3.4.12

Hi!
Well it sounds like the news from the week is the new dog. Your letters made me laugh. That is so something that dad would do. Have you came up with a name yet? haha I love that you wanted to name the dog Shelley. what a crack up. let me know when you come up with one.. hmmm I cant think oh anything

Well another week has past. I am not going to lie it is kind of freaking me out how fast the time seems to be passing. It seems like when things are going well (good area, good comp) the time just seems to fly.. ahhhh!!!! Things are going well. My comp is Awesome. It is crazy because she only has like 3 months in the mission but she is just not afraid to open her mouth and speak the langauge. I was def not like that when I was still new. It truly is awesome because we work together well and I dont feel like I have all the load on me. We split duties up which is awesome. The area is good. We have an investigator that the hermanas we teaching before I got here for the whole transfer and now we have been teaching him for these past few weeks. He got in an accident serveral years ago and I think after the accident he was pretty messed up and like a child. NOw he is more normal but the problem is that he cant walk well. He has to use a walker. He has gone to church 4 times and absolutely loves it and thinks that he is a member. He wants to get baptized but the problem is that he doesnt want to get baptized until he can walk prefectly normal again and he smokes. Ahhhh so we are kind of frustrated with it a little bit because we feel like we have been doing so much to help him stop smoking and help him to understand the importance of getting baptized NOW! I guess the mission really teaches us how to have patience huh? haha we made a goal with him to pray and ask God if he needs to get baptized for the 17 de Marzo. We know that God will tell him yes but it is a matter of him recognizing this answer from God. SO this is one of difficulties right now but I have faith that everything will work out.

I seriously feel so happy and grateful to my heavenly father that I am here on the mission. This past week we were heading to the church for a meeting with our president of the branch and we were already kind of late and as we were walking my comp stopped and said no we have to clap at this house. So we clapped and a lady came out and without even telling her who we were invited us into her house. She is a solo mom with 4 kids and lives there with her 14 year old sister. We shared with her our message about familys and how we can have an eternal family. The spirit was so strong and they were so happy. I dont know what will happen with this family. I really hope that we will be able to continue teaching them and bring the gospel in the lives but I just feel so happy to see the light in the peoples faces when they feel the spirit and here us tell them that god truly loves them and our message is a happyness and peace. It is such a privelage to be able to bring this happiness taht I have into other peoples lives. I know that the gospel truly brings happyness into my life. and I know that we are literally sons and daughters of God and that he wants us to be happy and enjoy this life. I know that prayer is so important and that the scriptures are truly a blessing in our lives. I lvoe this gospel. Well i am out of time but I love you all lots. Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Hna Van Wagenen

Pic 1: my comp and I celebrating our 5 months and 1 year mark with Cake. yummm!!! :)

Pic 2: Moving to our new apt

Pic 3: running into my mtc friends at transfers

pic 4: a day of lluvia. mucho lluvia

2.28.12

(Sorry for slacking...two posts added...so read them both!)

Hi!

First of all I just want to say that I have the cutest nephew in the whole world. Seriously man the little bust is just adorable. Well I dont even know where to start with this week. I was so convinced that I was going to stay in my area for one more transfer but the lord knew that it was time for a change. Mom you were right. haha I dont know how you knew. I am now serving in Formosa. Formosa is what all of the missionarys in the mission call "Los Cielos de la Mision" (the heavens of the mission) because everyone says that the people here in Formosa are very humble and very prepared to accept the gospel. I have wanted to be in Formosa and now I am here. The only bad part about Formosa is that it is also the hottest part of the whole mission but luckily we do have air conditioning in the apartment so I sleep good at least! :) My companions name is Hermana Pack she is from Vegas and is pretty much amazing!!! This is her 3 transfer so she just finished her time with her trainer and now I am with her but I am very lucky because she speaks very well and she isnt scared to speak even if she says something wrong. It is awesome. We have made a goal to not speak english at all so we are constantly speaking in castellano (espanol) and it is really good because it is the only way we are going to learn and get better.

This week has been super crazy because I got here in my new area and unpacked my stuff and then was told that we were going to be moving houses so then i had to repack all of my stuff and with the help of the elders we had to move into a new house and now we are living with the other sisters. It is very interesting because I have never lived with another pair of sisters in the mission so it will be interesting. The thing that is awesome about my new area is that there are a lot of missionarys here because in my other area it was just us and a set of elders in a little city. So we are around a lot of other missionarys. ( haha mom you always said that it would be good to be around other people) Things are seriously amazing. I am so happy and I love my new area. I know that I am here for a reason. Really i was ready for a change and i already love my new area. The thing that is a little bit different about here is that the members here actually love the missionarys. Today we went to central to but food to go and as we were waiting a man came up to us and introduced himself and her is a member in a different branch and bought our food for us. WOW how nice. The people here are so humble. There dont have a lot of money but they are always wanting to help. It is def very different from my other area which had a little bit more money and werent very loving with the missionarys. I feel so grateful to be here. Our area is VERY VERY VERY SMALL: It is like 6 blocks one way and 6 blocks the other way. EVERYONE knows who we are and EVERYONE has prety much already talked to the missionarys. It is a little bit hard but I know without a doubt that there are people here and are ready and being prepared to accept the gospel. I am still new and getting to know everything but things are good. I love missionary work and I am truly to grateful to have this opportunity to be a missionary. The mission def has its difficult moments but it is so amazing to feel the spirit everyday and be able to share this happiness and joy I have with these people. It is amazing!! Thanks for everything truly. I am grateful for your letters and love. I hope you have an incredible week. UNtil next week....

