moment and it is worth all of the struggles that we went through. I swear getting investigators to go to church is one of the hardest parts. For some reason they always seem to have visitors sunday in the morning. I will just tell you that I am really working to develop more patience. :)

I am truly happy in my area and with my comp right now. We still have a couple more weeks of transfers but I am really hoping that I dont get transfered. I feel like the change of area was a form of transfer and it was nice to have something new and fresh. The one thing that I am really enjoying about being in an area for a good amount of time is seeing how the branch here is growing. It seems like every week there are a few more people in church. and I have already seen a huge difference from when I got here in September. I am truly hoping to be here for a little bit longer because there are a few people that we are teaching who I can see success in the near future and I dont want to miss out on it.

The work is great. THe mission is awesome. I know I say this probably like every week but I am truly grateful and feel blessed to be here. I just always think about how before in my life I never really had a strong desire to serve a mission but I can just tell you that the lord knows me and knew that I was suppose to be serving a mission in this moment. I am happy and I love sharing my testimony everyday and sharing this amazing message with the poeple here. I feel so blessed to have the gospel in my life and I wouldnt want to be anywhere else right now than here sharing this happiness with the people here. Love you all lots!!! Thanks for your support and love! Have a wonderful week!!!!!

Love,
Hermana Van Wagenen

Pic 1: Baptism of Facundo!!! He is the 9 year old son of the less active family I was teaching and was baptized this past saturday. The elders were now teaching him these past 3 weeks but I still consider him my investigator! This is my new comp Hermana Cepeda

Pic 2: Me and my mini comp Hermana Vera when I sent her home.

Pic 3: My investigator Patricia the first time she came to church

1.23.12

2012-01-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

hey!
man this week seemed to fly I dont know about you guys? Things are going good here. I have already seen a huge difference in this week and a half that i have had with my new comp. It truly is a huge blessing for me to have a new comp who is here and ready to work. We are a little bit sad because when we did the switch of areas with the elders the elders didnt leave us with any investigators who are really progressing so we have a lot of work to do here in this area but I have faith that everything will work out. Sadly in my other area I left the elders with at least 2 for sure baptisms and maybe more. but whatever I swear that is what always happens in the mission. It kind of stinks.

I truly find it a blessing from the lord that I have been put with many latin companions to help me with the language. Sometimes it is a little bit difficult because there are sometimes things that I don't understand but I know that if I was with a comp from the states I wouldn't be learning the language. My comp is really teaching me to be more confident and to always invite everyone to come and listen. I really do think that because we are doing this more we are finding a lot more investigators.

Things are good! I am happy and know that I am where the lord wants me to be. I truly am happy to be here. I am not going to lie it has its difficult times and this argentina sun is killer and sometimes i have no desire to leave the apt because it is so hot but I do it and I know that the lord is blessing me. I truly love this gospel and I have no doubt in my mind that I am doing the work in the lord. We as missionaries are truly representatives of the lord! We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives. I lovee you all lots and wish you a great week!!!!

Love,
Hermana Van Wagenen

1.16.12

2012-01-16T10:29:00.000-08:00

hey!!!!
Well we had tranfers this past wednesday and I will just tell you that I am super happy! My new companions name is Hermana Cepeda and she is from Lima, Peru. She just finished her two transfers of being trained and now she is with me. but I wouldnt have thought that she was new because she works just like any other missionary. I am so happy to have a real companion that understands the missionary work and is here to work. I think this is going to be a good transfer!!!

hmmm not much happened this week besides tranfers. It has been a bit of a struggle with the new area but we have been able to figure things out and luckily we are able to call the elders to help us out a little bit. It is crazy the difference i have already seen in these past 3 days with my new companion. Things are a lot better and I am ready so see some success in this new transfer. The president also sent two more elders to our branch here in Obera so now we have 6 missionarys here and he is wanting us to work hard and find all of these members. 1500. so our goals right now are to help the branch here in Obera grow and bring it back to how it was. We have a lot of work to do but I am excited. I really dont have a lot to write this week but things are good. I have already seen the lords hand so much in this past week and I know that this work that I am doing is true and powerful. I truly thank the lord everyday for this amazing opportunity that I have to be apart of this work. There are def difficult times in the mission but I know that from every difficulty that there is always something so learn from it. Thanks everyone for your support and all you day. I am so grateful for all of you!!!!! Love you lots!!

-Hermana Van Wagenen

1.9.12

2012-01-12T17:54:00.001-08:00

Hey there!

Man another week has past. I feel like I was literally just here typing the letter from last week but another whole week has past. awww how sad to hear that Sassy died. Man how long did we have her? Forever! how crazy! but I am assuming that you still have the other cat that honestly I dont even know the name of the cat. and did you ever find a dog dad? haha

Well truthfully I dont have much to tell about this past week. We have been doing a lot to prepare for the change of area. On Saturday we spent the whole day with the elders because they were showing me my new area (their area) I am not going to lie I am kind of scared for the change because I am comfortable and know my area that changing to a new area with a new comp that doensnt know anything is going to be interesting. lets hope that i have a good memory! At the end of the day on saturday i took off my shoes and it looked like I had a huge tan line from my shoes but the marks were really just dirt! Super gross! I think I am going to be a lot more dirty in this new area because basically the whole area is dirt. no streets!!

We were very blessed on sunday with 5 investigators in church! It is def not easy to get investigators to church. Most of the time when we pass by their house they are sleeping or just dont answer the door. So we were pretty excited when the less active family (Antunes Family) with their son Facundo (9 years old) showed up at church and a few of their neighbors that we have been teaching. I am getting kind of sad because you really start to form relationships with the families and people you are teaching and this week we will be changing and wont be able to teach these people anymore. but luckily I will still be in the branch and will be able to see them on Sundays if they come to church!

Well we have transfers on wed. We dont know anything yet because we wont find out till tuesday night but I do know that I will be getting a new comp. I am super anxious and nervous and praying that i wont be getting another mini missionary! haha but things have def gotten better this week with the mini missionary. We actually get along really well but as far as the missionary work it has been a little hard because she didnt know anything but things are good. but change will be kind of nice! it is always nice to have a little change! I am doing good. I really feel like I am learning so many things that are helping me grow here in the mission and will help me after the mission. there are def some challenges but I am try and sit back and think about what i am learning from these challenges and what I can take from it. I am really grateful for this short time that i have to serve the lord and share this amazing message with the people here in Argentina even though there are a lot that dont want to accept I just hope and pray that i can make a difference in someones life. Love you guys lots and hope everyone is doing good! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Van Wagenen

1.3.12

2012-01-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

Hey there!

Can you believe that it is already 2012? How crazy huh? Another year has past! I have been thinking a lot lately in what could be my new years goal! I am still in the process of figuring them out! haha Well us poor missionarys again didnt have any plans or invitations for new years and knowing that new years is a holiday of drinking we knew we werent going to have much success knocking doors so we sadly called members to see if perhaps we could stop by for a bit at night and luckily the members who is always there for us (Dora) happily invited us over for the night. So we ended up spending new years eve night (until 11) with Dora and her family. I was lame and went to bed. I didnt even stay up to see the fireworks. but from what I have been told it sounds like New Years here is pretty much the same as christmas. They all have their big bbqs and at midnight light off fireworks and basically drink and party all night. I dont think I missed much. Its not like I am a huge fan of meat anyways. and sadly none of our investigators that said they were going to go to church on sunday showed up. I am kind of ready for the holidays to be over so people can calm down a little bit and wont have as many excuses. haha even though we know they always make up some sort of excuse. haha

Well this week was an interesting one. On friday around 3 in the morning I was woken up to hearing my comp crying and pounding her leg on her mattress. Honestly I was super out of it and I just assumed that she was crying because she was sad and missed her family or something so I didnt say anything. Until about 2 hours of crying later she asked me if I had advil or something because her ear hurt really bad. So I gave her advil and went back to bed and didnt hear much more. In the morning she told me that she was pretty much awake all night with killer pain in her ear but that she was feeling better. We then went out and worked an then had lunch with a member when she said that the pain was back and it hurt bad. So guess what we had to do? yep I had the wonderful privelage of experience a lovely hospital in Argentina and I would like to say that I never want to have that experience again. Can I just say that we are blessd in the United States to have nice clean hospitals. Man what an experience. I just felt dirty the whole time. but it seems like my comp is doing better and hopefully we will be able to work. Man it has been difficult because it seems like almost every other day that she feels sick with something so it kind of hinders our working a little bit. but we are doing what we can!

We are working a lot with inactive members right now and trying to find them. There are like 1500 members here and about 50 active. There is a lot of work to do! Our mission president told us to not even knock doors but to just focus on finding these members because a lot of times there are members in the family who have possibility of being baptized. I am hoping we have some success with that because right now I dont know what is going on but it seems like everyone is in their own little world and dont want anything to do with us. so the members it is!!! haha Well, I hope all is well! Things are well here! We continue working hard and learning lots! Man is there a lot to learn here on earth huh? I feel like there is not enough time to learn!

Love you all lots,

Hermana Van Wagenen

pic 1: Christmas eve in the church!

pic 2: Senor Morales!

pic 3: One of the many beautiful Argentine sunsets

pic 4: Dora the explorer (one of my fav members!)

12.27.11

2012-01-01T22:56:00.000-08:00

hey there!

well as you probably have figured out yesterday was another holiday here in argentina so we had to work yesterday and today we are having p-day. We didnt even find out until 10 on sunday night. haha ahhh how amazing it was to talk to you guys. I am not going to lie I was super nervous to call and talk to you guys because it has been such a long time but it wasnt weird at all. I absolutely loved it so much. It was just what I needed and like you said I think I just needed someone to talk to because it has been a while since I have been able to talk to someone in english. What a great day! man I love you guys so much!

well I really dont have much to write today because I just talked to you guys on sunday night but I will just write about christmas for other people to read. haha So they celebrate christmas here was different than I am used to. I figured that everyone celebrated pretty much the same but man was I wrong. So they start celebrating about 1030 on the 24 of December. They all get together with their familys and have a big bbq of meat, meat, and more meat!! They love their meat here!!! Well then at midnight they all start shooting off fireworks and then start partying and dancing and drinking all night (my comp told me till like 11 the next morning) crazy huh? they dont really do the whole santa clause thing. They give each other little gifts. and then I think on the 25 they have another bbq for lunch of meat. but sadly we didnt get invited to anything so we ended up going to the church on saturday night and watched the first presidency christmas message with the elders and a couple in the branch and then ate. Then on sunday we went to church for sacrament meeting and then made lunch in the church and basically spent the whole day in the church with the elders watching church movies and calling home. I actually really enjoyed it. Super relaxing and we were able to focus more on the reason for the holiday. The birth of our savior Jesus Christ. It really was a good day for me.

On sunday we went to pass for some of our investigators in the morning to bring them to church and when we got to their houses the houses were closed and I am pretty sure they were all sleeping. Well we then got to church and three of these kids that we have been visiting their families were sitting in church waiting for it to start. They are 9, 11, and 11. Man what examples they are. They woke up in the morning and all walked together to church without their parents or anything now it the struggle of helping the parents. Man does it really shock me to see kids like that.

Things are still hard right now with the mini missionary. Man do I have to be so strong right now because literally if I dont do anything nothing will get done. Its hard because sometimes you have a bad day or are really really tired and you dont have strength to do anything but luckily you have a comp to help you and to share the work but it is not like that in this situation. If I do teach or talk to people then we dont do anything. man am I really having to learn to leave my comfort zone. I guess that is what I always said before my mission huh? that I wanted to learn to be able to talk to people and not be scared well the mission is really forcing me to do that. haha but I am learning a lot and I know there is a reason for this challenge right now and there are things for me to learn. There are always things to learn from the hard times. Well I love you lots!!! hope everyone enjoyed their christmas and has a happy new year!!!! Dont forget the reason for the season and our savior Jesus Christ! What a blessing it is to have the restored gospel on the earth today and the priesthood. I am grateful everyday for this opportunity that I have to share this with the people here in Argentina.

Love,

Hermana Van Wagenen

12.19.11

2011-12-19T23:47:00.000-08:00

Hello over there!

Merry Christmas!!! Its hard to believe that it is already christmas huh? Man does time fly. First of all I would like to express my feelings right now about an email that I received. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am seriously soooooooo excited right now! and I think you know why!! Heather is going to Jerusalem!!!!! I couldn't be more happy and excited for her!! Just following in her favorite sister footsteps ehhh? haha Man do I wish that I could experience Jerusalem again. What an incredible experience. I was literally jumping for joy over here when I read the email. Im sure everyone was looking at me like a freak. esta bien I am a freak right? haha.

Well this week was better. Thanks for all of your love and support and prayers. They have def been felt. I am doing better. That doesn't mean that it is easy but I have really been turning to my heavenly father and the sciptures all lot for comfort and help in this time. I realize that this isn't going to last forever and there is something I have to learn from it. Like dad told me, I am hear to help her learn the gospel and she is here to help me with the spanish. I totally agree. I got a call from our mission president on Saturday and he was asking how we were doing and how I was doing with the mini and all he said was that it is my responsibility to be an example to her by being happy and sharing my testimony. She is so new in the gospel I am always so scared that I might say something or do something wrong.

Well we are still visiting with this inactive family a lot. They are wanting there son to get baptized so this past week we had an awesome lesson asking them why they want him to be baptized and the importance of being examples as parents for their children and how the gospel is for the family. Well at the end of the lesson they told us to were going to come to church and guess what they showed up!! The whole family!! This might not seem like something special but for me this was huge. It has been several years since they have been to church and they showed up yesterday with the whole family and stayed for classes after. Man was I smiling so big all during church. there are so many people that say they are going to come and then dont show up so when they actually do show up it is the best thing in the world!! SOme of their neighbors showed up to. Yesterday was a good week with attendence in church. we had 5 investigators! yay!

Well here comes another new challenge in my path pretty soon. When president called me on saturday he said that they have been talking a little bit with our branch president about the area here and they feel like they need to make some changes and they are going to be changing our areas. In our branch there is my comp and I and a pair of elders. Well beginning of this next transfer we will be working in the elders area and they will now be in our area. It is basically like doing another whitewash because we dont know anything about their area. oooh
how fun ehh? and it stinks because we have all the awesome members in our area right now. but whatever there is always a good reason right? I am doing good. Just taking it one day at a time and really relying on my savior more than anything and the scripture man do I love the scriptures so much. They provide so much comfort and help me so much. What a blessing it is so have scriptures. I feel blessed to have this opportunity to share my testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ at this time because he is the reason for the season. It is so great to be able to really focus on that this christmas. We really dont have any plans for Christmas. I am hoping that someone will invite us over for something. haha we will see. and if not i guess we will have to figure something out with us two. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and always remember the reason for the season. love you lots and I am constantly praying for you. I still havent recieved the Christmas package but hopefully sometime this week it will show up. I am crossing my fingers.

love,
Hermana Van Wagenen

p.s. Thanks sis Greenlaw for the letter. I seriously was so excited to read it. I dont have time right now to right back but dont you worry a letter will be coming back. I am so excited because I know that you literally understand everything that I am going through. haha

12.12.11

2011-12-19T00:26:00.000-08:00

Hey there!

It sounds like everyone is busy right now taking finals/ getting ready for Christmas! haha I loved the pic of Grandma and Grandpa on Santas lap. I almost died. How funny. I loved it!!!!

Well as I sit here and try to think about my week not a lot of exciting stories come to mind. So it looks like this weeks letter is going to be a boring one. haha Last monday after writing home we went to a members house to hang out and make Chipas!!! have you ever heard of chipas? They are these small balls of cheese bread! mmmm so yummy! i was really wanting to learn how to make them so when I am home I will be able to make them. They are delicious but who knows if I will be able to re make them.

Recently we have been working on going through the list of members. Our branch here is obera has over 1,000 members but only about 50 that are active. Sad huh? so the president gave us the responsibility of finding these people and find out what happened basically. so this week was a week of finding some of these people. but man is it a lot harder to find address here than in the states. some of the address literally say the house next to the blue store. hahaha. ridiculous!! but we did find a few members. We found this sweet young family who have 3 kids and they actually have a son who is 9 who they want him to get baptized! the only problem is that they dont want to go to church! uhhh PROBLEM!!! apparently the dad got offended several years ago when they were rebuilding the church building and they didnt ask him (who is a construction worker) to help with building it. so basically he got offended and stopped going. It is ridiculous who many people/members there are here who dont go to church because they got offended by some crazy thing. the thing that I always says is ¨"we go to church for God, not for the members!" so we are trying to work with this family to get them active and baptize their son!!!! pray for us they we can know how to help them!

Sadly we were not able to watch the christmas devotional because they couldnt get it to work! how was it? I want to hear about it. Man the sun here is just getting stronger and stronger each and every day! I just keep thinking about you guys enjoy nice cold winter and i am kind of jealous! I seriously used to love summer before my mission and now in this moment it is on my hate list. haha but everyone keeps telling me that here is this area the heat isnt that bad compared to other areas in the mission. so i guess i just have to be grateful to be here during summer. I am not one to ask for help much but I am needing your prayers more than every right now! This situation is a lot harder than I was thinking. I literally feel like I am here doing the work alone and since I am a missionary I need a companion and she is just hear to be with me. Last night we didnt have appts or anything so we ended up having to knock doors/talk to people outside and she wouldnt talk to anyone. She was literally in silence the whole night!! I am trying to be strong but man is missionary work difficult to do alone. There is a reason that we have companions to support each other and switch off doing contacts. She keeps telling me that I seem mad or sad. haha but its more that I am stressed and I need her help. She just doesnt seem to understand and the whole language thing doesnt help. ya I understand the language but people have to be patient with me and speak a little slower and at time repeat words or explain words that i dont know. Well she just speaks super fast always and get annoyed when I dont understand what she is saying. She just expects that I know the whole spanish language but man is there a ton to learn! I dont want to sound like I am complaining because it isnt that it is just a very hard time right now! but there is a reason for it right? There is always something to learn from every hard situation.

Well I love you lots thanks for all of your support and letters. It is very much appreciated!!!!!! Have a wonderful week! Love you all lots!!!!

Love,
Hna Van Wag

photo 1: random pic of Hna Green and I.

Photo 2: not a super great pic but its Hna Green and I with our awesome hats for summer. haha

Christmas letters.

2011-12-05T15:11:00.000-08:00

Don't forget to send Kara some Christmas love!! I'm sure she would absolutely LOVE to get Christmas cards and letters from everyone!!

The mission home address is:

Misio'n Argentina Resistencia

Entre Rios 435

3500 Resistencia, Chaco

Argentina

Also, dearelder.com still works. It's free and will be printed out for her, like a letter.

Feliz Navidad!

12.5.11

2011-12-05T15:06:00.000-08:00

Hi Family!

Well I have to start my email by giving a big huge shout out to the coolest/smartest brother in law in the whole world!! CONGRATULATIONS BRYAN!!!!!! you are such an inspiration and I am so happy for you guys! I am so happy that you guys are going to be in San Fran. You will be close!!! yay!!!

Man does it seem like right as things seem to be comfortable and good in the mission some big huge change comes in the way. Well we are going to back track a little bit to last tuesday.

Tuesday: was our p-day. It was a normal day. We wrote home and then had district meeting and chilled the rest of the day. Then at night we had a branch mission activity that we planned. We just played some fun unity games and gave a short spiritual message at the end. It turned out way good. Well as we were cleaning up from the activity (us and the elders) our district leader recieved the awaited call around 930 from the zone leaders about tranfers. Well we found out that my wonderful comp Hermana Green was headed to Posadas (about 2 hours from here, which is close!) and that I was going to be recieving a mini missionary but they had no idea who it was yet or when she would get here. They basically told me that I need to call a member that night (it was already 1030) to ask them if I could hang out with them/stay with them until I had a comp. well i called a member a luckily she was super awesome and said it wasnt a problem and that I could hang out with here.

Wed: we went to the bus station at 9 in the morning where I dropped hermana green off to head to her new area and Dora (the member) met up with us. I then went with Dora and hung out with her and her family all day on wednesday. It was actually really strange to just sit in the house of a member all day because we dont do that! haha Well it was starting to get late. It was around 830 when I still hadnt heard any information so i asked Dora if she could go with me to my apt so I could get stuff to sleep in because it was looking like I was going to be sleeping in her house. So we went to my apt and as we were on our way back to her house 930ish I got a call from my district leader saying that my companion was at the bus station waiting for me! (ummm why didnt you tell me forever ago that you knew who my comp was and that she was on her way!?!?!?!) so we then went straight to the bus to pick her up and finally got back to our apt at 11ish. Man what a day!

