Jan. 5, 2015 Happiness is eating a taco, preaching the gospel, and going to the temple!

Christmas dinner

Jan. 5, 2015

Querido Familia y Amigos,

 

This week has been the best week EVER!

 

First, we went to the temple on Tuesday. And it was literally the best thing in the world. We didn´t have to worry about the time or stress about the things that we had to do afterwards. And it was my first session in Spanish, so that helped me to focus more. It was so cool to be all together in the temple as a mission. 

Also this week, the temperature was a lot cooler! And although it was still really sunny, there was a nice cool wind. }

On the bus  to the Temple

We ate tacos Wednesday night to celebrate New Years Eve! And they were delicious!! (Becuase 1-the meat is different, 2- they were prepared by a mexicana, and 3- it´s something different from what we eat all the time). 

We prayed for miracles every day, and we have really seen a ton. We found a new family to teach (Flia A-) that lives close to another of our investigadoras. Their neice was a reference from her. And so we went and talked to them, and they let us sit with them outside and we got to know them and shared about the Plan of Salvation. We have another new investigator-- a copastor of an evangelico? church, named DG-.He came out and was talking and talking and talking. And saying things like "I´m going to ask you a question, but I just want you to think about it. ¿Porque no hablas sobre el Espíritu Santo? (Why don´t you talk about the Holy Ghost if you talk about God and Jesus Christ)." And then he kept talking and talking, so I knew that it would end up like last week where he talked a bounch and said a prayer and left. And I remembered a scripture that says that we are here to preach, not to be taught. So I interrupted him and asked him if he had read the Restoration pamphlet that we left--which he hadn´t--and talked about how it talks about the Holy Ghost and how we can recieve answers from prayers through him. And we shared with him about Joseph Smith´s vision, etc. and he actually listened. So we´ll see what happens with that. We had another investigator that kept talking about cualquier cosa, and we were really great about applying it and getting back on track this week!



We celebrated New Years with a taco dinner

Da- y La- two grandmas, came to church!!!

And so that is why I am happy this week! 

Love you all!! Hermana Durfee

P.S. Writing in English is really hard now. Ex: Week=Wekk, were=where, etc. 

 

 

 

Dec. 29, 2014 this little sister wishes you a Feliz Verano! (Happy summer!)

Dec. 29, 2014
Querido Familiy y Amigos,

 



A family in my ward

I have more than 62 mosquito bites! I think I need to buy a little thing of repellant that I can bring with me and reapply in the afternoon after I sweat off everything I put on in the morning. It is hot! Today it is 33 C (91F), tommorrow will be 36 C (96 F)! And it is HUMID. Hna G- and I decided that maybe we can´t go outside, because it will break the rule about no swimming ;). Or we can pray that we will have citas (appointments) all day long. It worked yesterday! Yesterday we prayed that we didn´t have any citas, so we prayed that we would find people to talk with who would invite us into their house. After lunch, we went to the house of one of our investigators, C-, who we taught outside the first time. She was going to bring chairs outside again, but instead invited us into the house where she had a huge fan. We had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation with her and her son D-. C- doesn´t know how to read, so D- is going to read the Book of Mormon to her! After this it wasn´t as hot, and the rest of the people we talked to were in the shade. So from this I have a testimony that prayer works when you work!

A family in my ward

We had an amazing Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with the Familia B- on Friday! We taught Plan of Salvation using Kickball. First base was the premortal existence, and they had to kick the ball and run to second base (earth) where they had to do 5 jumping jacks (because we have to work in this life), and then they had to run to third base (spirit world) and wait for the whole family to get there. From there they had to run all together as a family to home (Celestial Kingdom). It was super fun, and it was a really great way to help all of the kids understand it better too. D-, L- , and A- are going to get baptized on 7 Febrero! 

 

A family in my ward

The first Christmas in Argentina: honestly, it didn´t feel exactly like Christmas, but maybe that´s a good thing. Christmas Eve we had permision to eat dinner at a members house and be out until 10:30 if they drove us home. We ate dinner with the Familia W- and the Élderes. I think we ate tongue, but I´m not sure. But it was super delicious. 12-1am everyone and their dog celebrated the coming of Christmas with fireworks ("fuegos artificiales"), and we celebrated it by wishing they would stop so we could sleep. :) 

part of my zone with our Ramos Mejiera shirts
 

 