Hna Van Wagenen

ps i wanted to send you pics and me with my new comp but i forgot my camera. next week i will try and remember

2.20.12

HOLA!

Well this week has been an interesting week. Man do we live the life as missionarys. haha. So on monday night I was sleeping and in the middle of the night my fan totally stopped working. Basically it is imposible to sleep without a because if you dont have a fan you are in your bed literally sweating your face off all night. It is miserable. Well the past few weeks my comp has been sleeping on the floor with her mattress because our other fan broke off its stand and is basically 1 ft tall so i have decided to join her on the floor and i have been sleeping on the floor all week. Super fun! Also yesterday (Sunday) we were in the apt in the afternoon studying and the fuse blew up and we were without electricity so when we got back to the apt at 930 we pretty much couldnt do anything and we ended up taking our matresses outside and were about to camp outside last night because we coudlnt stand the heat of the apt but luckily at like 1230 in the night the electricity came back and we were able to go inside and sleep with our fan. man is it crazy the things that happen in the mission. haha we def dont life the LIFE but it has made me super grateful for little things that we do have. maybe we dont have air conditioning but at least we have a fan because there are so many people that dont have a fan in their house. I really dont know how they live but ya.

This past week was an ok week. Really nothing super exciting. On tuesday we had zone conference we had to travel 2 hours to a city named Posadas and that we fun. I really enjoy zone conferences because it always gets me super pumped to keep working and to be a better missionary. The mission is really focusing at this time on working hard with the members because really missinary work isnt successfull if we are not working with the members. So they invited a bunch of members from the area and we did practices with them and learned how to better recieve references from the members. It was a great conference.

On sunday our investigator Ricardo came to church FINALLY!! ahhhh we have been teaching him for several weeks now and he has had a baptism date but he lacks going to church. He is a 15 yr old kid and his dad is a member but he always seems to go out on saturday nights and is out super late with his friends which causes him to not be able to wake up to go to church on sunday. ughhhh how can we help them to not leave saturday night. hahaha This past week our investigators who we have been teaching for several weeks who have baptism dates told us that he was still married because they never did the divorce. ughhh after 3 weeks of talking about marriage and now he tells us that he has to get divorced and he knows nothing about his ex wife because it has been like 30 yrs since they were together and we have no idea how to find out about her. ughhh super frustrating. I hope we can figure it all out because they love church and really want to get baptized. why isnt anyone married here!!!!!! ahhhhhhh

Well i am doing great I am out of time man does the time go by super fast. but i love you all lots!! hope you have a wonderful week. Missionary work is just the best. We have transfers on wednesday. I was pretty convinced that I was staying here but now people are telling me that they think i am leaving. I really have no idea. I would be happy to stay one more transfer but we will see what the lord has in store for me. Well until next week.

Love,
Hermana Van Wagenen

Pics
1: Hermana Cepeda and I after Zone Conference
2: My zone with our matching t-shirts
3: ARGENTINA

2.13.12

HOLA!

How is everyone? oh how I love mondays to be able to hear from you guys. We truly are blessed to have internet because I couldnt imagine only being able to send letters. What a blessing. Well things are going great here in Obera. I am not going to lie we kind of had a bad week this week. After working hard all week to help our investigators we had 5 secure investigators who said they were going to go to church on Sunday and when sunday came none of them showed up. Man is it a bummer when that happens. It makes everything we did during the week feel pointless. but I try to not let it affect me because i know we have to move forward and work harder this week. I know have a little more than 5 months here in this branch and it has been such an amazing experience to see the change in the branch in this short time. Since I have been here they have called a new branch president and basically reorganized the whole branch we also only had 4 missionarys here and now we have 6 missionarys. It has been so cool to see how much the branch has grown in this time. The attendance in church has grown and lots of the less actives are starting to come back to church. . I told you how there are 1500 members here so there is still a ton of work to do but I have been super grateful to have the opportunity to be apart of this and to see changes. We have transfers next week and I am really hoping that I stay here for at least one more transfer. I am super happy with my comp and my area right how and I am really not ready to leave my area yet. We will see what happens. We never know...

Last night we were waiting for the bus to pass to take us back to our apartment and as we were waiting I looked up at the sky and was watching the stars and it just got me thinking about the creation. How amazing is God. Everything we have here is from God and it is incredible. It is just one more reason to know that God exists. It is so crazy when we talk to people and they say that they dont believe in God. I just truly dont understand because if you just look around for a minute you can know that God exists without a doubt. I feel blessed to have grown up in this gospel and knowing this because there are so many people in the world so lost. I just wish that i could help all of them but most of them are closed off and just dont want to listen. I pray everyday that I can find those people who are waiting and prepared at this time to recieve the gospel in their lives at this time. I truly love this gospel so much! It truly does bless familys and helps us to be better people and to be prepared to return to the presence of our heavenly father. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for your support and your letters. You rock. have an amazing week!

love,
Hermana Van Wagenen

2.6.12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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