Well the rest of the week has been a pretty normal week. My new comp is Hermana Vera. She is from Formosa (which is one of the ¨states¨that is a part of our mission. She was baptized 2 weeks ago!!!! yes 2 weeks! So basically she doesnt know anything!! I think she knows who joseph smith is. haha I am not going to lie this is worse than training. At least when you train you are with someone that went to the mtc and knows what it is like to be a missionary. She knows that we visit with people and thats about it. This morning I woke up and she told me that around 1 in the morning she called home on our cell phone and talked to her family for a while! ahhhh!!!!! Just as things seem to be going good in the mission God puts another challenge in our way. huh? I just hope that I can be a good example and teach her correctly what the mission is and have it be a good experience for her. I am not going to lie I am feeling super solo right now because basically it is my responsibility every single thing we do and I dont have a lot of support as far as a companion. Man am I realizing how great it is to have a real companion to help in the work. But I guess there is a reason for this right? God put this challenge in my way for a reason and there is always something that he wants us to learn from them. There is so much that I still have to learn here in the mission but its a good thing I still have a lot of time huh?

so I celebrated the 9 months in the mission and with that I basically had a child huh? I basically consider this like training. even though this is going to be a challenging 6 weeks I know that the lord put this is my path for a reason and that he will provide a way to help me do this. I am so grateful for this gospel and I truly am grateful for the things he puts in my path because I know that the will help me grow in so many ways. Bring them on! Thanks for all of your support because it is def appreciated and very needed as a missionary. haha I thank my heavenly father every day for the amazing family that he has given me because I know without you guys this wouldnt be possible. I love you guys a lot! I hope you have a wonderful week. I am hear in Argentina to call people to repentance. What a great opportunity! :)

love you lots,

Hna Van Wag

11.28.11

2011-11-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

hi family!

Well it sounds like you guys had a fun thanksgiving together with the whole family! I am glad to hear that! Its actually nice to be out of the country where they dont even celebrate thanksgiving because it didnt really affect me. I didnt have to see families together celebrating it. I think christmas is going to be a little bit harder but it will be good. My comp and I decided to celebrate a little and we made feather hats like we used to in elementary school and we ate a pie type thing while wearing our feather thanksgiving hats. haha we are super cool right? haha. oh ps Argentina decided to have another holiday yesterday for I have no idea what, so thats why today is our p-day.

Well this week was basically a week of not sleeping I am basically dead!

First night: So you can tell that you are def not in the United States when you have cockroaches crawling on your feet the the middle of the night. The other night we were in bed had already said our prayers and we were just laying in bed around 10:50 at night and all of a sudden I heard a death scream from my comp on the top bunk and she is screaming at me to hand her the flashlight. I immediately jump out of bed and run to turn on the lights. We didnt see anything but just stood there in fear when all of a sudden she picked up her pillow are we see a cockroach the size of my thumb (stinking huge!) under her pillow. She had a broom in her hands and I had the raid cockroach spray in mine. It then jumped off of her bed onto my desk and to the floor and I just attacked the thing with spray and just murdered it. We were then pretty much grossed out the rest of the night and didnt even want to lay in our beds. I literaly am scared to go to bed at night now! because that it at least the 20th cockroach we have found in our apt. I seriously want to throw up. so disgusting!

Next night: Well I think I am pretty much been cursed. Remember how last week I told you about have to teach the relief society lesson and I was talking about how as missionarys we are super on the spot. Well late saturday night the branch president came to me and asked me to give a 15 minute talk the next day in sacrament meeting. 15 minutes!! ahhhh with no time to prepare. and I am not one that can just get up and start talking so basically we were up all night trying to prepare my talk and then translate it into spanish.. (I have an awesome comp who stayed up and helped me!)

Last night: Basically it is a million degrees and I am seriously dying! The sun is literally right above us and so close. and you better believe that we do not have air conditioning or a fan in our apt so basically our apartment is an oven. I am in a constent sweat so basically we just lay in our beds at night sweating and cannot sleep. so sunday night we literally just layed there till 1 in the morning because we couldnt sleep. I dont know if I will survive it is really hard to have energy to work throughout the day. I really hope I can survive this. It has just started and I am already just praying for winter to be here. so if you have any thing that can help me survive summer anything would be welcomed! :)

but I promise there are good things about Argentina too its not all bad! haha Sadly we let our investigator Senor Morales go because he basically stopped progessing and there isnt much more we can do. One of the youth in the ward had been inviting his friend to church for the past 4 weeks and he finally came to church this past sunday. It is so cool to see the youth being missionarys like that! I love it! Man it makes such a difference for us as missionarys when the members and doing their part and inviting their friends. I am so proud of you guys for inviting a family to do the church tour. You guys are the best missionarys. I hope everything works out with that. Let me know how it goes. Well I got to go! Love you all lots and hope you have a wonderful week. Until next week...

con amor,

Hermana Van Wag

11.21.11

2011-11-22T09:12:00.001-08:00

Hi!!!

I am not going to lie. Its really weird to say Happy Thanksgiving here because first it doesnt seem like it should be thanksgiving right now and second they dont celebrate it here so there is nothing to show it would be thanksgiving but since it is november I am assuming thanksgiving is this week! My comp and I are wanting to do some sort of thanksgiving dinner but the truth is that there is nothing here that we could make that is like what we eat for thanksgiving we might just make mashed potatoes or something. haha

Well this week was kind of a sad week for us because Senor Morales once again did not come to church so basically we are just thinking that we have to let him go which is sad but we have been teaching him for so long that now there just isnt really much that we can do. Man its hard to let go of investigators when they are super awesome but I guess that is part of the mission huh? Last thursday the relief society president asked me if I could teach the lesson in relief society. ahhh Man I am not one that enjoys teaching lessons at church and let alone when it is in a different language and with little time to prepare. but I did it! haha it was interesting and I think I just ended up just asking a lot of questions and trying to get the members to talk. Then I showed the movie small and simple things. Have you seen that video? its super cool. you should watch it!! basically as missionaries you are always on the spotlight. we are always the ones call on five minutes before sacrament meeting to give a talk in church. ahhh being a missionary I am realizing it very much out of my comfort zone but I think it is good for me.

I am contining to do good and working hard. I am so grateful for this gospel and for this time that I have to devote to the Lord. What an awesome experience it is. ahh the guy is telling me they are closing. gtg. love you all lots! have a wonderful week together!!!!!

Love,

Hna Van Wagenen

11.14.11

2011-11-14T09:07:00.000-08:00

hey there!
How is everyone doing? well this week was kind of an interesting week. On wednesday our zone leaders decided they wanted to do divisions with us sisters. ya I am not going to lie I was a little scared for that. They told us that they were going to come here in our area and one of us sisters would go with the zone leaders and the other would go with the district leader and his comp. I have never done this before but it actually ended up being a very cool experience for me. I got put with the zone leaders which was kind of intimidating but they really showed me how to be excited and enjoy the work because sometimes each day is kind of the same and it gets kind of repetetive but they really showed me how to stay excited and it doesnt even matter if people reject us because our message is so important and if someone doesnt want to hear it that is their disadvantage.

This week was pretty good. I was pretty sad though because out investigator Senor Morales told us pretty much for sure that him and his wife would be coming to church on sunday. so we excitedly waited on sunday morning for him and he didnt ever show up. man did it make me pretty sad. I just feel like we have been doing so much to help him. We are constantly thinking about him and what he needs and so it lets me down so much when they dont go through with things they say they are going to do. I just pray that this sunday he will finally come. Man there are times in the mission that are really difficult and really sad when you have investigators who have so much potential and are really awesome and then they reject you because they said that their pastor said that they cant talk to us but at the same time there are some really awesome moments in the mission that make everything worth it. I have really learned to turn to the scriptures lately. I have been reading the Liahona/ensign from october about the book of mormon and realized how amazing the book of mormon is and what a power that it has. I have really learned during my mission to turn to the book of mormon because everytime I do I always seem to recieve that comfort that i need. if you dont read the book of mormon daily i suggest that you do it because it is councel from a prophet and i really do believe that it helps so much through the day. i know that the book of mormon is the word of god and was so happy to hear that you guys have been giving out book of mormons! how awesome you are all super missionarys!!! love you all lots and lots! you guys are the best ever!!! have an awesome week!!!!

love,
Hna Van Wag

11.7.11

2011-11-07T14:59:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia!!

This past week was a great week. On Friday we took a 7 hour bus to resistencia with a bus full of missionaries. It was pretty crazy but fun to be with other missionaries. When we got to Resistencia they split us all up and sent us off to different hermanas apartments who are serving in Resistencia. There were 12 hermanas sleeping in one small apartment basically just people all of the floor. It was literally crazy but fun. Then on saturday morning we went to the church and listened to Elder Christofferson and his wife. It was such an amazing experience. I feel so lucky to be here at this time because it is not very often that someone from the 12 comes to our mission and for me I felt like it was the perfect time to come. Almost at the half way point of my mission to get me excited. Its so hard to explain the feeling that I felt but there was such an incredible spirit in the room as he walked in and as he shared his testimony. It just was another strong witness to me that what I am doing is correct and that this is without a doubt the church of Jesus Christ. We also had the opportunity to shake his hand. So AWESOME! It was also super awesome to see all of my friends from the mission. The best part for me was seeing my mtc comp and some of the people from my mtc district! oh what a wonderful weekend!!

The missionary work is still a little slow at this time in our area. We are working hard with our friend Senor Morales who is the man in the wheel chair to get him to church. This is like the 6th week that he hasnt come. Ahhh! I dont know what to do! When we teach him he loves it so much and he says that he knows the things we are teaching him are true and even last thursday he invited his friend to come listen to us and during the whole lesson he was teaching his friend the things. It was so awesome to see him teaching and inviting his friends to listen to us. but the whole coming to church thing has been a problem. Hopefully this sunday we can see a miracle happen! We need your prayers!!! :) Well I dont have a lot of time so its a short letter this week but basically i love you all. Hopefully you have a wonderful week. I am so grateful for all of you and your support during my mission. YOu are awesome!!!

Love,

Hna Van Wag

P.S. I recieved the letters in spanish from the sisters in the ward. I absolutely love them!!! Thanks so much!

10.31.11

2011-10-31T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hey there!
Happy Halloween! umm I pretty much died when I saw Laurens costume. Stinking crazy head! hahaha Ky looks so stinkin cute as a bum, I love Heathers awesome indian outfit and mckay is probably the cutest cow ever well of course up there with Lauren! I am loving the cute halloween costumes! I am just wondering where is Amys outfit? haha So pretty much Halloween doesnt exist here. Its super crazy to me that Halloween is today because I am so used to seeing halloween things in every store I walk by in the United States but here there is nothing. The only reason I knew that it was Halloween because I looked at the date. so basically Im dressing up as a missionary for this special holiday! :) haha creative right?

Well I am super happy to say that we found an awesome family this week! We realized that going around knocking doors has not been super sucessful for us as far as finding people so we figured out a new way. We found out that our branch here in Obera has over a 1000 members but with only maybe 50 active. What happened you might ask. ya I have no idea! Some disaster it seems to me. So we have decided to go through the list of members and start visiting these members and recieving references from them. Well this past week we started this adventure but one of the things about here in Argentina is adresses to houses are not very clear or they have a number to to the house but it doesnt say the number anywhere on the house so basically we have to ask everyone around this area who this family is. but through this we have an excuse to talk to random people and share with them too. Well we asked this family where one of the members lived and we ended up going in their house and teaching them and I was so shocked that both the parents were there and most of the kids while we were there teaching. This was the first time in my mission where it has been like that because usually its just one person that will sit and listen. So for me this was pretty much a miracle. My comp and I were pretty stocked. So we are really trying to focus on this family and what they need. It is the parents and they have 5 children. That is also something not super common so have a whole family with the parents not separated. So we will see what happens with this family!

Well this Saturday I am super excited about!!! We are heading to Resistencia which is about 6 hours away by bus and we will be meeting up with everyone in the mission so listen to a prophets voice!! Elder Christofferson is coming the the Argentina Resistencia mission to speak to us and we are all pretty stocked!! This is the first and probably only time that we will get together with the whole mission like this so I am super excited to see all my friends from the mtc and old comps and to hear from Elder Christofferson!!

Well that was pretty much my week. Things are going well. Learning and growing everyday. Man am I learning that the Lord really does know us. This whole senior comp has not been super easy for me. We all know that I have never been a leader type person but being senior comp I am forced into taking charge and being the leader and going up to people to talk to them. Apparently the Lord wanted to take me out of my comfort zone because man has this been out of my comfort zone but I am grateful for it and the things that I am learning. The mission is crazy but super awesome! haha Well I love you all lots! Have a wonderful week and enjoy your Halloween! Send me some of your candy! haha jk

Lots of Love,
Hna Van Wag

10.24.11

2011-10-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

Hola!
como estan? Total bien aca en Obera. We are still in a pretty slow
moment right now in the missionary work. We basically have one
investigator that is truly progressing but he still hasnt come to
church yet. Its super frustrating. I am realizing that I think this
area might actually be harder than my first area. There is literally a
church on every corner here and its not just catholics. I am realizing
that I actually like to talk to the catholics because most of the
catholics are catholic because of tradition but dont actually go to
church or anything. but here there is a ton more religions and the
people are super super devoted to their religion and believe that
their church is the true church and dont want anything to do with
other religions. yes its pretty awesome! so i am basically realizing
that I am happy when I find a catholic person. haha

So our one investigator that we have is Senor Morales. He was a
reference of one of the members and he is basically the best
investigator one could have. He absolutely loves our visits and is
always waiting outside for us to come. The problem is that he has a
sickness and he is in a wheelchair so this basically impedes him from
going to church because he can only leave and go if his wife drives
him and goes with him. It has been about 4 weeks and he still hasnt
come. We are just praying that one day they will come to church
because I know that as soon as they come they will love it and know!
He is reading the book of mormon every morning and just loves the
things that we teach him because he says that we teach him things that
he never knew before. We are just hoping and praying that they will
come to church because i could totally see a baptism in the future.
Other than him we are pretty slow but its ok I have faith that things
will pick up again.

This past weekend we had a visit from President Hayman and his wife.
We had interviews with him and they took all of us out to ice cream.
it was a fun little visit. and everytime they come they tell us how
much they love obera and apparently obera is the prettiest city in the
mission. it really is a pretty cute city! well i am litterally out of
time. but i love you all lots and hope you have a wonderful week!!!
until next week!!

love,
Hermana Van Wag

10.17.11

2011-10-18T19:38:00.001-07:00

hey there!

Well Happy Mothers Day to my wonderful mom. ok yes I know its not really mothers day but over here in the wonderful Argentina it was mothers day yesterday so i thought I would send a little shout out to my wonderful madre! Can I just tell you that I am loving the emails from Mom and dad about their trip. As I was reading about their experience at church it reminded me exactly of me over here in Argentina. yep no one can play the piano so the singing is HORRIBLE. i mean really pretty.....(trying to stay positive) haha and then the whole sacrament meeting is in spanish. Now its not as bad because I understand a lot more. but i just remember my first while here in sacrament meeting I just sat there totally confused the whole time. but like mom said that dad understood the elder that spoke in spanish that was from florida. I am exactly the same way. When a missionary from the united stated speaks spanish I can always understand because of the american accent. haha and No there are not street signs or anything here as far as driving. I would be scared to death to try to drive here because people are insane!! I cant wait to hear about the rest of the Costa Rica adventure! and I am so proud to hear that you guys are getting around fine with the spanish! that makes me super happy!

Well as far as my week.. well we had a baptism on Saturday! yay everything went through super smoothly and Gladis was baptized on saturday. I was super happy. So as missionarys we are told that if someone if getting baptized at the end of the week we have to go visit them everyday that week to prepare them and keep them excited. So we did just that and I am not going to lie every single day that we went I was super nervous that she was going to tell us that she was too scared and couldnt do it. but luckily that did not happen and everyday we went she was excited to see us and excited for her baptism! so we are happy that Gladis was finally baptized! and she seemed super happy after! I have a pic but it wont let me upload on this comp. oh the wonderful computers of argentina. i just love them so much! :)

Pretty much the rest of this past week was not very excited. The week pretty much was just getting Gladis ready and prepared for her baptism. I love having baptisms but the thing that I hate is it means that is one less investigator and not we are on the search for new investigators. She was pretty much the main one we have right now so now we are on the look out for some new gators (investigators) . wish us luck! this area I am realizing is worse than my first area. There is literally a huge church on like every block. The people here are very religious and stuck in their religions.

The weather here continues to get hotter and hotter everyday. Summer is on its way and I am not going to lie I am dreading it more than every. I keep asking people how to survive in summer and they just keep telling me you pretty much dont.. you just suffer. haha awesome! cant wait! they just keep telling me that you are in a constant sweat that doenst ever stop all summer. when you go to bed at night you just need to lay there and not move at all because if you move one part of your body you will start sweating. hahaha oh man! doesnt that sound like a blast! well things are good over here continuing to learn and grow daily and learning to put my trust in God and he will help us. I am realizing more that ever that like it says in the sciptures that God give us struggles and challenges so help us grow and learn. Its true the only way that we are going to grow and learn is if we suffer through the hard times first and that is when we will see the happy times and miracles. I love this gospel more than ever. We truly are blessed to be members and I am grateful for this short time that I have to share this wondefulness with others. Love you all lots. Everyday I realize how grateful and lucky I am to have such an Amazing family.

con amor,
Hermana Van Wagenen

10.17.11

2011-10-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

hey there!

con amor,
Hermana Van Wagenen

10.10.11

2011-10-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hey there my wonderful family and friends!

How is everyone doing? Well yesterday was another holiday in the land of Argentina. I swear that they seriously have holidays like every week and they just make up the most random reasons to have holidays to not have school and work. haha Which meant that yesterday was a day of working for us missionarys and today is our p-day. Well I am happy to say that over here in Obera, Misiones we are preparing a baptism for this saturday. I think I might have mentioned this in my email last week but I will tell you a little more about Gladis. So gladis is the wife of a member but obviously she is not a member. So i am pretty sure that the elders started teaching her in about January. and I have heard that she has constantly had baptism dates but hasnt every really gone through with them. I think in around march she was really excited for baptism and was super close to it and she ended up getting married in march so she could get baptized well something happened and she backed away. So the elders had continued teaching her but not ever knowing what her doubt was or how to help her. So when we got here the elders introduced us to her and basically told us good luck...hope you can figure our her doubt! haha we just laughed and said uhh thanks elders! So we passed by a few days later to see her and it was pretty much the worst lesson ever! The whole time we tried to teach and ask questions she would turn to her husband and she basically wouldnt say a word! I left the lesson super disapointed and with not much hope with her not knowing how to help her. Well we went back the next week and were happy to find that she was home alone and her husband was at work. This was our chance to really get to know her and talk to her and she wont be able to turn to her husband to talk. so we basically did just that. We just talked to and got to know her and her life and left her with a short message. when we went back the next week she was actually excited to see us and asking how we were doing. Well in the second lesson we had with her we talked about baptism and figured out that she basically has this fear that they will have to baptize her like 4 times because she has seen baptisms where that has happened and she doesnt want that to happen with her. Well we put a baptism date with her for the 15 of October but still realizing that she is kind of iffy about it. Well we had passed by several times after that and things we good but everytime we talked about baptism she was still super iffy about it. until one night we went by and she was there alone without her husband and out of now where she asked us who was being baptized on the 15 of October. We just looked at each other and said uhh you!!! then i just sat there scared of what she was about to say when out of now where she said yes actually i think i am going to get baptized on the 15. My comp and i looked at each other in a shock and left her house super happy. well ever since that happened 1 week and a half ago she has still been super excited for her baptism. She basically told us that this is the first time that the missionarys have actually taken the time to talk to her and get to know her because before the elders always just talked to her husband. I am starting to wonder if this is one of the reason for the whitewash here in this area. I mean obviously our president didnt have any idea about this situation but the Lord did and he must of known that gladis was going to progress better with sisters in this area. I dont know but I am super happy and excited!

but other than gladis we dont have too much else to share. We have some other investigators but truly right know we dont have too many that are truly progressing. this is basically always the struggle is finding new people that are really interested and are going to progress. After Gladis I dont really know what is going to happen but I guess you just have to take it one at a time. I am still doing great. Learning and growing more everyday. I am grateful for the struggles that I go through because I know that they are only helping me to grow as a person. Love you all lots! Thanks for all of your love and support. It is greatly appreciated!!!

Love,

Hermana Van Wagenen

Pictures

1. A store named FLOPY! need I say more? ;)

2. The other night as we were walking back to our apt it just starting dumping rain on us and we were pretty much soaked by the time we were in the apt.

3. super cool clouds

4. A day with the primary. ahh man children are crazy!!!!

10.3.11

2011-10-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hey there!