Christmas luckily was a Thursday, so we had weekly planning and lunch in our pension. So we didn´t leave until 3--which was probably a good thing for safety and to be realistic--because everybody was sleeping until the tarde. We had a lesson with some recent converts, and went and visited a Menos Activo, AH-, in her garden and ate pan dulce. It was super great, because she has never let us pass before, we always talked to her outside her gate. We are gaining more confidence with her, so it was great to get to talk to her in her garden--except that there was water and mud and 10,000 mosquiteos, and they really love my blood. I had about 50 mosiquito bites after this visit, and I have been collecting them since then. :D Anyway, we almost committed her to come to church with us on Sunday. We passed by on Saturday to confirm it, and she had some problems with blood pressure or something and wasn´t feeling very good. So when we passed by on Sunday she didn´t come out. But, we are not giving up hope! We have a ton of faith that she is going to return, and so we are going to visit her some more this week to bring her to church with us on Sunday! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! 

Love you all tons!

Hermana :Durfee

Dec. 22, 2014 Feliz Navidad!

Hermana Medeyro y yo con nuestros nueovos vestidos!

Dec. 22, 2014
Queirido Familia y Amigos
                                                         
En este momento de Navidad, quiero agradecer a los muchos personas que me ayudaron a venir en la misión. Gracias a los muchos maestros en la iglesia, mis amigos y más importante, mi familia por todo su apoyo y amor. ¡Gracias por sus buenas ejemplos por mi y por sus testimonios! Estoy muy agradecido por tener la oportunidad de servir mi Señor este Navidad y para buscar sus ovejas, ¡mis hermanos acá en Argentina! Se que es un gran privilegio y que todo es posible con su ayuda; que voy a ver milagros cada día y que voy a recibir la ayuda de muchos personas--los dos los que puedo ver y también de los que no puedo ver.

 

Google translation: At this time of Christmas , I want to thank the many people who helped me to come in the mission. Thanks to the many teachers in the church , my friends and most importantly, my family for their support and love. Thanks for your good examples for me and for their testimonies ! I am grateful for the opportunity to serve my Lord this Christmas and to find his sheep ,my brothers here in Argentina ! It is a great privilege and that anything is possible with your help ; I'll see miracles every day and you'll be getting the help of many people - both those who you can see and those who you can not.

If you haven´t watched Él es la Dádiva (He is the Gift) yet, please do it! And if you have watched it, please watch it again! It has such a great message about the true meaning of Christmas, and who and what Christ is for us. 

christmas.mormon.org or to watch it in español: navidad.mormon.org

My new companion, Hermana Gillen

We had transfers and pday navideño en Miércoles. I recieved a new companñera! Se llama Hna G-. She is from México, abd is super adorable. She is also the Hermana Líder Entrenadora. We are working hard to find lots of new investigators and to help the investigators that we do have to progress. She has 13 meses en la misión, and has been in Campo the whole time--using bicis (bikes). So now she is trying to acostumbrarse a caminando--pobrecita. But she is a very good sport about everything and very positive. :)

L-, A-, y D- accepted fechas bautismal for 7 Febrero! They are the sons and husband of E- a recent convert. Their whole family had all the lessons earlier this year and were going to get baptized, but L and D couldn´t keep the Sabbath Day Holy for a Fútbol contract L had for Sundays. But now his contract has ended, so they can come back to church and can get baptized! The WHOLE family came to church on Sunday! ¡Este familia son super capos!

 

The makeup of our mission
 

On Friday the ward had their Cena de Fin de Año. It was a night full of miracles. There were several investigators there--DyE y their familia, and some of the investigators of the Élderes. There were also a lot of Menos Activos. One miracle that we saw: A couple weeks ago Hna M- and I passed by A-´s house (Menos Activo) and invited her to the dinner. She said maybe. Friday night Hna G- and I were trying to go to an investigator´s house, but ended up going one street over--the street where A- lives. A- is elderly and never lets anyone in her house, and never comes outside when we clap. We can only talk to her if she is alreadly outside in her garden or if we see her in the street. Bueno, A- was outside in her garden, so we stopped to talk to her and invited her to the dinner in 1 hour and she said she would come! We came back in an hour to buscarle, and while we were waiting for the colectivo, she said that it was a miracle that she was coming with us, and that she didn´t really know why she was coming. A ton of people were super excited to see her at church. I know that the Lord is using me--with my strengths and with my weaknesses-- to bless the lives of mis hermanos acá! It is super incredible para verlo! 

¡Les amo a todos! Se que vive mi Señor y que tenemos que tener nuestro enfoque en Él este Navidad. Se que por medio de Él todo es posible. Por medio de Él recibimos más bendiciones que sabemos es posible.   (Google translation:  I love you all! I know that my Redeemer lives , and we have to keep our focus on Him this Christmas. I know that through Him all things are possible . Through Him we receive more blessings we know is possible)
 

 

¡Feliz Navidad! ¡Recuerden la Dádiva!