Wasnt this past weekend so wonderful! Yes over here in the good ole Argentina we were able to watch and listen to conference too! I am lucky because I am in an area where conference was broadcasted in our church building so we were able to watch all of the sessions. Other missionarys who arent in an area where it is broadcasted could only watch one day of conference but I was lucky enough to get to see all of it! and I loved it so much! I absoultely loved the talk that President Uchtdorf gave at the relief society broadcast! That was such an awesome talk. and I was super shocked to hear about the new provo temple that they are going to build. As a missionary the talk by Elder Callister was super awesome about the book of Mormon. Was is just me or did it seem like a lot of conference was really focused on the scriptures and the Book of Mormon. After Elder Scotts talk I basically realized that I need to start memorizing scriptures. But really all of conference was super awesome. I really would like to go back and read all of it right now.

Well this past week was pretty good. On tuesday we had the opportunity to be visited here in Obera by President Hayman and his wife. They came to our district meeting and really taught us how to get people to come to church. because truly the people here are pretty lazy and are hard to get to church. So pres was teaching us how to better get them to come to church. Then after district meeting Hna Hayman came out with us and worked. It was super awesome because she is just great. We were able to have a wonderful lesson with her and then after she took us out to ice cream! they are our mom and dad of the mission. Super sweet!

We had a miracle happen this past week that I cant even express how happy I was. So we have this investigator name Gladis and she is the wife of a member. I am pretty sure the missionarys have been teaching her for forever and the missionarys have put a bunch of baptism dates with her but obviously she has never gone through with them because she has a doubt/ fear about it. Well when we first got here she had a date for baptism but it was more like she didnt really know she had it so we have really tried to take the time to get to know her and figure out her doubt or fear and I dont know if it is because we are sisters but on friday she told us that she is really thinking about baptism and she wants to be baptized the 15 of october. I dont think she has ever straight up told the missionarys like that that she wants to be baptized. So we were pretty much super stoked and excited about that. She said that this is the first time that the missionaries have really taken the time to get to know her because with the elders before they would always talk to her husband and not her. I am starting to think that there must be a reason for the whitewash here in Obera. Pray for Gladis that everything will work for her baptism the 15 of Oct.

Everything is going well here in the mission field. We are continuing to work hard and share the restoration of the gospel here with the people of Obera. Conference was something I really needed to strengthen my testimony and realize really how much these people need these blessings in their lives. The gospel truly is a blessing. I love it so much! I am so grateful I am to be a member of the restored gospel. Love you all lots!! Have a wondeful week!

-Hna Van Wag

9.26.11

2011-09-26T21:35:00.000-07:00

hola!!
well I can def say that this week was a better week! I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable in the area and that I am truly able to find my way around and find where people live. It has taken a little bit of time haha but its not easy when we are both brand new in the area and dont know anything. This transfer is def a challenge and one of the most difficult but at the same time probably one of the most incredible because I am truly seeing the help of the Lord in so many ways. I am seeing myself learn and grow so much in this transfer and do things that I never thought I was ready to do at this time. I am not going to lie there is a ton of castellano (spanish) that I dont understand when people talk to me but I just learn to put on a face that I understand and I swear the Lord puts words into my mouth to teach that I didnt know I knew how to teach in spanish. I guess i am learning that I know a lot more that I truly thought I knew and I dont need to know/ understand everything in order to share the gospel with the people. As missionarys we are studying spanish in order to teach the gospel so there is a ton that I dont understand when people arent talking about church things but I am learning that it doesnt affect anything and that I can still be an effective missionary.
It has been such a blessing because there are several returned missionarys in this new area but is awesome because they truly understand us and what it is like to be missionary and we recieved several references from this lady in the branch who has been sharing the gospel with her friends. Oh man I cant even express to you how amazing references from members are. When the members are sharing the gospel like that with their friends it is the best for us as missionarys!! so from awesome references we were able to find some nice new investigators this week. The one thing that we are learning is that I think part of the reason for the whitewash here is that this area just needs a new start. Before the elders left they left us with several investigators but we are basically learning that most of them really arent progressing and we have to let them go and we just really neeed to work hard and find new investigators at this time. so we really dont have much at this time which is hard which means there is going to be a lot of door knocking for us!! oooh yay!! my favorite!! haha not!! thats why references are the best!
Well this past week we found this investigator that the elders were teaching and we were getting to know here and as she was telling me of her life she told us that she was 21 and her husband is like 29. well i didnt think anything too weird about that until she told us that they had been together for 10 years! yes 10 years! that means that they got together when she was umm 11 and he was 19. ahhhh freakin gross!!! I seriously almost died when she told me that. that is like ky with a 19 yr old.. ewww!!!! Argentina can be stinking wierd sometimes! and the other day we visited with a less active family in the branch and their daughter name is Floppy. yes floppy dont you think of a rabbit when you hear that name. hahaha i couldnt help but chuckle when i heard her name. The thing that i am super grateful for at this time is the even though the situation is difficult right now my comp and I are able to laugh about the slammed doors in our faces or the crazy moments. We say hi to all the women by doing the kisses on the cheeks so the other day we were talking to this family outside their house and trying to share with them so we decided to be nice and say bye by kissing them/shaking hands well i went and did the kiss thing with the lady and then went to the man to shake his hand well he tried to go in and kiss and i pulled back and said that we cant kiss the men. he then went off for 5 minutes yelling at me and telling me that i am not christlike because i kissed his wife but not him and that i really dont know God and i need to study more. That christ would treat everyone the same. ahhh! seriously?? haha those are the kind of experiences that we get as missionarys. awesome huh?
But things are good. I am happy and grateful for the experiences that I am having and for the opportunity to I have to devote this time to the Lord and truly serve him. I know this is the true church. that God lives and that I have this opportunity to share this with the people. I am learning that there are a lot of people that dont want to listen or talk to us but as long as I did my part and tried there is nothing more I can do. love you all lots! Thanks for everything! Have a wonderful week!!!

les quiero,
Hna. Van Wagenen

9.19.11

2011-09-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

oh heyy!

First of all I just wanted to say thanks for all of the wonderful birthday wishes. They are very much appreciated. :) Well we had our first real week here in Obera, Misiones. It was def better than the first couple of days. We have gotten to know the area a little bit better and the members and we are still working on finding some investigators that the elders were teaching. It has def been an interesting transfers so far but we are moving. very slowly but moving. I never realized how hard it would be to whitewash an area but luckily we have the elders that share the branch and understand a lot more spanish than us and can kind of keep us informed about things. That has for sure been a nice blessing. Well I am just going to tell you a little bit about my new area since the last email was mainly about transfers and all of that craziness. The area I am in is called Obera, Misiones and it is basically this city that I am pretty sure is in the middle of nowhere and there are two sets of missionarys in this area. us and the elders (our district leader) The area that we cover is stinking huge! Like it overwhelms me how huge it us. I am realizing more and more everyday how much the world needs more missionaries because there could for sure be at least 1 or 2 more pairs in this area. Our area is a stinkin mountain. Literally everywhere we walk we are either walking up or downhill. I dont think a flat normal street exists here. Yep it pretty much kills me but Im thinking it might be good for me with all of the delicious food here. The interesting thing about this area that is very different about my other area is that we dont stick out as much!!! There are a LOT of white people here that have like blonde hair and blue eyes. Crazy huh? Today some lady started asking us if we knew where some clinic was but obviously we have no idea because we have only been here for like a week but she asked oh you guys arent from here? ahhh yes!!! someone thought we were from here!! sweet huh! I like that we fit in a little bit better her! There are so many people that I see here that I would totally think they were north american. Another crazy thing about this area is that the dirt here is red. I will have to take a pic to show you. but that is pretty crazy.

As far as missionary work in the area. It has def been interesting. The first couple of days was hard because we were struggling a lot with finding where people lived. Luckily now we have had some help from the members and we have found almost all of our investigators. Teaching has been kind of interesting because we are 2 both fairly new missionaries here so we both lack a lot and the people sometimes have a hard time understanding us but I guess we know more or less enough to get our point accross and tell them to come to church. haha We are basically just starting from scratch with everything so we dont really have anyone that is ready for baptism but there are some people that we are teaching that could be close. we will see. I have been very grateful for some of the members in the area. There are several members who have served missions and know what it is like so they have been a great help so that is def nice! The truth is that I dont have too much to write this week but I can def say that I know that the lord is helping me so much at this time. I am not going to lie when I got the call telling me about transfers I got so scared and felt so incapable of any of this and yes I still feel very incapable but I know without a doubt that the lord is helping me. I am realizing more and more everyday that I know more than I thought I knew. I am realizing that the Lord really does know me and knows the best way for me to grow and learn. and that is by being forced into situations where I cant run away but I just have to do it. Somehow I am surviving in the middle of Argentina where no one speaks spanish and I am teaching the gospel. With my other two companions I could just be silent during a whole lesson and not talk because they would talk the whole time but now I cant do that I have to really take charge and teach the lessons. Christ lives! He loves us and he knows each and everyone of us. This is what we are sharing with the people of Argentina everyday and I know without a doubt it is true. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be serving a mission right know and to devote 1.5 years of my life to the lord. I know that there is no other place I should be right now and I am so grateful for the difficulties and the trials that we go through everyday because I know that it is just helping me to grow and become a stronger person. I appreciate more than every all of your love and support because I know that I wouldnt survive without it. My challenge for you all is to be that member missionary. Share the gospel with everyone. Missionary work truly isnt just for us as missionarys. This past wednesday we had the opporunity to attend a mission conference where Elder Foster from the 70 came and spoke to us. and it was incredible and he talked more than anything about member missionarys and how much more success missionary work will be with the help of the missionarys with the members. love you all! have a wonderful week!!

Love,
Kara

p.s. This computer is actually letting me upload pics so I am taking advantage and putting lots! Enjoy!

pic 1: Last p-day at the bird zoo with the elders.

pic 2: my last day in my other area with Hna Mena and once of the members sons

pic 3: in my last area one day when is rained a ton!

pic 4: you said you wanted pics of my apt. haha this is the bathroom of my last apt. yep its pretty gross

pic 5: a stinkin DISCUTING slug that was in our apt the other day. ewww

pic 6: a bag that says California! ya!!

pic 7: Birthday Cake!!

9.12.11

2011-09-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

Hey there!
Wow this day ended up being super crazy! I was suppose to come back to the computer place today at 5 but around 2 today the elders called us up to say that they were going to some bird zoo and asked if we wanted to go. So around 4 we left for the bird place and didnt get back till around 545 and then we had no time to write because we had scheduled to have a FHE with a family tonight so now we are here really quick at night writing because we have to be back in the apt! Well this week has been one of the craziest, most stressfull, shocking, probably hardest weeks of my mission. I am not really sure where to start but I think we will start with last tuesday morning... here we go....
So last tuesday morning we happily went to an investigators house in our nice regular clothes to help her build her house. As we were sitting in her house waiting for her our phone starts ringing and we look at the phone and it said that the assistants were calling. My comp and I both look at each other weird because its not very common for the assistants to call and then she went off in the other room to answer the phone. After a few minutes she comes back to the room to tell me that he called to tell us that they were super proud of our numbers for the week and that we had some of the best numbers in our zone and he also told her that she was going to be training this next transfer and that there is something great in store for me. So I automatically knew that I was leaving the area which I was very grateful for because normally we dont get calls till late tuesday night. So luckily I had all day tuesday to do what I needed to do and say bye to some people. So we got back to our apt at 9 on tuesday night where I started to pack up my stuff for my travels wed and then around 10 I got the real call from my district leader telling me where I was going and everything. He told me that I was heading off to Obera, Misiones with Hermana Green! I dont know if you guys remember but Hermana Green is the Hermana with the red hair that was in my district in the MTC that recieved her visa late. So that automatically meant that I was senior comp. I am not going to lie when I heard that I had a little break down. Never in a million years was I expecting to be senior companion this quick in my mission let alone with a gringo that doesnt speak very much spanish. She only got to argentina about 2 months ago so she doesnt understand/speak very much. So I was already in stress mode when I heard that because I dont feel capable of being senior comp and with my small spanish. ahhh! Well that wasnt the end of my news about transfers. My district leader then told me that Hermana Green and I would be heading off to a totally new area that is being white washed. I dont know if you know what white washed means. Well basically means that there were elders in this area but for some reason the president decided to take out the elders and put Hermanas here. So we were coming to an area that neither of us knew and we basically have to learn the area/ members/ investigators totally on our own. Yes this has been the most insane/ shocking week of my mission.
So early wednesday morning Hermana Green and I got on a bus together and headed on a 6 hour trip to Misiones. When we got her our district leader and his comp were here waiting and took us to our new apt where the elders that were previously in this area were waiting. We then spent a little bit of wednesday night and all day thursday with the elders that were previously in this area and they showed us around the area and introduced us to a few members and investigators and then they said bye and left us on our own in this new area. I cant even explain to you how stressful it is to whitewash an area especially when I dont know the language very well. I can def say that I think the lord has blessed me with a talent of figuring out directions because somehow we havent gotten too lost in finding peoples houses. but it is basically like they sent to fresh gringos in the middle of now where with very little information and said good luck. haha! yes like i said i am in a shock! I think the pres has some image that I know a lot more than I do. but I know for sure that this is going to be a very difficult/ faith trying transfer. I am really going to have to put my trust in the lord that even though my spanish is not very good that he will help me to teach these people and help these people know of the truth. I dont in anyway feel capable for this responsibility that has been put on me this soon in my mission but I am having trust that the lord knows that I can do it. I have been very grateful these past few days for my last companion Hermana Mena and all of the things that she taught me because she would get mad at me a lot for not talking during lessons and make me talk more and at the time I would get so frustrated but now I am so grateful because I know that she was just helping to prepare me for this next adventure in my mission. I am super sad because I missed the baptism of Francisco but I know there is a reason I am here at this time I am just not really sure yet what that reason is. haha
My new area is absolutely beautiful. Super different from my first area. There are millions of trees here and way nice houses compared to my first area and we are in kind of a bigger city. but I just might die here because literally the whole city is hills. Everywhere we walk we are either walking up or down hills. I am dying!!!!! I didnt know I was coming on my mission to go on a 9 hr hike everyday but I guess soo... ahhh. oh and we have already encountered more bugs than I have ever seen in my mission. We found two discusting cockroaches in our apt and out a now where this big discusting slug. ahhh!!! I dont know if it has something to do with elders living there?? haha I have a ton more things that I can write but seriously no time. I guess they will just have to wait for next week. until then the church is true! Jesus Christ lives! and the book of mormon is true! I dont know how I would survive without the BOM it helps me through so much on my mission! love you all!!!

con amor,
kara

p.s. any one have any good advice for being a senior comp? ahhh I dont even know.
p.s.s thanks for your prayers they are def appreciated/felt/ and needed at this time. love you lots!!

Picture: that pic is of Hermana Mena, Francisco and I before I left the area!

9.05.11

2011-09-06T17:43:00.001-07:00

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!!!

8.29.11

2011-08-29T11:36:00.001-07:00

my dearest family and friends! :)

Well this past week was a pretty normal week. Nothing too exciting
happened this week. We did have divisions which was interesting. There
is another set of sisters in our zone so we did divisions with them
and I stayed in my area and Hermana Arcos came with me. It was
actually kind of fun to have a different companion to learn from
because everyone is different with how they work. She is super good at
talking to everyone and anyone in the streets which we all know is
something I lack... it is super hard for me to walk up to some random
person and start talking to them. One thing that i learned from her is
that people are so much more receptive when we start talking to them
about anything random that isnt religious so that they feel
comfortable and then bring in the religion. haha it works so much
better than when we start out saying we are missionary because then
they just run or say oh Im catholic... haha so that was a fun 2 days
of being with a diff comp.
On sunday Jorge recieved the aaronic priesthood!! yay! Its so great to
see how happy him and his wife are now and it is so great to see the
members fellowship them in the ward. That is one of my biggest fears
is that someone gets baptized but the members arent welcoming and the
convert doesnt feel comfortable. but i am happy to see the members
super welcoming to Jorge and his wife. Our dearest friend Francisco
was suppose to get baptized this saturday but when we past by his
house on sunday for church he felt horrible and couldnt go to church.
:( which means he cant be baptized this saturday because he still
needs one more attendance in church. I swear satan does everything to
prevent these people who are so close so they cant be baptized. Every
single missionary I have talked to has said that every baptism they
have had there was always some difficulty before the baptism. We will
see what happens with Francisco. We had a super awesome lesson with
him this past week and he was telling us how he has been thinking
about a mission and how great it would be to share this greatness with
people! awww! he just has to be put in the waters first. haha
I got a nice haircut today. I figured that after 7 or so months of not
cutting it that it was probably time. I am not going to lie I was
super scared to have someone here cut it but my hair was super dry and
nasty to I did it. I am happy to say that it didnt turn out to bad.
Well I dont really have a ton of exciting news to share this week. It
was just another week in the life of a missionary walking, preaching,
and testifying the word of god! The other day I was thinking about how
crazy it is that I am surviving in a land of spanish. There is no
english here. I think my heavenly father is def helping me. I am so
greatful for the opportunity that I have to be a missionary at this
time. It is def not easy but I am learning so many wonderful things
and growing in so many ways. I know this is the true church and I am
so greatful for the wonderful small miracles I am able to witness
daily. I know that heavenly father lives and is always there for us.
We have transfers next wednesday. What do you think am I staying here
or am I going to get send away? hmm.. we will see. The thing that is
super annoying is that we dont find out till tuesday night at 9. ahhh.
Well I hope you all have a wonderful week and I cant wait to hear from
you. love you all!

-Hermana Van Wag

ps its not letting me send pics. ahh these computers are so annoying.

8.23.11

2011-08-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

hey!!!
First off I wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful mom!! I hope you have a wonderful birthday. I love you lots!! Also a nice Happy Aniversary to my wonderful sister and brother-in-law! A wonderful 3 years a marriage. 3 years right? wow how time flys! and A happy first week of school to everyone starting school! :) YOu are probably wondering why I didnt write yesterday well yesterday was another holiday in Argentina. What holiday you may ask? i have literally no idea. they always have random holidays. i think it might have been the day that some saint that they worship died or something. So since it was a holiday our pres wanted us to work yesterday since families should be home. So we have p-day today instead!
Well I had my first baptism this past saturday of Jorge Ramirez. I think I mentioned him last week in my email. Jorge was a reference of our zone leaders. He works near their apartment as security during the night. one day they started talking to him and gave him a pamphlet to read. Well it turns out that he would read the pamphlets during the night at work and that his girlfriend was baptized when she was 15 and she is 26 now but she hasnt gone to church for a long long time. Well we started teaching him and they got married this past friday and he was baptized on saturday. It is such an awesome experience to witness the change in a person as they learn of the truthfulness of the gospel. On saturday and we were getting things ready for the baptism we went to the church to start filling up the baptism font and for some reason the water wasnt working. We couldnt figure out how to do it. AHh!! so we ended up getting a hose from outside and putting it through the window and filling up the font with the hose. Yes you can imagine the water was freezing and the weather here is still coldish. We were just glad that it was a man being baptized and not a girl because if it were a girl she would probably kill us. well someone took out the hose super early so the font wasnt filled up all the way. so when it was time for Jorge to be baptized he had to be dunked 3 times because he didnt make it under all the way. My comp and I were scared that after he was going to be super annoyed. But after the baptism we talked to him and he had a huge smile on his face and said that he was super happy. He shared his testimony at the baptism and it was super simple but so sweet to hear the testimony of a recently baptized convert! It is so sweet because we recieve text messages from either him or his wife everyday just to say hi. and yesterday he went out with us for lessons and to introduce us to some of his friends and neighbors and he would share his testimony. How sweet huh? I think the converts are the best members to bring to lessons with us! I feel so happy to have finally witnessed my first baptism. I finally can see some success in the work we are doing! I think that sometimes that is the hardest part about missionary work is that we are working hard everyday talking to people and sharing the gospel and most of the time the things we are doing we never see the success of it. or nothing happens till way farther in the future. You have to weed through A LOT a people to find those people who are chosen at this time to accept the gospel. We are still working with Francisco who I talked about before. He was suppose to get baptized this saturday but due to some pills that he is taking to recover from his addiction/illness he always seems to feel dissy (sp?) and hasnt gone to church these past 2 sundays so he cant be baptized this saturday. We are hoping the next week. but we will see. We are praying for him that he can get better and truly have a desire to be baptized and not just because of his family who are already members.
Things are well. My spanish continues to improve more and more everyday... i think... haha. sometimes i get super down and frustrated with the spanish but then i just have to sit back and realize how much i have learned and how much i do understand when before my mission i didnt know anything! Hope you all have a wonderful week!! until next week... :) love you lots!

-Hermana Van Wag

-picture from the baptism!! for some reason my stupid camera that i bought here takes super blurry pictures. i dont know how to change it! how frustrating!!

8.15.11

2011-08-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hey!!
It was fun to read about your week up in Bass Lake. It sounds like you guys had a fun time with lots of lake/boat time! I cant believe that your summer is already over. It seems like I was just reading emails from you saying that the girls just got out of school. Where did the time go? I cant believe that Ky is going to be starting middle school. umm i swear she is still a baby how is that possible. It is so weird for me to imagine her in 7th grade. but I am so excited for her!
Its always hard for me to think back on the week on what happened because I swear I am loosing my memory or something and everyday is smashed together and a lot of times I cant even remember what happened yesterday. haha ok its not that bad but ya a lot of times I cant remember. Well this past week we had zone conference. The president and his wife came and there was about 3 zones together and it was really great. One of the hermanas and an elder from my district from my district in the mtc were there so it was fun to see them and see how they are doing with everything. Its funny how my district in the mtc we became like a family so it was fun to see them. The presidents wife had made homemade chocolate chip cookies for all of us and you should have seen everyones faces because those do not exist here so you could imagine the faces of all of the gringos. mmm a little piece of home! Everyone just loves the new president. He is so awesome and super loving and thoughful. I think it is a big change from the other president.
Things are going well with the missionary work. We are still working with Francisco and are hoping to see him get baptized in 2 weeks. I think he is struggling a lot with his addictions and with his health because of it. but it is good that he has family that are members that can help him. We also have another guy named Jorge who is suppose to get baptized this saturday. He absoultely loves the church and we are trying to figure everything out so that he can get married this friday and then baptized this saturday. His wife is already a member she got baptized like 15 years ago but hasnt gone to church for a long time so she has been coming back to church with him and they love it. How great!
I feel like i have nothing really to write this week! but that is the little update! Things are going well. I think sometimes my comp wants to kill me because I dont talk very much in lessons so this has been a little struggle so I am trying to learn to just put my trust in the lord that even though I really dont know very much spanish that he will help me out. I just testify A LOT! I always feel like such an idiot when I talk because I am sure I am saying everything wrong so I am trying to learn to not care and to just talk. but I def feel like i have already progressed a lot since I got my new comp. Things are good and I continue to learn more and more everyday. Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!

mucho amor,
Hermana Van Wagenen

Photo: this is my comp and I with our branch pres and his wife!

Pictures. Finally!

2011-08-13T00:11:00.001-07:00

Our first pictures of Kara in Argentina! Needless to say...we were excited to see them! Here they are...

photo 1: That is me and my trainer Hermana Schmidt and our investigator Hermana Sanchez. This is the family where all of the children are members but they are waiting to get divorced so they can get married and baptized.

photo 2: Hermana Mena and I in the computer place emailing home! :)

8.08.11

2011-08-13T00:09:00.001-07:00

Hey!!
Well another week has past and it sounds like you are all enjoying life in the good ole bass lake right now! how fun! tell the whole family I said hi! Heather told me that you bought a big fat giant mable. 4 seater? wow que loco! how is that working out?
well I am sitting here trying to think of crazy/exciting stories to inform you all about but honestly nothing is really coming to mind. This past week was just another normal week in the life of a missionary. Thinking back on this past week it seems like it was like a month long from all that went on but it was a good week. This past sunday not yesterday but the sunday before one of the members of our presidency brought his son to church that I had literally never heard of him before and we started teaching him. His name is Francisco and he is 18 years old and just like mostly every other teenager here he got into drinking and drugs at a young age well right now we dont know exactly what happened to make him stop but for about a month now he has been clean from the drugs and alcohol and he has this sweet desire to recover and better himself. For me this is a shock because it is not very often that you see a 18 year old kid have this desire to stop doing these things and go to church. Well ever since last sunday we have been visiting him just about everyday because I am pretty sure right now he is super lonely because from stopping I am pretty sure he has no friends now. He is so sweet and everytime we have lessons he always asks when we will be coming back. It is so sweet to me to see the smile on his dads face every time we come over. This past wednesday we witnessed what I would call a small miracle. because of all of the drugs he was doing I think his body is a little messed up and it was an addiction and since we have been trying to visit him almost everyday we decided that wednesdays we were going to watch a movie in the church so we got everything ready to watch the hour long Joseph Smith movie and about 20 minutes into the movie he got super shaky and couldnt watch the movie like it was really bad. we paused the movie and decided that we would say a prayer to ask our heavenly father to bless him so he could watch the movie. After the prayer we started to watch the movie again and he was able to watch the last 40 minutes of the movie without a problem. For us this was a sweet little miracle because he for sure wasnt going to be able to watch it.Last night we decided to stop by his house to see how he was doing and see how he liked church. Well we talked to him and his dad for a few minutes outside his house and as we were leaving he said, ¨hermanas pray for me, because I am always praying for you¨ we both left that house with huge smiles on our faces knowing that we are small tools in helping this kid get on the right path and becoming close to his heavenly father. It has only been a week since we have been teaching him but it feels like a month. We are already seeing a huge progression in him. We are just sitting here imagining him in a few years with a white shirt and tie on a mission! and oh boy I can just see him being a powerful missionary! Its moments like that when I have a huge smile on my face and I am grateful to be hear serving a mission. There are a lot of hard moments. but when you see people like sweet Franciso really change it makes everything worth it. We are hoping to see Francisco go in the waters the 27 of August but possibly the 20! :) pray that everything will work out. I worry every day for this kid because any second something could happen and he could turn back to the drugs.
Things are good here! I am still struggling with the language and at times I feel super lonely like I have no one that understands me because of the language barrior. I want more than ever to have great relationships with the members and the investigators but there is this language barrior where I cant speak to them. I am trying and really trying to overcome my fear of speaking to people because you cant have that fear on a mission. but everytime I start to feel lonely I start to think of my savior Jesus Christ and his atonement. everytime I feel the spirit it is seriously like a blanket comforting me. What an incredible thing! This gospel is incredible and I am so grateful that I have the gospel in my life and that I have the opportunity to share it with others. It breaks my heart everytime someone rejects us because they have no idea what they are missing out on. I love you all. Thanks for everything! I hope you have a wonderful week! until next week!

mucho amor,
Hermana Van Wagenen

8.01.11

2011-08-01T23:52:00.001-07:00

Hey there!
Well transfers were last week and I have a new companion! and guess what yep shes latin! haha When I found out that I was getting a latin I was seriously scared to death that I wasnt going to be able to communicate but honestly I havent been happier! She is super awesome. Her name is Hermana Mena and she is from Chile and has been on her mission for about 14 months and she understands a lot of english and is wanting to learn more. So we have made a deal to try and speak english in the apartment and spanish outside. She said that she was very impressed with how much spanish I know for only having 2 transers and having a gringo comp. especially since we ALWAYs spoke english. So i was happy to hear that and I am learning so much! It was def a super good change and I couldnt be more happy to have a latin because I know I am going to learn a ton from her because I am more forced to speak spanish. It has been kind of hard because I have had to explain to her all of our investigators and our area in spanish. Who knows if she understood anything but yes I am super happy about the change and to be with Hermana Mena. She is super cute and sometimes we will be in lesson and she will whisper to me things in her cute little english like... uhh he is weird.. haha we are both learning the language from each other. oh and heather said someone asked her what area I was in but she didnt know. now that i think of it its very possible that I never told you what area I am in. I am in Corrientes Capital for you to know heather. :)
Things are really looking up here. We have 3 men who we have reciently started teaching who have accepted baptism dates and I can def see hope with them. The best is when you have a lesson and at the end of the lesson the investigator ask.. so when are you guys going to come back and visit? ummm YES!!! that means they like our visits and they will do their commitments! Besides transfers there isnt a lot that happened this past week. I have def started talking more and been more involved in teaching in lesson. My spanish is still very broken and there is still a lot that I dont understand but I am excited for this change and for all of the things that I am going to learn from my companion.
I made a cd to send pictures to you guys but I just learned that none of the cd things in the computers here work! ughhh one day i will send you guys pictures of Argentina! Life is good I am happy and I am learning so much and my testimony is growing so much every single day. I have never before had such a desire to read all of the ensigns and the scriptures all the time. I absolutely love when we have personal study when we can read the scriptures and study. I have grown to love the book of Mormon and I am constantly finding things from the book of mormon that help me each day. Isnt is incredible how we can relate the book of mormon to our lifes right now? I know that this is where I am suppose to be right now and yes there are def a lot of hard times but I am growing in ways that I never would have without serving a mission. Thanks for all of your prayers and support! I couldnt do this without you guys! This church is true and Jesus Christ lives!! I love this gospel!

love you all,
Hermana Van Wagenen

7.25.11

2011-07-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hey there!
Well another week has gone. Another crazy week in the life of a missionary in argentina. The transfer is ending this wednesday, which is kind of crazy to me. My comp has now been here for 7 1/2 months so we are pretty positive that she is leaving for another area for the last 2 transfers of her mission. so we will see what happens. Im pretty positive that if she does end up leaving that I am going to get a latin. What do you think? The truth is that I am kind of wanting to get a latin because I know that I will learn the language 10 times faster because I wont be able to speak english. With my comp now we are always speaking english because it is just easier so I am sort of hoping to get a latin so I can learn the language faster but at the same time I am scared for my life because I am afraid that I am not going to be able to communicate anything! ahh but the truth is I am kind of ready for a change. I mean these past two transfers havent been bad but I am def ready for a little change right now.
Oh man this week was an interesting one. So I have been pretty lucky since I have been here because it hadnt really rained very much and when it would rain it would just be a little during the day or a lot during the middle of the night when we are sleeping so it didnt affect us while working. Well this luck left me and I had a day of pouring rain literally all day this past tuesday. Let me just say that it was quiet an interesting day. I took a picture that I will send but I was just layered in all of my clothes and my rainboots. Let me just say that I am super greatful for all of the clothes that I brought. Well we were walking along the streets on the way to a members house for lunch and I had an experience like the movies. ahhhh. I was walking along with my umbrella and all of a sudden a car drove by through a puddle and the whole puddle just sprayed up on me. yes all of it. the whole left side of my body was soaked. ahh what a fun experience. haha there is nothing more miserable than being wet and cold. but i survived and the rain hasnt been back since then. I just pray that the rain wont come back like that again because working in that is HARD! everyone is locked in their houses and no one answers their doors for the poor soaking wet missionaries.
We recently found this man named Juan that we have started teaching and we are super excited! here is the little background story... so a while ago the sisters here recieved a call from our former mission president President Castillo saying he had a reference for us of this 22 year old girl that had a baby. So when I got here we started visiting and teaching her so one day when we were at the house for an appointment her uncle was there so we started talking to him and he was super nice and we started talking to him for a few minutes about our message and gave him a pamplet but he had to leave. so things didnt really work out with this girl because she just wants to party and has no desire to go to church so we had to drop her a while ago. Well about 2 weeks ago we were walking in the streets when a man drove by and waved to us. We couldnt really see who is was and we figured it was some creeper like always but then i stopped and realized it was the girls uncle. Well he then stopped his car and started talking to us. He was asking why we never came back and that he had read the pamplet and thought it was really interesting. so we set up an appt to return and we have been meeting with him ever since. He is super awesome and we see a lot of hope with him. This past weekend there was a huge baptism with every companionship of missionaries in Corrientes Capital (the area i am in) and everyone was supose to have a baptism and they took a huge picture with everyone in white. Well our baptism fell through because the girl didnt recieve her document but Juan was able to go with us and it was awesome! he also came to church with us yesterday and he was a baptism date!! we are super excited and really hope that everything works out with him!! we will see what happens!!
well i am totally out of time and my comp is waiting for me so i better go! love you lots! have a wonderful week! I am working hard and learning lots everyday! things are good! Thanks for everything!!!
love you lots!!!!

hermana Van Wagenen

7.18.11

2011-07-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

As I am sitting here at the computer trying to think of some great stories that happened this week nothing is really coming to mind. We had an interesting week. Nothing super great but at the same time it wasnt horrible. For the first time since I have been here we didnt have any investigator in the church which was super sad but there was nothing we could do about it. Somehow all of them had other things they had to do and couldnt go to church. bueno hopefully next week is better! We are actually super happy because recently we have found two different men that we have started to teach that actually seem interested. we talk and teach so many people that arent ever there when we come back so when we find someone that is actually interested it is a stinkin miracle! One guy his name is nestor and we randomly started talking to him one night because he was outside of his house cleaning his motorcycle. We talked to him and then set up an appointment to return a few days later. when we returned he was there and ready to be taught and had lots of questions. He accepted a baptism date and went to church with us the next day. sadly though the past two weeks he hasnt been able to go to church so he lost his baptism date because you have to go to church at least three time before you are baptized. but we are still teaching him and he has a lot of questions but that just shows that he is truly interested. so we will see what will happen but we see a lot of hope with him!! i hope things work out!
Yesterday we were at a members house to pick up one of their sons to go to a lesson with us. and when the member came out I said hola and shook his hand. and he looked at me and said. WOW! you can say hola! i just looked at him and thought. umm ya im not retarded. he then started going on about how i never talk in front of him so basically he thinks i cant say a word in spanish. well mister if you are going to sit around and make fun of my spanish i dont want to say a word to you. my companion said that he does it to all the missionaries. ya thats super comforting. this is why i get scared to speak spanish because i am afraid that people are going to make fun of how i speak. but whatever i guess it doesnt matter what this guy thinks. i def have a lot of spanish to learn but i think i am progressing a lot. I have been doing a lot of door contacts and sometimes i have to repeat things like 3 times. people dont understand us very well because apparently we have horrible accents but sometimes we feel like that is better because then they really have to focus and pay attention to the things we are saying and teaching.
Things are well! we are still trying hard to find new investigators who truly want to listen. this is a big struggle here but i know with the lord help we will find those people who are ready to accept our message. i just dont really know where they are yet. as a think about the short amount of time I have been out on my mission i realize all the many things i have learned. My testimony has been strengthened so much for my savior Jesus Christ and how grateful i am to be a member of this church. I also think all of the time how grateful i am to have the family that i have. As we talk to so many people and see so many broken families and just think about my family and how blessed I am. Life is good. The church is true! and I know that this is where I am suppose to be at this time. THere are def a lot of struggles but the lord is blessing and stengthening me in so many ways! Thanks for your letters and support! It is so great to hear from you guys every week. Sounds like you are having a wonderful trip in new york. Cant wait to hear more and see more pics!! love you lots. have a wonderful week!!

mucho amor,
Hermana Van Wagenen

7.11.11

2011-07-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

Hey!!
I am happy to say that we had a pretty good week this week. We found quite a bit of new investigators. The most we have found in a week since I have been here. So we are pretty happy about that. As far as whether they are going to let us come back that is a very very good question. Its difficult because many people will let us come into their house the first time but for the appt we set up to come back they are never there! Its frustrating because after 1 lesson no one really understands the important of our message and the truthfulness of the gospel so its frustrating when they wont let us come back. We really want to find people that are ready and want to listen and accept our message but i guess its not going to be that easy huh. I recieved the card that grandma sent this past week. She has put the article from the church news about my new pres in it. That was way fun to see. He and his wife arrived not this past thursday but the thursday before and then this past tuesday they came to our area and we had interviews with them. He seems so awesome. He was super friendly and when I told him I was from fresno he asked about Pres Parker. he seems way awesome and really caring. His wife was way sweet too. We were talking to her while we waited for our interviews. She is super cute and is learning spanish. It made me feel good to be around here because we are both learning. Sometimes its hard to be around a bunch of missionaries who all know spanish fluently. But ya i am super excited about the new president. My companion keeps talking about how loving and caring he is because I think the other president didnt really ask about the missionaries personal lives and families but was more strict and got upset if a missionary had bad numbers. So i think it will be an interesting change from a latin president to an american president. We will see what happens... but I am excited!
Well remember our investigator Valeria who was suppose to get baptized for the 2 of Julio and everything fell through.. well we havent been able to talk to her for seriously 3 weeks and she hasnt been able to go to church either and we were way to scared to go by her house and her dad takes out an ax on us so we have had no contact with her for 3 weeks and we have been so sad and not known what to do. Well yesterday we were at the church waiting for investigators to show up to church when all of a sudden we see Valeria get out of the car with her two neices ready for church. YOu should have seen the smiles on my companion and my face. We both seriously almost started crying we were so happy. That was a huge miracle for us to see her at church. because with her dad living at home right now i dont think she can have much to do with the church. There is a lot of problems going on at her house so i dont know what is going to happen with her getting baptized but it was a miracle for us to see her at church.
I probably shouldnt share this last story with you guys because i dont want to scare you but it is a little piece of argentina that i have to share. The other day we had an appt with an investigator and we stopped by a members house to see if one of the sons could go with us to the appt. So the 14 year old son agreed and came with us to the appt. Well as we were walking to the appt a group of 12,13. 14 yr old boys started yelling names at us. like always. we are used to it but from little boys like this it was kind of weird so my comp turns around and asks how old are you, the kid replies 20 then my comp replies uhh 14. we then continue to walk and arrive at the investigators house. The investigators sister then opens the door and we start talking to her when all of a sudden we hear a lot of yelling and we turn around and notice about 10 or more kids surrounding us and yelling and laughing at us as we are talking to the investigators sister. umm ya it was super annoying. we then leave not thinking anything of it but how annoying it was. and we were asking the member what they were saying because my comp couldnt understand everything they were saying. he basically told us they were saying horrible things and then said ya it is def a good thing i was with you because those kids for sure would have robbed you. He said here kids start robbing super young like 14. ahhhh scary huh!! now i am kind of scared and paranoid but as long as we are careful im sure we will be fine. and i dont take anything valuable with me throughout the day either. we just have our sciprtures and pamplets so. ya that was my great story from our week. yay! haha life is good. I have found so much joy in reading the Liahonas.I just love reading conference talks and random stories in the Liahona. Well i hope everyone is doing good. love you all.

Hermana Van Wagenen

7.4.11

2011-07-12T05:26:00.000-07:00

Hola!!
ahh i have pretty much no time to write you today so this is going to be a really short and sweet email this week! we went to wal mart a little bit ago and somehow it took forever and we finally got to the computers and we have about 30 minutes to check email and write so ya.. first of HAPPY 4th of JULY!! i was excited to hear that the family( well kylie and the parents) haha is in pismo for the 4th. Those are the best memories i have of the fourth. Someone was asking me today what i usually do for the 4th and that is what i always remember. well my comp and i decided to be festive and we are wearing our red, white, and blue. we will have to take pictures. one day i will figure out how to send pictures to you guys! i truly havent taken a lot of pictures because its dangerous to have our cameras with us so i havent taken many. but one day i will send you picture. who knows when. Well i have officially been in argentina for 2 months now! that is kind of crazy. i am getting more and more comfortable with my area and the people. I feel like i know where things are so when my comp leaves and i get a new comp i will be able to show her everything.
   Every tuesday we have a district meeting and someone always gets up and teaches a doctrine from preach my gospel to the distric for about 10 minutes. Well my wonderful district leader decided to ask me to teach it this past week. ya you can imagine that i was kind of freaking out but i planned it out and got up in front of 2 latins and 4 american missionaries who have been out for over a year and taught a doctrine in spanish. ya it was scary but i did it. man i have to do a lot of things that i really hate doing but i guess i am learning a lot. i always feel like i dont know any spanish but i have to look back at before i started my mission when i literally didnt know anything except like hola and gracias. haha I am def not a fluent spanish speaker but i have learned a lot and more or less am starting to understand the people better. i just need to have the courage to actually speak to the people. i always get scared to speak that they wont understand me but thats how i will learn. this past week we were knocking on tons of doors because we dont have very many investigators right now and most of the doors we were knocking i was the one talking and contacting them. ya SCARY!! and i have started to teach a little bit more during lessons.
  I was so happy yesterday because for the first time since i have been here in argentina we found a guy on wednesday and he actually went to church on sunday. most of the time the investigators that we have only taught once are never there when we go back but this guy came to church!! it was a miracle we have finally found someone that wants to listen to us! we put a date with baptism with him for the 23 of july and he accepted! i hope everything works out and he will truly want to continue to listen and be baptized! our zone set a goal for every companionship in the zone to have a baptism for the 23 of july and they are going to have a baptism together with the whole zone! we are hoping and praying that we will be able to join the rest of our zone and have a baptism for this date too!! well i am running out of time! i am doing well! things are getting better here! we are just working hard and trying to find those people that really want to listen. it is def not easy!
  Man i cant believe all that happened with heather! that does not sound fun! i am glad to hear that everything worked out and she arrived safely and is a trumpeter?!?! haha thats awesome! i am so excited for her that seems like such an amazing experience! and lauren is at efy!! yay hopefully this year everything works out and she doesnt get sick! amy and lauren you guys are really bad writers write me!!!!! i love you anyways though... :) well have a wonderful 4th of july!! and send me more pictures! i like to see pictures of everything! have a wonderful week! love you and miss you! thanks for your support! i have such a wonderful family!!!!

mucho amor,
Hermana Van wagenen

6.27.11

2011-07-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

Hey there family!
Ya it has gotten so cold here! Like I honestly never expected it to be as cold as it has been. I wear my thick tights, sweater, pea coat and gloves. (thanks to jen I have these fleece lined tight, I cant even tell you how much i love them!! I seriously have been wearing them everyday and my legs are still cold but they are better then anything else) its like there isnt really a middle temperature here its either really really cold or really really hot. i think i might be happier with the cold though I am scared to death for summer when the heat starts to come. oh i realized that i never told dad Happy fathers day!!! it last sunday right? well happy fathers day dad!!! love you
Sad news... looks like we arent having a baptism this weekend like we thought. ya we are both super disapointed. I dont even know what happened but ever since the last saturday when she told us that she wanted to be baptized she hasnt gone to church the past two sundays and we went over to visit her last tuesday and she told us that we cant come over everyday because her dad comes to the house a lot. he doesnt live there but i guess he visits a lot and apparently he is very against the church and one time a long time ago there were elders at their house and her dad came out with an ax to chase them away... so ya... we are basically not aloud to visit her because she is scared that her dad could show up at any minute. we are so sad because she wants to be baptized we just dont know how to help her because we cant even see her and since she didnt go to church the sunday before her baptism we cant baptize her so we are hoping sometime in the near future she will be able to be baptized. her name is Valeria Meza. pray for her that everything will work out so she can be baptized.
We have this other girl that we are teaching named Eugenia and she is the daughter of a man in our branch who is the secretary in the district presidency and is very active in the church but his wife and daughter are not members. so we have been visiting with them to try to help them and his daughter really wants to be baptized but she has a son and lives with her boyfriend so she has to get documents and they have to get married so she can be baptized. well since we started teaching her middle of may we have been trying to get her to go to church every single sunday but somehow she always thinks of exuses of why she cant go so we have been super frustrated because we cant baptize her if she doesnt go to church so ths past week we had a lesson with her about the sabbath day and the importance about going to church so she promised us she would go to church on sunday. well sunday comes along and we went out early in the morning to stop by one of our investigators houses to take him to church but no one answered the door so we were really frustrated and sad because we were positive we were going to have no investigators in church and we get to the church and we see Eugenias dad standing right inside the door and he greets us as we walk in and we ask if his daughter came and he said no she didnt wake up so she didnt end up coming. at that point my comp and i turned around to go into sacament meeting when all of a sudden eugenia pops up from the other room. man you should have seen our faces! she was probably scared at how excited we were. haha for us this was a little miracle to finally see her come to church after begging her for weeks and weeks. she ended up being our one investigator at church on sunday. hopefully her documents come and everything works out for her to be baptized the 23 of july.
    haha i am starting to realize that a mission is full of lots of very awkared moments. we as missionary experience many awkward things but the other day we were at families house that we had just met the week before and taught once and we went back to teach them again and visit them and the daughter told us that the parents werent there but we asked if we could talk to her cousin who lived with them who is 16 years old and she said yes and got her cousin. so we sat down and started talking to the cousin wanting to get to know her a little bit better because she lives with her aunt and their family so my comp started asking about this girls life and kind of about her family when this girl started balling and saying that her mom didnt want her so she abandoned her and the aunt took her in. well the cousin was sitting in the room listening and knew nothing about this so she started crying too and then next thing we knew the crazy grandma runs out and it yelling at us to leave their house now!! all of this personal family stuff came out that we didnt even force them to tell us but apparently the grandma didnt like it so we basically felt horrible after and are scared to ever walk by that house again. that they might murder us. im sure now if they ever see mormon missionaries they might kill them. ahhh ya it was horrible but what do you do..
   Oh i recieved moms letter with the stack of pics of busty. oh my goodness i am obsessed!!! he is so cute!! i have a mural of pics of him hanging up on my wall. haha and i just got a letter that is looks like dad sent me in the mtc of laurens blog. i enjoyed reading that!! keep sending letters. its fun to get real letters too!!! well i better get going. things are good. we are still struggling a lot with finding new investigators we have gotten rid of a lot of investigators so we have very few right now we have been getting rejected a lot but i am sure there is someone here that is ready to listen and accept our message we just havent found that yet. everyone is just very very stuck in there catholic ways and cant change. it is difficult but we just keep working hard. im sure sucess will come.. thanks for the emails and support it is much appreciated. i love you all and am grateful to have such a wonderful strong family in the gospel. have a wonderful week and heather I am so excited for you to go to your pageant! I better get lots a pics updates and i want to hear about everything. yay! how fun! love you all lots!
love,
hermana van wag

6.21.11

2011-06-30T19:00:00.001-07:00

Hey family!
sorry i didnt write yesterday. Yesterday was a holiday here in Argentina something like the holiday celebrating their flag i think so since it was a holiday and people were going to be home with their families the president wanted us to work yesterday and today (tuesday) was our p-day. so yes I am alive! no need to worry. its sounds like you had a fun weekend in oregon for the wedding. I wasnt able to open the pics mom sent but i could kind of see them really small it looked really pretty! how fun! Congrats Tyler and Sarah! oh i recieved the 2nd package that you guys sent last week with all of the candy! yay I am so happy to know that these little packages are working so well. it seems like that is really the way to go because no one opens them and goes through them and i love the big fat catholic picture of jesus you put on them. All of the other missionaries were laughing at that. oh and I absolutely love that you sent me that calender. It is fun to have that, someone will have to make one for 2012 and send it to me! :) oh and I had the candy from the package you send and I shared some of the mike n ikes with a member in my branch and oh man you should have seen her face. she was so excited and was like ahh candy from the united states!!! this is so delicious!!! (but in spanish of course) haha oh and dad I recieved your card that you send me for easter it looks like you had sent it to the mtc and they forwarded it to me! but thanks! :) and random but I was looking at the liahona from this month and Sister Kris Smith is in it! there is a section talking about service that the church does and there is a little picture of here talking about the grape vineyard. kinda crazy!
   Well we had tranfers here, its kind of crazy that I have already been here for 1 transfer its kind of hard to explain but it was a mixture of being really long but short at the same time. My trainer is still here with me, everyone though for sure she was going to leave because she has been here for 6 months but nope she is still here which is probably good because there is still a lot I need to learn here about the area before I have a new comp come and I need to explain everything to her and who knows I could have a native comp next so everything will have to be in spanish. I am grateful to have a comp that can speak english but I think sometimes it is bad because we just end up speaking english all the time when I need to be practicing my spanish. We had a better week this week. I think I told you but we have been having a difficult time finding people who really want to listen to our message. We talk to so many people everyday and are rejected by many and some talk to us and agree to set up an appt but are never there when we return. ohh the life of a misionary huh? ahhh patience is def a quality that needs to be learned on a mission. so funny story last sunday at the end of the night my comp and I were walking back to our apt and we ran into this lady and started talking to her. She was super friendly and wanted to talk to us so we set up an apt so return the next night. Well monday night we returned and she was sitting outside of her house all ready and waiting for us. We were so excited! we finally found an investigator that likes us and wants to listen to us!! so we sat down and started talking to her and getting to know her she seemed so sweet so then my comp started talking to her about our purpose as missionaries and how our purpose is to teach people about the restored gospel and help them to be baptized in the true church with the authority and my comp was about to invite her to be baptized (because we are told that we have to invite people to be baptized in the first lesson) and right when she starts to invite her the lady says... oh I am a member of your church!! my comp and I just looked at each other and just about died. That was seriously one of my biggest fears that we would teach someone a whole lesson and find out at the end that they were a member. yep it happened to us!! I left her house busting up. hmm ya thats why she was so welcoming to us! she was baptized when she was like 12 and she is 28 now and i dont know if she was ever really active so we are going to try to work with her to help her go to church and teach her 58 yr old husband about the church. (yes they really have the big of an age difference... :) haha so ya that was an interesting story for the week. ohh and remember how when I talked to you on mothers day and told you how I had like 50 bug bites ya I have started to realize that I think it is going to be 1 and a half years of bugs bits I dont think i have gone a day with out getting them. It is miserable but i am sort of getting use to my legs just itching all the time. ahhhh
   Most exciting news from the week... our investigator Valeria finally accepted to be baptized!! ohh man that was not easy. She is a 14 yr old girl and her mom and sister are members but arent active. My comp started teaching her a week before I got here and when I got here we brought her to a baptism my first week and she loved it and kept talking about how next it was going to be her baptism well after that everytime we tried to talk about baptism she would say that maybe in a year or she couldnt be baptized now and one time we set up a lesson to talk to her about baptism and when we showed up at her house for the lesson she told us she couldnt talk to us and then later told the president of the branch that she lied to us because she didnt want to talk about baptism with us. we have been struggling so much to know what to do to help her. She is going to church every week by herself walking, she reads the book of mormon everyday and prays all the time. She is the most perfect investigator ever and we just didnt know what to do to help her after much fasting and prayer we finally brought it up last thursday and asked her what was holding her back and then asked her to pray about it and then see her again on saturday. Saturday when we met up with her at the church she was there and very happy she said she prays and she wants to be baptized next week. my comp and i just looked at each other and were so happy. prayer and fasting works!!! :) we are so excited July 2 is her baptism. pray that everything will work out and she will be baptized!!
   Things are going well i am still lacking mucho espanol but i am trying. I am realizing that misions are def not easy but I am learning to rely on the lord and I know that he will help me out. the weather her is the most bipolar thing in the world. one day it is freezing and i am wearing tights, my pea coat and gloves and the next day i am dying of heat. i am realizing though that i would much rather have it be cold here. the humidity is horrible!! all the candy that you send is stuck together because of the dumb humidity but i just continue to work and am happy. your support is really what keeps me going. I absolutely love hearing from everyone every week. after checking my email every week i am always to pumped and ready to keep working. i love you all so much. i hope the girls and mom are having a great time and camp and i hope work is going well for everyone else!! have a wonderful week!

mucho amor!
hermana vanwagenen

6.13.11

2011-06-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

Hola!!
wow today has been kind of a crazy day and i am here at the comp place and i have hardly anytime to email so sorry but this week you arent going to get very much!! This morning my comp and I had to go to Resistencia which is about 40 minutes away from our area because I guess once you have about a year out you have to go sign some papers to be approved to be in the country longer so she had to go sign papers for that so we woke up at 530 this morning to head there and somehow we didnt get back till about 430 and we have to be out working by 6 so i am rushing to email today. but I was so excited today because when we got to resistencia this morning my comp from the mtc hermana hammans comp had to sign papers so i got to spend the day with my mtc comp chatting with her and catching up. It was so great to see her and be around someone that really understands what i am going through right now. i think she is struggling with the language just as much as me so that made me feel a little better. but guess what else!! i finally got the package you sent!!! i was so excited!! the one with the mini BOM and the watch. yay!! thanks so much! Im glad to know that doing the envelope thing worked and it wasnt opened at all. Everyone was laughing so hard at the picture that you put on the front of the package the catholic pic of Jesus! haha but yay that was fun to get that and i also got another dear elder from dad. i guess mail really isnt to bad here so yes send mail. its even better recieving mail in the field. I dont know if this is what you did with the package you send but my comp said to use ups and do it express. so i dont know if thats what you did but i guess that is the best way to do it. and dad was asking me about sending shoes. I am not really sure what the best thing to do with sending shoes is. I am thinking it might be best to send the shoes in two different packages because when you send an actually box the people will open it up and go through it and who knows if they will steal something or not. so ya... i think the envelope thing is such a great thing. anyways... as far as missionary work...

Estamos en la lucha ( we are in the struggle) We are struggling a bit at this time because we are working hard and talking to people but we are really having a hard time finding people that are really interested and want to listen to us. It is frustrating because when we talk to someone one time they really dont understand the importance of our message but they reject us. We have let a lot of investigators go because they just arent doing their commitments or attending church and we just cant keep visiting people when they have no desire to change. and the elders just keep asking us about baptisms and how come people dont have baptism dates. its just frustrating because i just feel like we are not having a lot of success right now but i just have to remember that even if the people arent getting baptized or listening we are planting seeds that hopefully will effect these people in the future. I just have to stay positive and I am sure there are people here that are ready people are just very stuck on their catholic ways here and they dont want to change the traditions of their families. People here are literally obsessed with Mary!! There is a huge huge statue in our area of Mary aka Maria and people go and pretty much worship it. It is absolutely rediculous and i just dont understand it one bit. Man these people are crazy. haha but i sure there are people here that are prepared to listen and accept our message we just need to find them!! pray for us that we can find those people!! we need references from members but getting references from members is like pulling teeth. ya it doesnt happen!! haha I could talk about the food we eat here. We are very lucky because pretty much everyday but sunday and monday we have lunch with the members (lunch is the big meal here) and now that i have been here for a transfer i think i pretty much have down what they eat here. LOts and LOts of rice, pasta, potatoes and MEAT!! pretty much every single meal is either rice or pasta and they always put some random potatoes with either of those and then they put either chicken or beef with some sauce. that is pretty much every single meal but just made a little different with a different sauce. they always eat a lot of empanadas with is a tortilla thing with meat inside folded up and fried. and pretty much everything they make is covered in oil. I hate watching them cook things because i always want to die when i see all of the oil they add so i need to just not look. haha and there are a ton of delicious sweets here. ya i am pretty sure weight is going to be added. ughh!!!! haha dad was asking about laundry.. we are very lucky because we have a lady in the branch who we have lunch with every week and she just bought a washer so she is so wonderful and will wash our clothes for us. when i first got here we were washing in a sink but now we are blessed to be able to leave our clothes with a member!! ahh its great!! hmmm que mas?? life is good. it is def not easy but i am staying positive and working hard. things will work out. i just have to remember that my heavenly father is there and i need to rely on him. i love you all very much and am greatful for you. have a wonderful week!!!
mucho amor
hermana VANWAG

oh and grandma said that my new mission pres was in the church news. wow thats great! he comes in like 2 weeks. thats going to be pretty crazy to have that change. we will see what happens!!

6.06.11

2011-06-06T23:48:00.001-07:00

Holla!

well another week has gone and once again I dont feel like I have much to say. life as a missionary is pretty repetitive you wake up at 630 excercise and get ready then study from 8-11 then basically from 11-9 at night you are teaching lessons and finding people to teach. and we are lucky because pretty much everyday we have lunch with a member so we dont have to go back to our apartment and cook. There arent many days where the day is much different than that. but the other day we were out walking around trying to find people to talk to when we got a call from our zone leaders saying that one of the sisters in our zone her companion was just a temporary companion and was leaving so we had to go be with her until they found another companion for her. We were a little suprised and shocked but that night we went and stayed with her at her apartment and then the next morning she was going to get a new comp. well she lives on the 6th floor of her apt complex and so they have a elevator to use so that morning we got in the elevator to leave to go pick up her companion and it starts going down when all of a sudden it stopped on the 4th floor and totally broke down. I was like ahhh NOO I am in a broken down elevator in Argentina that was seriously tiny and there were 4 of us in there. my comp, the other sister, me and some cleaner lady named maria. we had no idea what to do and it was 8 in the morning so most likely people would be sleeping but we just started pressing the alarm until someone came. we ended up being in the elevator for about 20 minutes and yes you best believe we started talking to maria about the church. haha we ended up getting her address and the address of her family who actually lives in our area. so sometime we are going to try and visit them. maybe there was a reason that this happened and her family needs the gospel at this time... but ya that was def an interesting experience this past week.

This past week we started talking to this man who was raking leaves outside of his house and he let us sit down and teach him so we taught him the first lesson and put a baptism date with him and he excepted and told us he would go to church on sunday. we were pretty stoked and then when we went by the house on sunday morning to pick him up for church his uncle came out and said that he didnt live there but he lived in a totally different area!! we were so frustrated. its so annoying how many people lie to you saying that they promise they will go to church and then when we go by to pick them up they wont go. and the zone leaders keep calling and pressuring us to put baptism dates with people but we are trying and they arent accepting. sometimes missionary work is really frustrating but i think patience is a big quality that is so be learned throughout the mission. we have to be patient with the people because it might not be their time right now. and i have also learned that i need to be patient with the language because i want so bad to speak but i need to be patient with it and just keep studying and it will come over time. at our district meeting last tuesday we were doing a practice in trying to ask inspired questions and getting to know the person and my comp and i were teaching our district leader and he kept looking at me to speak but i always get scared to speak and so he kept telling me that i need to start speaking more to the people and it will really help me a lot. so this past week he gave me a goal to speak to 10 men in the streets a day! ummm can you imagine my reaction! ahh i just about died. 10 men?! my companion wont even talk to men in the streets because most of the time the men are just creeps and make cat calls at us. so ya i am scared to talk to people but i need to get over my fear. ahhhh anyways things are good. i have never been so tired in my life. everynight i crash and when 630 comes every morning it is miserable. haha but it is starting to get really cold here especially because we are outside all of the time. i think i am going to buy a heater for our apt because it is always so cold in our apt. i am just glad that i was warned that it was going to be cold because i feel pretty prepared for it. i have worn my rain boots a couple of time because it will rain over night and then the streets will be just huge pile of mud so it is best to wear the rain boots but they are super comfortable so i dont like wearing them a lot. anyways. i better go. i love you lots and i love hearing from you all. have a wonderful week! and how exciting the girls end school this week! wow that went by fast.

love,

kara

5.30.11

2011-05-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Hola!!!

yep winter is starting to come. It is starting to get kind of cold and windy and when we are walking in it all day and night it is cold! lately my companion and I have been coming back to the apartment every night and making hot chocolate because we are cold. but luckily i knew that it was going to be cold here so I feel like I am pretty prepared with my tights and sweaters! thanks to jen!!! so last week at district meeting I got the dear elders from grandma and dad and then the two letters from mom and kylie!! I was supper exciting! and what I think that only took two weeks. Not bad at all. I was worried mail would never come but that really isnt that bad. But something really weird and sad is the letter from mom was perfectly ripped in half and I only got one side of the letter. It is actually really funny. I took of pictures of it. I have no idea how that happened but it is perfectly ripped so I dont really know what the letter says but its funny because i have no idea what you are talking about and then all of a sudden you start talking about big beafy legs.. hmm im guessing you are talking about busty? hahaha supper funny. maybe i will get the other half of your letter in a few weeks. or probably not ever!

anyways I dont really have anything super exciting to talk about this week. The work is still plugging a long. We are having the most difficult time finding new people to teach that are actually interested. We will contact someone in the street and they will agree to have us come by their house and so we schedule a time and they are never there when we show up. and all of the investigators that we do have are scared to change their ways. The people here are very strong in their catholic ways and they have all of their saints and mary outside of their houses and they have been catholic all of their lives so they do want to change. We have one lady who her son is a member and serving in buenos aires and she reads the book of mormon and says she knows its true and knows that the joseph smith story is true but she is afraid to really pray to know if this church is true because she is afraid to change. SHE stinkin lives like she is a member but just cant change her catholic heritage. ughhh its so frustrating. Apparently we are in the most catholic area of the mission. so this area is one of the harder areas of the mission. ya its frustrating! but we just contine to keep working and hope that we can find people to teach. It is so much better to teach than to walk around all day knocking doors. but i guess that is what you have to do to find those people. I have started to develop a great appreciation for the members here. There is one family where the mom is 21 and the dad is 23 and they are honestly prob the most faithful family in the ward. He is the 1st councelor of the presidency and she is in the young womens and they are washing our clothes every week and feeding us. I just really appreciate people that are willing to help the missionarys. Its crazy that they are so young and they have 3 kids. and then the president of our branch and his family are great too. We will have a hard day and be really stressed and we will stop by their house and they are always there willing to talk and offer us snacks and drinks. They are like the family that we dont have. I really appreciate people like that because there are so many members here that are just not very active. Sometime I really miss the church in the united states because the people here are just not very strong. but we are working to try to help it get stronger. There are trying to make a stake here but i dont think there are enough poeple to make a stake. anyways my time is running out. but life is good. I am plugging along! haha love you all lots and thank you for your support! have a great week!

love,

kara

5.23.11

2011-05-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS AMY!!!!!! yay! Its your birthday! what are your big plans for your special day? let me guess... bry is taking you to cheesecake factory! ;)

Sometimes I feel like it takes a year to have another p-day but sometimes they come pretty fast. I kind of feel like I was just writing home and I dont have a lot to write home about this week. Things are good.. I think I told you about the couple that we are working with to get divorced, married, and then baptized. Well nothing new is really going on.. that is still the plan.. the zone leaders told us that it could possibly only take 3 weeks to do the whole divorce which is great news for us because the sooner they can get baptized! They just seem so happy and excited. Its so great to see a family so happy and excited because of the gospel . Being on my mission and seeing so many disfunctional and messed up people really makes me so grateful everyday for the wonderful family I have and that we have the gospel in our lives. I have really realized what a blessing the gospel is and how it really keeps families together. Its funny also because now I am realizing how grateful I am that we would read scriptures and pray together as a family everynight. At the time I was always annoyed and never wanted to do it but it really does bless you. Last night as we were talking to this family that is about to get baptized we told them that they need to start doing that and that they will be blessed and it will really keep their family together and unified.

hmm.. what else is going on. oh well last week we had a big zone conference with like 3 zones I think and the mission president and his wife came. I was so scared and intimidated because everyone speaks spanish and the whole thing was in spanish but it wasnt too bad. I had to give one of the prayers in spanish and it was so intimidating but I know that doing things like that are only helping me to improve. I just already dont like being put on the spot in front of a ton of people and especially when it is in a whole new language that is foreign to me. I think this might have been our last thing with our mission president because July 1st we are getting our new president. Its going to be interesting to see how things change when we get a new president. Im sure things wont change too much though. Did I tell you how the whole theme of our mission is baptisms. well basically they tell us that we are here to baptize and we are not aloud to leave a house without inviting the person to be baptized. its kind of scary because the first time you meet someone and teach them about the church you are suppose to immediately invite them to be baptized and its not very common for a person to be like ya i want to change my life and be baptized in your church right away but i know that it is good. and it makes the investigator remember that we are not here to be there friend and help them with all of their problems but we are here to baptize them and bring them to christ.

Mom was asking about the weather... oh the weather here in argentina. ahh it is crazy! It has actually been pretty hot here everyday but these last few days it has been kind of overcast like it is going to rain and kind of windy which is kind of nice weather right? but no... the stinkin humidity is horrible and even though it is nice weather outside and i dont think it is going to be hot I am sweating all the time. it is so gross. I really dont like humidity!!! I am going to be really grateful for no humidity when I get home from my mission. I am literally scared to death for the summer here. I honestly probably might die. Especially since we are literally out walking around all day and NO ONE has air conditioning. ahhh yay the life of a missionary! :) I am kind of looking forward for when it starts to get cold here. My companion keeps saying that it gets really cold. ahh bring on the cold!! haha Anyways life is good. I am still becoming accostomed to the new life of a missionary. Everyday seems so long and I am always so exhausted after everyday but I think that a little of that has to do with the fact that I cant talk so all day I am sitting in appointments trying so hard to translate everything in my head and after a while I just have a headache at the end of the day. I think I am starting to understand a little bit more but I am always so scared to try and speak because it will probably be wrong. I am starting to teaching a little bit more during lessons and I still bare testimony a lot and say a lot of prayers with random people we meet in the streets. I am so looking forward to that day when I can totally converse and understand all of the people. I love that dad is talking a spanish class. That will be fun to talk to him when i get home. except the spanish here is a little different because the double ll´s make a j sound and so does the y. ya i am still getting used to it because i didnt learn it like that in the mtc. life is good! keep updating me with everything!! I am not kidding when I say that your letters and support is what keeps me going everyweek. being a missionary is not easy but because I have such great support at home I am able to keep going everyday! I love you all so much and am grateful for your examples for me!

mucho amor,

Kara

5.16.11

2011-05-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

Hola!

I am still here doing great!!! I was happy to get all of your emails and see all the pictures. Mom the pictures you took of Jenae and her family are way cute and I love the pictures of little bust and Sophie are adorable. Everytime I see pics of the bust I cant believe how stinkin huge he is. Like seriously he is a tank compared to when I saw him in hawaii. WoW!! its crazy to imagine what he is going to be like when I get home. OH my goodness I am still in shock at the people here and breastfeeding. Today we were at wal mart buying things we needed and I look over and see a lady crossing the street holding her kid breastfeeding. Seriously?? how does she do that. and then the other day we were teaching one of our investigators and she has 3 children and all of a sudden in the middle of our lession she takes it out and starts feeding her (i think 3 or 4) yr old son. I always feel so awkward but these people have no shame. I was waiting for her to start feeding her 6 yr old son too but she didnt. haha

Anyways this week was good. We have been kind of struggling lately because we havent had very much luck finding new people to teach. My companion and her last companion apperantly just had a baptism and I guess usually when there is a baptism after it you kind of have to start over with the work and finding people. So we are at that point right now. We are trying to find new people to teach but everyone is rejecting us. We talk to so many people throughout the day and a lot of times they will listen to us and set up a time for us to return and then they are never at the house when we return. It is so frustrating because we walk all the way to their house to have nothing. Our area we have is pretty big to so we are walking a lot! The other day we started talking to this lady and she was way friendly and let us teach her the whole first lesson and we said a prayer with her and everything. and she seemed to understand everything and then when we finished and tried to set up a time to return she said oh I am really not interested I just like to hear what other religions have to say. So basically we spent a whole hour teaching her for her to say that. ahhh how frustrating. but we just have to think positive and remember that we tried and somehow I am sure we planted a seed for her to prepare her for sometime in her life to accept our message. The people here are VERy very catholic! which is a good thing in the way that they all believe in god and jesus christ and have a lot of faith but it is bad because they are so stuck on their catholic religion that they cant change. Most of the people say that it is a family tradition and they cant change something that is a family tradition. As we walk around we see so many houses with glass boxes outside of them with all of their catholic saints in them and they light candles in them and worship them. ya it is pretty extreme! but I am trying to stay positive and remember that even though there are a lot of people like that there are people that are ready to here our message.

We have a family that we are teaching and they have 4 children and all of the children are members but the parents are not members. They have been attending church for 7 years now but they cannot get baptized because they are not married. The dad was married previously and never officially got divorced because his previous wife wouldnt sign papers so its a big ordeal. and this family stopped going to church for like 3 years and just recently for easter started coming to church again. and they are so happy. so last week we went to their house to visit with them and my companion started talking to them about baptism and getting married and apparently before they didnt want to do it and everytime the missionaries talked to them about it they always rejected but this past week when my companion brought it up they were totally open and last night we made goals with them to do the divorse, get married, and baptized and they committed to it all. We were so happy and as of now the plan is for them to get baptized on the 25 of June if all goes well with the divorce. so that was exciting!

I have been realizing more and more how much impact the members can help with the missionaries. We are constantly asking the members for referrals but not one gives us anything. It is so frustrating! I now realize when the missionaries came over to our house and asked us why they asked because when you have referrals it is so much better for finding new people to teach. It is hard to just go out on our own and try to find new people. Our branch here is so small and the church is just beginning here. Everyone is converts and they dont know very much and they dont help a lot with the church. The church is so much different here than the united states. I mean obviously it is the same but the people do anything and everything to fulfill their callings in the united states. Here it is not like that. It is kind of frustrating as missionaries because we need the help of the members but we dont really have it and they kind of expect us to do everything. but I am staying positive because things will be good. The language is still hard but I am trying everyday. I have been speaking more in lessons lately. I testify a lot and say a lot of prayers. Keep praying for me because I need it. but I can def say that I am learning a lot. I just need to be patient. One thing that they do here is instead of knocking on peoples doors we get to the door and we clap and the people come out. It is really weird but it is just what we do here. It is weird to get used to.. oh and Lauren stinkin everyone here has Toms! well not really toms a fake brand of toms but so many people here wear them. when i first saw it I got really excited!

Wow pretty sure I just wrote a novel. and it is probably going to bore you but ya things are good here. I am still trying to get used to the walking everywhere but the nice thing about it is I am always so excited for 1030 and everynight I fall asleep so stinkin fast because I am so tired. My companion told me yesterday that the whole sending 4 packages throughout your mission isnt really true. She said for christmas there were some elders that recieved 7 packages. so I just thought you would like to know that. but like I told you she said that her mom wraps each individual think in wrapping paper to keep it more secret and also to use UPS i think if you send packages. and I think I told you this in the last letter but you can send me real letters and my comp said that doing this is a lot easier than doing pouch and if you do this you can just send it to the mission home address and I think it will arrive in about 3 weeks. and also the padded envelope thing I think is one of the best things because they wont open it and it should arrive in 3 weeks too.. just thought you would like to know these things. Grandma was asking for my address. I dont have it with me so maybe you should give it to her.

ANyways i think that is all for now. Im sure I will have another novel of crazy adventures in Argentina next week. I hope all is well and I love to hear from you so keep writing! pictures are amazing too!!

love you all.

love,

Kara

address.

2011-05-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I'm sorry that it has taken so long to get her address out, but she would love to hear from you all! There are a couple of ways that you can send her letters:

1. You can send it to the mission home, which is the nicest method because you can send actual envelopes with multiples pieces of paper and pictures. The postage stamp for a regular letter is 98 cents.

Misio'n Argentina Resistencia

Entre Rios 435

3500 Resistencia, Chaco

Argentina

2. The second method is to send letters through the pouch system. This requires a 8 1/2 x 11 paper folded three ways with no envelope. The letter will get sent to Utah, then they will send it to Argentina, so only one postage stamp is needed.

Argentina Resistencia Mission

Pouch

P.O. Box 30150

SLC Utah 84130-0150

United States

3. You can still do dearelder.com letters and they will get sent through the pouch system. They are free!

4. Also, if you want her to get the letter ASAP. Email me (Heather) at heathervanwagenen@hotmail.com and I will be sure to forward her your email.

Thanks!! Send her some LOVE!

5.09.11

2011-05-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

hola. it was so good to talk to the family last night. It was way awesome to be able to talk to you all two times in a week. I have to remember that is not normal. I wont get to talk to you all again till december but it was so great to hear your voices. I was sad when I started hearing the beep meaning the time was up and it cut out but its all good. at least we were able to talk. Well like I told you I am in a whole new world. man is it different here. i am def not in the united states anymore that is for sure. but like we talked about last night it is good that I went to kiribati and jerusalem to get me ready for argentina. At times it feels a lot like kiribati but obviously a lot bigger. Peoples houses are all made out of cement and the floor is cement too. The houses are very small. Some dont even have a living room and if they do no one has couches its mainly just chairs. We walk A LOT. this is kind of hard for me to get used too. I am tired. our area is pretty big and its just me and my companion in the area so we walk a lot every single day. but the weather has actually been pretty nice, it has been kind of hot a few days but its not too bad.

For the people that read this that I didnt talk to last night I some some things that I already told my family. I am in a state called Corrientes and we are in the city Corrientes Capital. I think... my companions name is Hermana Schmidt and she is from Houston, Texas. ummm can I just tell you how excited I was on wednesday night when our trainers came and I found out she was from the united states. not that I have a problem with someone from here but since my spanish isnt very great I wanted someone that knew english that could understand me and help me learn. It is a blessing for me. Anyway she is awesome she has been out for 12 months so she knows spanish but its pretty funny because she is about my height with super blonde hair and blue eyes and so when the two of us are out on the streets walking it is ridiculous because we stick out so much. Most people here are pretty short with dark hair and dark eyes. so yes we stick out. im pretty sure everyone knows who we are. Some things about argentina... everyone greets each other by kissing each other on both cheeks.. this is kind of different to get used to because half the time i am touching cheeks with some random lady that i have never seen in my life, so this is going to be interesting to get used to. there are a million mosquitos. here... ahhhhh my first day in my area we were out walking and finding people to talk to and when we got back to our apt that night my legs were a mess... still are a mess... i have at least 50 bites on my legs. it is rediculous and my ankles and legs got swollen because of that i think so they are like blown up like balloons. i just laugh everynight because i look rediculous.. As far as the mission work here.. most of the time people are pretty open to listening to us, pretty much everyone is catholic so they believe in god and jesus christ and they will go to church but most of the people just dont want to change their lives so i think baptisms in this area are pretty challenging. but we are trying.. its difficult because I dont really know spanish.. i mean i know some spanish but I cant just go off and speak spanish so when we are talking to people i dont really speak. and I cant understand the people at all when they are speaking.. they talk soo fast and they have their accent that is super hard to understand so I am struggling because I want so hard to get to know these people and share the gospel with them but I just cant speak. I always feel super awkward because I just awkwardly stand there in silence. but its nice because when my companion speaks spanish i understand her because she is more clear. so i practice with her and hopefully over time i will be able to understand the people and be able to talk more. but the people are really understanding and they are all very nice.. from what i think... hahaha the members are all really sweet and are excited to meet me. which was awesome. and its awesome because we have lunch appointments everyday with members so we dont have to go home and cook. ohh and here their big meal is lunch and they dont really have dinner. so we always have big lunches but dont really eat anything at night. its kind of hard to eat a big meal and then go out and walk the rest of the day because it makes me tired but its good. and boy do they eat here. my first meal we had rice with chicken and they gave me a huge plate and then my companion said that they show their love through food so its good to take seconds man i was full after the first plate but took seconds anyways and I just couldnt finish a whole huge extra plate so i didnt and the family was like.. ohh she isnt accostomed to the food yet huh.. hahaha im pretty sure i am going to get fat.. no bueno oh and there are dogs EVERYWHERE... it is so gross but yes dogs are everywhere..

ohhh.. i found out from my companion today that you all can send actual letters... i thought that you could only do letters from pouch mail but aparently you can send regular letters in envelope and put pictures and stuff. because i like pics. and im guessing you just send it to the mission home. so that was good news because letters are so much better than pouch.

anyways i cant think of anything else right now. but everything is good here. it is a whole new world and is a little bit different to get used to but its going to be great. pray for me with my spanish I need it.. and know that i am doing good and i am still going strong. i love and miss you all. and hope you are doing great. write me.. cause i want to know whats going on.. letters are still so great to recieve and from what my comp said i think they always get here. anyways love you all lots and have a great day. we are off to go teach people for the rest of the night.

love, kara

04.29.11

2011-05-04T16:46:00.001-07:00

Hola!!

I bet you have been wondering why you didnt get an email from me yesterday huh? haha no need to worry I am still here and well alive! Last sunday the mtc decided to change the schedules of everyone at the mtc which means that they changed my p-day and it is now friday! Which has been kind of nice because I have been working on starting to pack and get things ready to go. I am so wishing I had Jen with me to help me because I am starting to stress out with fitting everything in my bags and I dont know if I remember exactly how we packed everything. I am getting a box filled with all of my letters and random things that I dont think I want to bring and I am going to try and send that out tomorrow just so you know.
   Well as for some exciting things for the week, the one that has been on my mind the most this week is the fact that I leave in about 3 days!! insane? yes i think so!! Our flight leaves at 11 on monday and then we get in Buenos Aires at like 8 in the morning on tuesday and then we are assuming that we will take a bus to resistencia?! no se but that is going to be a long bus ride if it is true but I am just glad that my whole district besides two will be with me too which means there will be 3 sisters and 3 elders. Hopefully one of us out of the six will be able to understand someone when we get down there. haha As for calling though.. I am told that we will be able to call in the airport on monday so I send you exactly my travel plans so I dont really think I will have time in Salt lake to call so I am thinking in georgia but I really have no idea exactly what time it will be but just leave monday open and stay by your phones. umm who should I call??!?! the house or mom? or...? let me know...
some other events of the week. Well since all of our schedules are all changed around we lost both of our teachers too which I am not going to lie was really depressing. I feel like in these 8 weeks that I have been here I have really gained a love for them and it has really been hard this week to adjust to 2 new random teachers. I just always compare them to my awesome old ones. Last saturday was our last class with my teacher Hermano Brown and I dont know if I have ever really talked about him before but I am pretty sure he is the best teacher at the MTC, no offense to other teachers but he is incredible! He has the most amazing testimony and love for the gospel and he shows us each and everyday. He told us that if he didnt love missionaries and the gospel so much he would def not be working here cause he said it has horrible pay and horrible hours but you can tell that he really cares. Well on saturday our last class with him we all thought he was going to just teach us a bunch of spanish but no the whole 4 i repeat FOUR hours of class we talked about christ. We read in Jesus the Christ we watched videos of christ and just talked about christ and he just bore his sweet strong testimony of Jesus Christ because that really is our purpose as missionaries to bring people unto christ and the other things like spanish will come in time. I cant even explain to you how strong the spirit was in the 4 hours and just how happy I felt after. Bro Brown's famous quote is "Jesucristo vive" so every alive flower and wildlife is just evidence that Jesucristo vive!
    Also so remember how I told you that every week they give us a topic and we have to prepare a talk and then we find out who will be speaking 1 minute before we have to speak well guess who the lucky person that got to speak on our last sunday we would have to speak in the mtc yep that was me!! haha I was terrified and it was some other events of the week. Well since all of our schedules are all changed around we lost both of our teachers too which I am not going to lie was really depressing. I feel like in these 8 weeks that I have been here I have really gained a love for them and it has really been hard this week to adjust to 2 new random teachers. I just always compare them to my awesome old ones. Last saturday was our last class with my teacher Hermano Brown and I dont know if I have ever really talked about him before but I am pretty sure he is the best teacher at the MTC, no offense to other teachers but he is incredible! He has the most amazing testimony and love for the gospel and he shows us each and everyday. He told us that if he didnt love missionaries and the gospel so much he would def not be working here cause he said it has horrible pay and horrible hours but you can tell that he really cares. Well on saturday our last class with him we all thought he was going to just teach us a bunch of spanish but no the whole 4 i repeat FOUR hours of class we talked about christ. We read in Jesus the Christ we watched videos of christ and just talked about christ and he just bore his sweet strong testimony of Jesus Christ because that really is our purpose as missionaries to bring people unto christ and the other things like spanish will come in time. I cant even explain to you how strong the spirit was in the 4 hours and just how happy I felt after. Bro Brown's famous quote is "Jesucristo vive" so every alive flower and wildlife is just evidence that Jesucristo vive!
    Also so remember how I told you that every week they give us a topic and we have to prepare a talk and then we find out who will be speaking 1 minute before we have to speak well guess who the lucky person that got to speak on our last sunday we would have to speak in the mtc yep that was me!! haha I was terrified and it was all in spanish but it was fine and Im pretty sure half the people there had no idea what I was saying so I didnt feel too horrible and then along with that I led the music and sang in the musical number with my district. can you say one man show?? haha I felt like I ran the whole sacrament meeting but I guess thats what you get when you are in a branch. I feel like its going to be worse when I get to argentina so this is just prep for that.
     Mom mentioned that she bet someone from the 12 would come on easter and we all kind of thought that too but no... but we did get someone pretty amazing on tuesday for devotional. ELder Oaks was here!!!! It was so great and I was just so excited because I feel so lucky that I have gotten to have 2 apostles speak when I am here in the mtc. I think its because its after conference so now they have some time. haha but it is so great!!!
    Well I have to leave to go to the temple right now and I still have email time left so I might write more later but im just going to send this now. I love you lots and hope everyone is going great! I am excited to talk to you all on monday, you better have some good stories and exciting things to tell me!!! :) k love you lots!! have a great day!
love,
kara

04.21.11

2011-04-21T23:27:00.001-07:00

Hola!!!!!
How is everyone doing? I feel like I havent heard from people in a while. Is everyone still alive? :) oh wait my district leader just literally gave me the letters from ky and mom. Thanks for those! Mom I cant wait to hear about efy and see pictures from what you were saying about preparing it sounds like it was amazing! and ky thanks for the letter I absolutely loved the cute little pic and I am excited that you finally got some new "spreading" :) you will have to send me a pic. Everyone else that reads this Update me!! :) You only have 11 more days to write me then who knows what mail is going to be like when I get to argentina. I am starting to kind of freak out that I only have 11 more days in the mtc, this means that I only have 11 more days where I can even speak english because once I get to Argentina it will be todo espanol. ahhh!!!! I have so much to learn. Speaking of learning spanish we had an AMAZING experience here at the mtc this past week. As you know we have a fireside every sunday and then a devotional every tuesday normally it is just some random speaker, we have had a couple of the quorom of the 70 but this past tuesday was a little different. We never know who the speaker is going to be until they walk onto the stage at 7 pm to start speaking so this past tuesday we could all just feel this different spirit around the mtc and as we all sat in the gym with anticipation to know who we would have the opportunity to hear from we all knew that it was someone special and lucky enough we had the amazing opportunity to hear from Elder Scott! I was so stoked especially after his amazing talk at conference. He talk was pretty incredible but the one thing that stood out to every single person listening was when he asked all of the missionaries who was learning a new language and as the majority of the room raised their hands he then said something similar to this: "In the authority of the apostleship I invoke upon you the blessing of the gift of tongues for those who are striving. He said: you will recieve additional help and support. I confer this gift upon you. you still have to study but I think you will find it easier." I'm sure you can only imagine the spirit at that moment in time. It was truly incredible to hear an apostle of the lord invoke this blessing upon us. It just gave me hope that through the lords help I WILL be able to learn this language. :)
This week was also kind of an interesting week because last thursday my companion and I walked into our classroom to our Branch president standing there telling us that he needed to talk to all of the sisters in our district. (there are 4 of us) He ended up saying that due to some things going on they were going to have to switch up our companionships. I was devasted!! I absolutely love my companion. We get along so well, we teach so well together, and we know how to have fun but also focus and study. I did not want to let that go but the other sisters in our district have a horrible companionship. They dont get along at all and they are always arguing, i guess they thought that if they switched us up that things would be better. After a long day of thinking I had to switch companions they ended up telling us that we were just going to have companionship exchanged for two days so we were apart for 2 days and luckily we are happily back together and hopefully companions for the rest of the mtc! So things are good at the moment. :)
Another exciting moment of the week is that yesterday (wednesday) I was able to be a new missionary host, meaning we bacically take the new missionaries around to check in. As I was standing there with sister horsepool waiting for a sister to arrive I look over by the cars and see the Foggs dropping Meghan off. I literally sprinted over there, I was so excited!!!! I got to see them for a minute and then sister horsepool and I took Meghan around the mtc and got her all checked in and in her class. I think she was excited to see someone she knew and I was excited to see her. She lives with two of the sisters in my zone so I think I will see her a lot which is cool!

Well I dont know if I can think of anything else at the moment but like usual right when I get off of this I will probably think of something else I can tell you. but some exciting news is I signed my visa on tuesday and I should be getting my travel plans today!!!! yipee!!! we are all getting so excited, I know I have so much to learn still but I am excited to finally get to argentina and teach people the gospel. Its exciting to hear other peoples mission stories but I am ready to creat my own mission stories!! :) oh I met my second cousin. the other day when we had our argentina meeting for signing our visas I heard his name because grandma had told me his name and so I went up to him and told him that I thought we were related and he just kind of looked at me funny cause he had no idea what i was talking about and just said oh cool. so umm ya that was an interesting experience. haha Well i think that is all for now! i love you all. keep writing me, letters really do keep me going! and know that I am doing great and becoming closer to my savior everyday! it really is an exciting and happy time of my life. I will send pictures home today. hope everyone is doing great. have a wonderful day and i love you lots!!

love,

Hermana Van Wagenen

P.S. Heather I swear you are super popular, today at the temple some girl came up to me and said she knows you. I guess you were in the same ward this semester.. i didnt get her name though. haha but really i have met so many people that know you. oh and I hope finals went well and drive home safely tomorrow! i will be thinking about you!!

04.14.11

2011-04-21T23:22:00.001-07:00

Holla again!!!

como estan? I swear these weeks fly by I literally feel like I was just sitting on this computer writing an email but aparently that was a week ago. I have some exciting news!!!! Tomorrow we have a meeting where we will be getting our visas!!! and then tuesday we have another meeting to get our visas signed!!!! guess what that means??? we will be leaving on time! I was literally so excited when I found out. I think next week we will be getting our travel plans to leave. Ahhh i am so excited but at the same time feel so not ready for that! On monday we will be the oldest district in the zone. that is honestly hard for me to believe but it is the truth! :)

Some things that happened this past week... well on sunday the BYU mens choir came and sang for our devotional and it was incredible! We are so used to always having speakers that it was a cool little change to have a musical fireside and wow do they sing amazing! Nick Nelson is in the choir so it was fun to see a familiar face up there. oh and heather I saw your friend ummm I cant think of his name ohhh andrew!! I saw him across the room on sunday and I ran over to say hi to him. and then he ended up sitting by me at the fireside so I talked to him for a little bit and he was teaching me some of his thailand language. Its funny how I am seeing all of these people that are heathers friends. For devotional on tuesday Elder Rasband spoke to us and he talked a lot about the importance of having the spirit with you always. It is so important that as you are teaching lessons that you are feeling the spirit because that is how the investigator is going to be converted is through the spirit. THis is something that I have really realized since being here and as I hear new missionaries teach lessons I realize how much I have grown since being here. It really is amazing the difference in lessons when you are truly focusing on the investigator and not focusing on the lesson you should be teaching. Hermana Hamman and I had a really cool experience this past week with one of our lessons. We have a progressing investigators whos name is Carolina (she is our teacher Hermana Cannon acting like one of the investigators she had) and a couple of weeks ago we asked her to be baptized and she said she wanted to!! which was ways exciting, my first baptism on my mission!! :) ( ok so maybe its fake.. but still) but anyways as we would plan for her lessons we just felt like she really didnt understand the things we were teaching her and why she was being baptized so this past week as we planned for our lesson with her. We took a long time to plan and really just focused on her and asking her questions and reading the book of mormon with her. and after the lessons she just stopped and looked at us and asked "how did you think to teach your lesson like that" and we both just looked at each other really confused and said we just really wanted to focus on asking questions and she said that is the best i have ever felt during one of your lessons! how exciting it was for us to know that our investigator felt something good from our lesson! A couple of weeks ago I was just really feel down on my self with my spanish and just feeling like I dont ever feel the spirit when I am teaching my lessons in spanish but this past week that changed a little bit and as I started to focus on the investigator and not think about how horrible my spanish is that spirit was so strong. There is still so much I have to learn. I really dont know any spanish but I just continue to try my best and to work as hard as I can and just have faith that the lord will help me along the way. Missionary work truly is incredible. In relief society on sunday the speaker said, "Our mission is the mtc for the rest of our lives!" how true is that. My mission is preparing me for the rest of my life. I just think everyday how grateful I am for the opportunity that I have to be on a mission, I know that it is helping me in so many ways and it will help me for the rest of my life. I am glad that I listened to the spirit when I was told that I needed to go on a mission because I know that is was so true. Thanks for all of your amazing examples in my life! I think everyday how greatful I am for my family and friends back home. I love you so much and pray that you are all doing well. Keep updating me because i am not kidding when I say I want to know what is going on at home and in the real world. I love you all so much!!!

con amor,

Kara :)

p.s. efy is this next week right? have so much fun at efy!!! and I better get updates on it!!!!

04.07.11

2011-04-08T00:17:00.001-07:00

Holla my family and friends!!

I cant believe that it has already been a week since I last wrote. Time is going to fast and I am just getting scared/ excited as the day of me leaving the mtc gets closer and closer. Just a few weeks ago we were the new ones/ babies of the zone and now our branch president is calling us the older district. Where has the time gone. Ahhh!!!!

Well this past weekend was conference. Wasnt it just amazing!! It was so cool to have the opportunity to watch conference here at the mtc and as a missionary. It was the first time I have watched every session of general conference with no distractions and just full attention on conference. and what a cool opportunity to watch it with so many missionaries. We all gathered in the gym as we watched 8-10 hrs of conference. I absolutely loved Elder richard g. scotts talk as he talked about his wife and his love for her. It was just the sweetest most sincere talk ever and I also absolutely loved as Jeffrey R. holland testified of pres monson saying he knows that he is called of god. I just felt the spirit so strong while he testified and i just got an overwhelming love for pres monson and I just knew that he really is called of god and he is our modern day prophet on the earth today.

This past monday was no english day meaning we had to speak spanish all day! Ahh it was crazy, our district has decided that every monday is going to be all spanish day. It was pretty funny because if someone that actually knew spanish heard us speaking they would laugh because nothing we say is conjugated correct or said right but we still all understand each other and i think it really is good because i have realized that really the only way that we are going to learn this lanugage is by speaking it as much as possible and just practicing the things that we learn. Memorizing only does so much but just speaking is what is going to help me learn.

This past week I met several people who had connections with fresno one is really good friends with lyndons fiance. she is going to taiwan and she went to school in hawaii and she also knows beau and mckenzie fogg. I also met this sister who is going to france i think and she lived in fresno for a couple of years and she knows several people i know like matt termeer and michael green. The mormon world is so small it is so cool to find people that you have connections with. Grandma bonnie said that i have a 2nd cousin that just got here in the mtc. I will have to be on the look out for him. It would be interesting to find him. The other day I met a sister that is from Resistencia!!! it was seriously the coolest thing ever!! She is serving her mission on temple square english speaking and she doesnt know very much english right now so it was kind of hard to communicate with her but it was so amazing!! she was so sweet and so excited to here that i was going there. She tried to tell me all about resistencia as we spoke in our little spanish/english we knew. i am going to find her again because she made me so happy and made me so excited to get to argentina to meet the people there.

Well i prob have a ton more i can say but my companions are waiting for me so i better go. I love you all tons. It is amazing how much my testimony has grown in there 5 weeks of being here. I love this gospel so much and couldnt imagine my life with out it. The church is so true and I know that pres monson is a true prophet of god. Read the book of mormon it is incredible. love you lots!!

love, hermana vanwagenen

p.s. keep the letters coming! they are like gold while on a mission!! ( i am not kidding! )

picture time.

2011-04-03T16:58:00.000-07:00

yay for pictures! Kara sent us these and wrote her own little commentary on each one, they made me laugh! ha:)

"Fresno people in MTC (I look super awkward)"

"My district! 1st temple walk 3/6/11"

"Elder Grimes and I"

"Hermana Tonga and Hermana Hammon. I love these two, I look kind of special.. but oh well."

"P-DAY! Hermana Hammon and I 3/10/11"

"All of the sisters in my zone after the temple 3/10/11"

"My companion Hermana Hammon and I, temple walk 3/13/11"

"Sister Cheney and I (friend from Idaho)"

03.31.11

2011-03-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

hola again!!

I cant believe that I am already here on the computer again writing another email home. The weeks really do just fly by. I have already been here for a month. which means I am about half way through. crazyness. I dont feel in any way ready to leave here. Yesterday my class fully immersed in spanish, meaning if we need to say or ask something it has to be in spanish. so pretty much i just dont talk. I am realizing that I really need to focus hard on my spanish because I have so much to learn. We taught our first lesson in spanish last saturday and man can I just say that it was a total bust. It is such a struggle when we are teaching an investigator and there is something i want to tell them so bad but I just can figure out how to say it in spanish. Pray for me because I need all the help I can get with this spanish.

My district was the new people in the zone for 3 weeks and finally last week we got a new district and then yesterday we got another one. So we are officially not the new missionarys anymore. It is awesome!!! I feel so much older than them. its kind of weird here because ages doesnt exist. like the fact that I am 21 and the elders are 19 doesnt even matter, its all about who has been at the mtc longer. All of the district that have been here longer than me just seem so much older. The two new districts we got are ALL elders meaning NO sisters. it is kind of sad. Although the elders are great I love having other sisters and once the district above us leaves the four of us sisters in my district will be the only sisters in the zone. We are now the 2nd oldest district in the zone. man its hard to believe.Have I talked about how every devotional we all sing called to serve together and it is incredible to hear 2000 missionaries sing it. The spirit it always so strong when we all sing it but last sunday at the fireside we stood up and sang it with all our might and it was amazing. Everyone was just so excited because that is what we are doing, we are called to serve. Every sunday night we have a fireside and every tuesday night we have a devotional and it is always exciting to see who is going to come. It is usually someone in the quorum of the seventy which is great!! Last sunday my companion and I were asked to give a lesson for our district meeting and we were asked to teach on charity. It was such a great opportunity to read more on charity and to realize what an important characteristic it is to have. Charity is something we all need to strive to have more of. but anyways our girlie/relief society came out of us and we decided to give a handout with our lesson and my companion just happened to have some little containers of play-doh and we named it "chari-doh" and wrote on it "sculpt yourself to be more like christ" i think our district was pretty excited its always fun to have a little handout.

Dad sent more brownies this week! haha when I got the package and saw that it was brownies i couldnt wait to show my district. They were all excited and I was able to share them with brother brown this time and we all quite enjoyed the brownies. I even shared some with Evan and Dylan. its such a treat to be able to see them everyday and practice our spanish with each other. Yesterday at lunch the mtc president President Brown randomly came and sat by us at lunch. He was quizing us at sciptures we knew and asking where scriptures were about the atonement. It was super intimidating and I realized how much a still need to learn. Today for study im planning on finding scriptures. He threatened to call me up during a devotional to test me. ahhh scaryy!!!!!

well the time is blinking and i have 2 minutes. my heart is racing. i love you all and miss you lots. have a wonderful day!!!

love,

hermana vanwagenen

ps i still havent seen sister martin. i am looking for her everywhere. christa should try to figure out her schedule for me. like when are her meal times, where is her class. i have to see her!!!

pss keep the letters coming!!! i absolutely love reading your letters and hear what is going on in the outside world. we really are in our own little world here.

03.24.11

2011-03-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

"holla mi familia y amigos!!!

how are you all doing? this week has been just like every other week, lots of class, lots of studying, gym time, meal times and little sleep times. :) You know how I told you about hermana ponaveitongo? well we had a really neat experience because last thursday night our whole zone decided we were going to fast for her and her family. We all prayed together and fasted on friday. It was a really neat experience to come toegether as a zone for her I felt like it really unified our zone and you could tell that she truly felt our love. It was amazing. As I was thinking about her situation i have just thought, what better place for her to be at this time than on a mission with all of these people that love her and know that everything will be alright because of this gospel. How amazing! She seems to be doing a little better lately which is good!

Last saturday was officially the hardest day I have had since being at the mtc. It was just the longest day ever and I felt like nothing was going right that day. but it comforted me to know that everyone in our zone hates saturday. We are just going going going all day its the end of the week and we are all just so tired. but all is good and it just made me really grateful for all the other great days I have had here. Although there are hard days because I feel like I just cant learn anymore or my brain is fried from so much class all day I have great comfort in knowing that my heavenly father is by my side, he knows what I am doing and he is there helping me through this. This week I have truly found an appreciation for my teacher Brother Brown. I have just really realized that I think I have the best teachers at the mtc. We have all been stressing about spanish and how we just cant learn it and how it is hard so in class the other day as brother brown was teaching he told us how it really doesnt matter if we dont know anything but to use the words we do know and even if it isnt a lot if we say it with meaning the spirit will be there and touch those peoples lives. He gave an example of him saying three words.... Jesucristo, Jose Smith, and la iglesia (chruch). He was super passionate as he said each of these words and even though he was only saying these three words it was truly incredible how strong the spirit was while he was speaking. It just really gave me courage to just speak spanish as much as I can. These past couple of weeks as we teach lessons we have just had to teach them in english but this saturday for the first time we have to teach the first lesson in spanish to our teacher. Pray for me! I am scared out of my mind!!!!

My companion and I are still doing great! We get along great and each and everyday I just realized how blessed I am. Yesterday (wednesday) we recieved a solo sister. This sister is going to germany and is the only sister in the mtc at this time that is going to germany. ( can you say lonely?) So since all of the german missionaries have the exact same schedule as us we Hermana Hamman and I have been assigned to her, which means every morning at 7 we have to escort her to her class and she will go to gym and temple with us. Basically she stays with the elders in her district all day but if she cant be with them she has to be with us. I feel so bad for her because as we get ready for missions we are all expecting to have a companion but she got here to nothing. So it is really important that we welcome her and make her feel loved cause I sure it is hard. It will be interesting but she seems cool so Im sure it will be good. Her name is Sister Funk and she went to school at BYU-I and went to Jerusalem so we have some stuff in common. Im excited!! Mom was asking about our bedroom, well before our solo sister got here it was just 4 of us in our room (the four of us sisters in my district) but now we have 5. It is kind of weird to share a room with 5 people but it really isnt bad because honestly the only time we are in our bedroom is from 10 pm- 7 am (the times we are sleeping) the only hard thing sometimes is the snorring, but its not too bad. Well one thing i have learning about myself since being here is apparently I am really easy to tease... hmmm I thought I got out of that since Im not around dad anymore but noooo.... my elders are constantly teasing me! There have been a few times where I start laughing really really hard and they all tell me I laugh like a Brontosauras (some kind of dinosaur) and whenever they see me they make the noice I apparently make when I laugh.. great!! The teasing just continues on with many other things. I deal with a lot here at the mtc. I just think of the elders like little brothers and just do it right back at them. It makes things entertaining! :)

Basically I just want you to know that I am doing well! I am happy to be hear and I know that I am suppose to be here. It is truly incredible how much I am learning everyday i really do love it. I know a lot of people hate the mtc and yes is does feel like you are trapped in some other world but it is so amazing to be around so many other missionaries all the time with the spirit so strong. I am happy to be here and I am glad I still have more time here. It was weird for me to think that if I was speaking english I would have been leaving this week. One of my favorite parts of being here is every tuesday at devotional when we all sing Called to Serve. The spirit is so strong and we all know our purpose of being here. The church is true. Keep smiling. i love and miss you all mucho!!!

muchas amor,

hermana van wagenen"

03.17.11

2011-03-17T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hello out there!

It crazy to me that it is already p-day again! I swear it was just p-day but at the same time it feels like forever ago. Time doesnt exsist here. Most of the time I dont even know what day it is. I know understand exactly what people mean when they say that the days feel like weeks but the weeks feel like days. It is soooo true! I told you how I recieved the brownies you sent and how I wanted to share them with my teacher hermano brown that night because right when we met him he told us he loved brownies and that we will get brownie points if we bring him brownies. So I had opened them on wednesday night and shared some with my district and then saved the rest to eat the next night during class. I was so excited to share them and when I told him I had brownies you should have seen how excited his face was until I opened up the box and the brownies were covered in ants!! it was the saddest thing ever! no brownies for hermano brown.

This week has been an interesting week. We have now been here for 2 weeks which means we have gotten to know each other really well. I have really come to learn the importance of companion unity. My companion and I have great unity and we get along super bien! but there is another companionship in my district that doesnt and it is amazing to the impact it has not only on them but on our district and everyone around them. We have had many discussions about unity and we even watched "the district" to see how they got along as companionships. It is so important that even if you dont get along to do anything you can to have unity with each other. I saw Elder Grimes and Cucuk yesterday!!! I was so excited to see them, I was worried that I wouldnt see them because there are so many people here and everyone has different schedules because I hardly ever see Sisters Horsepool and Farley. but luckily both Elder Cucuk and Grimes homes (aka classrooms) are in the same building and floor as me so I think I will see them often which is awesome!! It was so funny because my companion and I were just contacting someone at their door and in the middle of the contact I here voices and I turn around and Elder Grimes was standing there. It totally caught me off guard I didnt even rocognize him because I wasnt expecting him to be there. One of my favorite things in the whole entire world of being at the MTC is the temple walks on sunday. They are seriously amazing! It is so funny to see the temple just filled with missionaries but the feeling of walking out of the mtc is a nice little feeling of freedom and I think everyone just loves it.

Yesterday one of my favorite sisters in my zone (Hermana Ponaveitonga aka Hermana Tonga thats what I call her because i cant ever pronounce her last name) found out that her grandpa passed away and along with that her mom called her and basically told her that she was disowning her because she wont fly home to go the funeral. She is a convert and no one else in her family are members so they already arent happy about her being on a mission. But my heart has just been breaking for her and the struggles she is going through in her life right now. It is so interesting how her joining the church has brought so much trials in her life but it also brings so much comfort at the same time. The church truly is a blessing and will help her get through these trials.

It is incredible the amount of information I have learned in this little amount of time. I have never felt so emotionally drained but it is in a good way. Spanish is coming along slowly but surely. I still have a long way to go but i have been trying my hardest to whenever I know words to say them in spanish. Even if most of the time how I am saying it is totally wrong. My companion and I currently have 4 progressing investigators (aka teachers at the mtc acting as investigators they had in their mission) It is so interesting to do this because even though we know that they are teachers there is something about it that makes it so real at the same time. When we start teaching everything becomes real and I think of these people (Carolina and Jackie) as real investigators. We pray for them and do all we can to know what they need to be taught. I know that this is helping me so much in preparing to be a better missionary. I know exactly what it is like to teach someone. I absolutely love it!

We went to the temple this morning and it was just great! It always just brings me so much peace and love when I go. I look forward to this opportunity every week. The plans for the rest of our p-day are to take a nice needed nap, do laundry, write letters :), and class later tonight. Happy day!!! I love you all so very much and think about you often. I have the cute picture of mckay that amy sent me by my bed and also the sweet pic ky sent me of her and dad at the daddy daughter dance. I love it. Send me more pictures!!!!! I want to see whats going on. Keep writing me letters really are what keep me going! I miss and love you all! Have an amazing day and remember the church is true and heavenly father loves you so much!!!

love,

Hermana Van Wagenen

P.S. My friend jenn told me that people have been printing off blog post and sending them to her. That is pretty much that best idea ever! so you should do that because then I can see pictures and also know whats going on... just an idea! :)

also congrats to ali snarr!! I was so excited to hear that she is finally engaged! yay!! :)

03.10.11

2011-03-10T20:06:00.000-08:00

"holla family and friends!!

well it has officially been 8 days of me being in the mtc! i feel like so much has happened and i have so little time to tell you. but first off i was to start by saying gracias gracias gracias to everyone for your letters and packages!! I couldnt believe how many people sent stuff. i feel loved and appreciate all of it!!! Did you get my letter i sent on the first day? I didnt get any responses so i wasnt sure if you ever recieved it. well... i love the mtc!! it was kind of hard to get used to at first because of the strict schedule from 6:30 to 10:30 at night but it is great and althought i feel tired a lot I am getting used to it and it is great. well my district consists of 4 elders and 4 sisters. which i dont think is very common but it is awesome! if you had asked me a week ago how my district was i would have told you that we were all kind of quiet and reserved but 1 week letter and everything is different. my district is crazy!!! we have a lot of fun and get along really well. we are all going to my mission but one elder is going to columbia bogota.

My companions name is hermana hamman and i absolutely love her!! she is from twin falls, idaho we get along so well and i honestly couldnt ask for a better companion. we have a lot in common and she is hilarious and we are always laughing. During gym time we have been run/walking around the track together and it has been so great to have someone that will work out with me. My teachers are hermano brown and hermana cannon and they are both AMazing!! i feel so lucky to have them as teachers! they both returned from their missions not too long ago and have so much to teach us and so many stories to tell us. it is awesome! one of the things they do a lot at the mtc is role play. and role play = my biggest fear!! but our teachers are always thinking of investigators they taught on their missions and they pretend to be them while we try to teach them. i have slowly gotten to feeling more comfortable with it but i really do know that it is the best way for us missionaries to learn and grow to be good missionaries when we get to the field. it is crazy to think how much i have already learned in the 8 days of being here. we are literally in the class all day and sometimes we get crazy after being their for too long but we call it home and our district is a little family. we went to the LRC on tuesday for the first time and i am not going to lie i was scared out of my mind. this is where they give you a fake investigator and you have to teach them. our task was to introduce ourselves and talk to them for a little bit in spanish and then teach the lesson in english. it ended up being not to bad, i know i have a lot to work on but i think that it is great practice to get used to what it is really going to be like. on sunday they asked all of us to try our best to get up in church and bare our testimonies in spanish. I was just sitting there thinking i have been here for 3 day.. how am i suppose to do that?!? so i tried my best to learn as much as i could to bare it and then because of time i didnt get to bare it but i now can attempt to bare my testimony and pray in spanish.

Another thing that our branch does is every sunday they just randomly select an elder and a sister to speak that day. they tell us the topic the week before and we have to prepare our talk to possibly give the next sunday in spanish. this week is it on the holy ghost and i am attempting to write this talk in spanish but it is difficult because i dont know spanish but i just have to remember that we are all learning spanish and if anyone makes a mistake we all understand. learning spanish gets super stressful at times because we hear all of the missionaries that have been here way longer than us speak all of this spanish and we dont understand a word they are saying but i just have to remember it has only been a week and continue to learn as much as i can. i have officially seen everyone i know at the mtc. i ran into sister horsepool on sunday, sister farley several times and two other friends from idaho sister cheney and sister gormely many times. it really makes my day when i see familiar faces! when i see sister horsepool (going to russia) and sister cheney ( going to japan) i realize how grateful i am to be learning spanish and not those languages.

Today is p-day and we got to go to the temple this morning. ahhh i cant tell you how amazing that was!! it was so nice to walk off campus and feel the peace of the temple. i thought of mom a lot while i was there because i was always going with her and i was missing that but going as a missionary was wonderful and i know that i am going to be looking forward to every thursday because of that. haha life is good! i am happy to be here and i know i am suppose to be here right now! i am learning so much and i am excited to learn so much more!! i miss you all and you better keep writing because to a missionary a letter is just a ray of sunshine in the day! love you lots!!!

love,

Hermana Van Wagenen

p.s. everyone has a difficult time pronouncing my name!! haha"

03.07.11

2011-03-07T16:48:00.000-08:00

We got a letter from Kara today of her first day! She seems so happy and we are so excited to hear more from her.

"Hello Family!

My mission president told us that sometime today or tomorrow that we need to take a minute to write home. Today has been a really overwhelming but awesome day. Right when Grandma, Grandpa, and mom dropped me off some elders were standing there ready to help. They grabbed my suitcases and brought me to a building were they checked me in and gave me my room key. The first sister I met was going to Fresno Spanish speaking, crazy huh? Then a mentor sister came and helped me bring my bags to my room then we were off to get my books and head straight to my classroom. Which was were I met my companion, Sister Hamman. She is from Idaho Falls, ID and she is a little bit quiet so it should be interesting with both of us being a little more quiet but I’m sure it will be great! I then met my district, which consists of 4 elders and 4 sisters (I don’t think it is very common to have it even like that but its kind of cool.) Everyone in our district is going to Argentina Resistencia except one elder who is going to Columbia Bogata. Is that Emerson’s mission? Our teachers seem great; we got to meet with them for an hour. We got to know them and learned how to pray in Spanish. One of our teachers just got home from her mission two weeks ago so im sure she is going to be awesome! After that we walked to a big meeting to met our mission president and on the way there I ran into Sister Gormley (Kelsi Gormley). I met her freshman yeah in Idaho and it was so great to see a familiar face. After the meeting with the mission president was dinner. The cafeteria is pretty big and missionaries re everywhere but as I was about to leave dinner I glanced around the room and all the way across the room I saw Hermanan Farley. Oh I can’t tell you how happy I was to see her. We got to talk for probably 15 minutes. She seems like she is doing great! Then we met with a group of about 20 missionaries and watched missionaries teach an investigator and then we had the opportunity to talk to the investigator. It was cool to watch this. Then we came back to our classroom and met our zone and then by about nine we came back to our room and had the chance to unpack and now I’m writing you! :) There has been a lot to take in and everywhere I go I feel like a lost puppy. We have a bright orange sticker on our badge because it’s our first day so everyone is so friendly and were welcoming us to the mtc. It was really great! Everyone is so friendly and happy here and there really is the strongest spirit. It just makes me happy! All is well and I’m happy to be here. I love you so much and I hope everything is great!

Love Hermana Van Wagenen"

Final Countdown

2011-02-23T08:55:00.000-08:00

Well its official.. I was set apart tonight and am now officially a missionary. (well I guess not technically till I enter the mtc.) I am leaving early tomorrow morning to fly to utah and I report wednesday. It has been a crazy/sad last couple of days saying my last goodbyes and finishing last minute things but I am so excited to start this next adventure in my life and I know that it will be such an amazing experience. I am so excited to serve the people of Argentina!

I will be in the mtc for 9 weeks here is my address:

Sister Kara Van Wagenen

MTC Mailbox #231

ARG-RES 050

32005 N. 900 E.

Provo, UT 84604-1793

These were after I was set apart so we felt it was necessary to be awkward.

My wonderful sister Lauren will be posting the emails I send weekly on here for anyone to read.

AWKWARD HAND HUG

P.S. dearelder.com is the best thing ever! Anyone can type a letter and send it to the mtc and it will arrive either that day or the next day and best of all its FREE! I would love to hear from you

SEE YOU IN 18 MONTHS :)

love you all

News!!

2010-11-11T14:49:00.000-08:00

I guess its about time that I share my EXCITING

news with the blogging world

this news consists of:

name tags

interviews

skirts

and teaching

yep I'm going on a mission!! :)

I had my final interview on tuesday night

and my papers were submitted wednesday morning.

I am now anxiously awaiting my call and I couldn't be

more excited!!! :)

Where do you think I will go?

I would love to hear thoughts.

(we are getting a map and marking where everyone thinks)

and the winner is...

2010-10-29T12:55:00.001-07:00

Last night we had a ward

HALLOWEEN

party which was out at a

member of our bishoprics potato

farming barn and after much

thought and searches on google my roommate

Jenn and I figured out the perfect costume..

can you guess what it might have been?

Yes you guessed it. We are Idaho potato sacks.

We thought it fit pretty well with the potato

farming season and living in idaho and all.

(fhe family all dressed up)

There was also a costume contest

and people had to vote for best cotume.

and you best believe we won! haha

prize was a silver painted potato

and some candy.

(can you tell we live in idaho? haha)

today I went to check the mail and found

this lovely package from my mother!

Thanks so much!

Packages are the best thing ever!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Truths of Life

2010-10-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

A couple nights ago my roommate called us into her room to read us these and we all just sat there laughing because they are all so true. Read them.. you wont regret it.

Truths of Life

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm prettysure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this - ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dang it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and runaway?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

19. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

20. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

21. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

22. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

23. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

24. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

25. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

26. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far..

27. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

28. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my behind everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, firsttime, every time!

p.s. I'm not a fan of

scary things. Can you tell?

Last night we went to a haunted corn maze

and it was fun but can I just tell you

that guys with creepy masks and chain saws and I

don't get along.

attack

my roommates sister works there and she dresses up

like a ringwraith from lord of the rings.

so scary! you can kind of see her in the

back of this pic.

got potatoes?

2010-10-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

our pantry currently looks like this

yep there are at least 14 bags in there.

a member of the bishopric is a potato farmer

so he invited us to come out during spud

harvest week and see what it is all about.

those are all potatoes behind us.

they fill huge building with them.

i had never seen so many potatoes in my entire life.

now i have potatoes to last me forever.

i now feel like a true idahoan!

besides that I am busy with school and

having fun with my awesome roommates

and tons of new fun friends.

“…it is good advice to slow down a little, steady the course, and focus on the essentials when experiencing adverse conditions.” - Elder Uchtdorf

Update!

2010-07-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe that this semester of school is almost over. Here's a little countdown of upcoming events:

Done with school: 11 days

Hev Dev's Wedding: 12 days

Back home in CA: 13 days

Family Reunion in Bass Lake: 14 days

Going to Texas for H & J's Wedding: 30 days

I cant wait to be done with school and to finally have the summer to relax! and be at the lake A LOT!!! :)

This semester has been full of so many great memories. Heres a little recap since I haven't blogged at all:

Making huge bonfires

going bowling

meeting mormon celebrities (aka Kerby Heyborne, Deverle from singles ward and some others)

making awesome videos

and living with these great girls!

Sorry its such a long post but I figured its ok since I am such a blog slacker so these dont come very often! :)

P.S. Christina and Ali (from below video) made it to HOLLYWOOD which means they will be performing live this week and its time to vote! You should vote. they are great!

P.S.S. 21 weeks till baby Clevenger is born!!!! I can't wait to have a nephew!! :)

Watch AGT!!!

2010-06-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

If you don't watch AMERICA'S GOT TALENT

Now is the time to start

This is my friend Ali, I lived with her last summer and basically think she is the most incredible person I have ever met! She has so much love for life and the people around her. She is so wonderful and I feel blessed to have her as a friend.

So you should watch and vote for Ali and Christina!!

They deserve this! :)

Happy Mothers Day!

2010-05-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

I have the best mom ever who does so much for me and is always there for me! Thanks for everything mom! I love you more than you will ever know!

Happy!

2010-05-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that life is GREAT!

A few weeks ago I made the journey from fresno, CA to Rexburg ID which equals approximately 16 hours of driving. As I was preparing to move back to idaho I was sad to be leaving my friends and family in fresno and not looking forward to starting school at all. Honestly at that point I was just wanting to stay in fresno for the summer. but lets be honest I am so glad I didnt. I am so happy I am up here right now. here are some reasons:

* My roommates are AMAZING and make me want to be better!

* School is great! (i just love going to an lds school)

* I am learning to love working out! :)

Life is GRAND!

Fro yo anyone?

2010-03-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

I know I am probably the worlds worst blogger but at least I still do it every once in a while right? Right now I am living at home and I have been since middle of december because I am off track at BYU-I. For a while I was just hanging out not doing much because a couple of jobs I was trying to get didnt end up working out. Then out of no where I got a job at this self serve frozen yogurt place and I am loving it.

Workin the cash register.

lots of yummy flavors

i have such a great family that comes and visits me pretty much every time I work. Its fun to work at a place that everyone enjoys coming to. So if you are in Fresno and you every have a craving for frozen yogurt come visit me.. you wont regret it!!!

I'm here!

2009-11-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

yep I'm still here I have just been MIA for a little while. Been busy with school and not much excitement to even blog about but I still go on here just so I can read other people's blogs. :) Thanks for those of you who do update because I love reading it.

I just wanted to say 2 days until I am driving to Utah to celebrate

THANKSGIVING!

with

them

and them...

and extended family...

and I can't wait!

I LOVE MY DADDY!

2009-06-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Fathers Day Dad!!!!

He visits me when I am studying abroad in foreign countries.

He is a stud and runs marathons and does triathlons like a maniac and motivates me to work out more!

He is always there for me when I need advice.

He makes us all laugh!

He protects and supports our family.

Thanks for everything you do dad. I love and appreciate you so much!

Do you know what it feels like?

2009-05-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been terrible about blogging ever since Jerusalem, I really want to try to keep up with it but my life really isnt as interesting as it was. Right now I am just in Rexburg going to school and having fun with roommates. Summer here is pretty great!

I have two roommates that are photo majors so we had a fun little photo shoot

I love having my bike here and riding it everywhere. This is my old roommate Becca and I on a bike ride

We took a little trip down to boise/Nampa for a friends farewell. It was fun to get out of rexburg for a weekend.

huge dogs

Goodbye Jerusalem!

2009-04-22T00:54:00.000-07:00

Well the trip is now wrapping up and we are in the last hours of being here in Jerusalem. I am currently packing right now and trying to stuff everything in my luggage so that tonight I can just hang out with friends before we leave this place. We will be leaving at 2 a.m. thursday. My feelings are so bittersweet. I have LOVED being here so much and I dont want to leave but at the same time I think it is at the perfect point where it is time to go home and move along with my life. My friend Marianne said a perfect description of how I am sure most of us are feeling....

content.

-adjective1. satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.

weary.

–adjective
1. physically or mentally exhausted by hard work, exertion, strain, etc.; fatigued; tired: weary eyes; a weary brain.

grateful.

–adjective
1.warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received; thankful.
2.Pleasing to the mind or senses; agreeable or welcome; refreshing.

These past 3 1/2 months have been incredible behond belief and Jerusalem will now always have a special place in my heart. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to come here.

I will be back in Utah thursday night and I cant wait to see all my family. Then saturday morning I am off to Rexburg to get back into school which started this past Monday.. Ah cant wait! haha

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T07:40:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! Thanks to my mom and the package she sent me I was able to wear these cute bunny ears around the center with my friends and wish everyone a happy easter. yay! Mom you are the best! Today was probably one of the best easters I have ever had. This morning a group of us went to the garden tomb and attended a service. It was probably the most amazing service ever. We were singing songs and just getting so into it.
Some of the people dancing and getting so into the songs. It was a blast to watch and see everyone there celebrating the same thing.
Yesterday morning we woke up and saw this sign. Eliza and Mike had been working all night before and made bags of candy for every student at the center and hid them all throughout the center for us to find. They are awesome!

Fun in the JC

2009-04-09T01:42:00.000-07:00

So on January 5, 2009 we had an orientation meeting in Provo, Utah prior to coming to Jerusualem to inform us on what to expect and just more information on what we were getting into. Well at this meeting we received a packet that had many handouts one being a booklet with everyone on the trips picture and another with a list of all of the committees and who was on each of them. As I pulled at the committee list I look at every committee…. The in center activities committee, the snack bar committee, the sports committee and my name was on none of them until I get to the bottom of the paper and see my name in the spot of being a committee chair.. a little shocked I look over and see that I am the committee chair of the………………………………………….. linen/ mail committee! As I saw that I laughed to myself I thought “cool I get to clean everyones sheets every week for them. I have always wanted to that!” Haha ok so it might have been a little bit sarcastically. As I was a little bit sad about being put on this committee it wasn’t until the day that we had our first linen exchange where my views were totally changed and doing linen exchange is one of my favorite things to do in the JC every week!During this half hour I bring my ipod and we just blast our music and just make it a party in there and everyone cant wait to come to the linen room. A couple of weeks ago my committee and I even decided to make up a dance and we did a little dance for everyone in the linen room to “What is love?” haha it was pretty awesome. Every else was laughing at us for being on it and now they are jealous that they arent the ones on it! haha

After linen exchange the other night we were just having fun talking with the Allens in the their apartment when somehow cookies came into the conversation and sis allen said that she had just made cookie dough and it was in the fridge and told us that we could make some cookies with it. Hayley and I were so excited. I love cookies!
Chillin outside on the grass studying... one of my favorite places to study!

Girls night! No boys aloud
At night we sometimes play games and one they we seem to play a lot is signs! so this is all of us showing our signs.

Then we have our nights on the town!...

Us girls all dressed for the Purim celebration which is a jewish holiday and everyone dresses up like it is halloween so we decided to go out and dress up!

We had a girls night and went and saw bride wars
and then got yummy hot chocolate cakes afterwards

Well we just got back from Galilee two weeks ago so i have tons of pictures from that so you might be getting a good post soon. 2 weeks until i am home! ahh crazy!

Hezekiah's Tunnel!

2009-04-07T03:49:00.000-07:00

About a month ago we went on a field trip through Hezekiah's tunnels and it was probably one of my favorite field trips. Our Ancient Near Eastern professor gave us a lesson and then we watched a 15 minute video about how this land was over 2000 years ago. We then climbed down stairs and jumped into the tunnel. The first step into the water was freezing and the whole time we were hitting our heads on the tip of the rocks as it got lower, and running into the walls because it was so dark in the tunnel but it was awesome!

Some of us overlooking Jerusalem before entering the tunnels

This was telling us how far up the water goes in the tunnel and it wasnt exagerating
Brother Skinner... he is hilarious and such a great teacher!
Lindsey and I in the tunnelBreana, Linds, Shelby and I just chilin in the tunnel (i promise we werent on drugs although it kind of looks like we were...haha)
We made it out! and notice the legs and the really short shorts behind us.. yes that is a boy and he decided to roll his pants up as much as possible so they wouldnt get wet. oh and I dont know if you have heard of a granola but that is def what I was being called all day because of the nice t-shirt with my sweet camping pants and chacos. haha gotta love those granola days!
and then they broke out in a water fight and acted like monkeys...
after the field trip bryan, linds and I decided to stay in the city and just wander around and we found some neat churches and sites we hadnt been too.
as you can tell from our pictures we had a lot of fun with the self timer...

and finding creative ways to hang the camera to do the self timer.. haha gotta love the self timer

Palm Sunday

2009-04-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Palm Sunday and we got a pretty unique opportunity to be here in the holy lands for that special occasion. Palm Sunday is the day to celebrate Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into the holy city two millennia ago. We went to the holy sepulcher (which is where it is believed by many that the savior was buried) early yesterday morning to attend a special mass where many people got together to honor Jesus Christ. It was really neat to see all these people gathered for the same reason. Later in the day we went on the Palm Sunday walk with 20,000 other people in which we started where christ first started his walk and walked for about a mile or so to where he ended.

So many people gathered together walking....

Wilkie, Aleni, and I with our Palm leaves. Everyone walking carried palm leaves and as you can see Aleni and I didnt have very big ones and we were a little bit jealous of Wilkie.
Chels, Kara, Alexis and I getting ready to start the walk in what it felt like 400 degree weather.

I love being here! and it is so neat to be here at this time of year to celebrate this in the place it happened. Happy April 6!

I love the beach!

2009-03-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

The day after we got back from our trip to Jordan we were off to Tel Aviv which is about an hour from Jerusalem and on the mediterranean sea. While we were there we started out with a tour of the Diaspora Museum, which features the stories and history of Jews spread out all over the world. We learned about the different kinds of synagogues established around the world as Jews began to flee Israel and the lands of Europe to escape the brutality of the various nations that had ruled their land over the course of its existence. The diaspora or dispersal of the Jewish people to America has caused many to establish their own way of life in the different corners of the world.
We then moved on to Independence Hall, the building where Israel was granted its independence from Britain on May 14, 1948. It was really cool learning how quickly the decision was made to make Israel a soverign country; only 2 days before the event were invitations sent out. It was supposed to be a well-kept secret with only the few hundred invitees in attendance but over a thousand people showed up. At the end of our tour they played the exact recording of David Ben Gurion pronouncing the status of the new country- so cool.

After an exciting morning we were let free to roam around the city so a couple of girls and I headed towards a shopping area and then went straight to the ocean!

Our shoes were off and we went straight to the water. The day was so sunny and the water was beautiful. Perfect beach day and it was in March. I love it!
Chels and I jumping for joy because we were so excited to be at the beach
We then met up with our teachers again and we went to the exact spot where Jonah tried to escape his calling from the Lord and was swallowed by a whale. This is just a little whale to represent it.
Marianne, Cate and I chillin in the sun! The beach makes me so happy! :)