Muchisimo Amor,

Hermana Durfee <3

Dec. 15, 2014 Christmas = Cristo mas

Querido Familia y Amigos,                                                                     Dec. 15, 2014

 

    Well, another transfer has come to a close. Traslados (transfers) are on Wednesday, and we find out tomorrow who has changes! Presidente told Hermana M- that he felt that she does a good job training, so she might be training again. There are 14 new Hermanas! Also, Pday Navideño is on Wedenesday! Which means that the whole mission is coming to celebrate Christmas together! I don´t know exactly what we are doing, but from what Hermana Robertson told me, we are going to have lunch all together, have some fun things--maybe singing carols? And we are going to have a spiritual program in the evening with narration and pictures and a choir. I´m playing the piano for it. 

    Also, there are going to be 2 new missions in Argentina in July! Which means that we are losing 2 zones to the Buenos Aires South Mission. And there might be other changes too, but for now that´s all we know. 

  Saturday was my four months mark. Hermana M- made me breakfast and gave me a pretty clippy thing for my hair. :) 

        The Lord works in mysterious ways. Last night we were walking, and there was a group of chicos up ahead, so we stopped to contact a house. An elderly woman, C-, came out and we asked if we could sing her a Christmas song, and she let us in. She told us that she didn´t know very much about Jesucristo, so we started to explain. We shared that God is her Heavenly Father and asked if she could feel His love and if she believed it. She shared with us about the death of her son, five years ago, and the pain that she still felt for this. We shared about eternal families and about life after death. There was a great peace in the room. C- said that she felt good, and that we could returen to explain about this more. We are going back tomorrow to teach the rest of the Plan of Salvation. :)

    Weekly Challenge: Study about Christ in the scriptures! Pick a Christ-like attribute you want to develop, and look for the ways that Christ demonstrates it. Share your findings and your testimony about Christ with a friend, family member, acquaintance, etc. Spread the Christmas love! 

 

    Yo sé que vive mi Señor. Sé que por medio de Jesucristo todo es posible. Él sufrió por nosotros. Él sabe exactamente que estamos pasando por. Vamos a superar cada situación difícil por él. Y podemos recibir su ayuda en cada momento para ayudarnos mejorar y llevar a ser las personas que él quiere. Sé que es verdad, y que este es la iglesia verdadera de Jesucristo. Su evangelio es simple, pero puede bendecir a nuestras vidas más que podemos imaginar. 

Google translate:  I know that my Redeemer lives . I know that through Jesus Christ everything is possible. He suffered for us. He knows exactly what we are going through . We will overcome every difficult situation for him . And we can get your support at all times to help improve and lead to being the people he wants. I know it's true, and that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. His gospel is simple, but can bless our lives more than we can imagine.

 

 Con muchisimo amor <3

Hermana Durfee

 

Dec. 8, 2014 this little sister is getting ready for Navideno

Dec. 8, 2014

I am teaching Hermana M- music! She told me about two days ago that she wants to learn piano. Well, we probably only have one week left together. So I started teaching her how to count the rythms today with ta-ta-ti-ti-tuu. :) It made the 40 minute colectivo ride a lot more fun and it went a lot faster! When we get home I´m going to make her start singing hymns with ta-titi-tu instead of the words. :)

 

Actividad de Zona de Ramos Mejía

Speaking of which, transfers are in one week!!! Hna M- and I think that she is going (she´s been in Atalya B for three transfers) and that I will be staying here. We are going to have Pday Navideño this day, and ALL of the missionaries in our mission are going to come. We are going to have games and sing songs and eat lunch and have a fun part. In the evening we are going to have a SUPER AWESOME program focused on the life of Christ and Christ like attributes. There are going to be two narrators, and in between there are going to be songs. There is a slideshow with pictures that go with the words behind it. It´s going to be so amazing!!! An hermana that is a story teller wrote the script, and it is super beautiful and perfect. I am helping with playing the piano, so we´ve been in Ramos all week practicing--which makes it a little hard to do the work. Hermana Robertson says she feels bad pulling the missionaries out of the field for so long, but really this program is going to change missions! So it has to be really good. (Also, it´s great since we are going to use the same program for the Fin de Año Cena del Barrio (End of Year dinner in the ward), with some changes to the words and the music). 

Completamenta mojados!  Super divertidos! 
(Otro Sabado despues de actividad en San Justo)

And the best news of the week is that ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡C- y R- came to church yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are an elderly evangelico couple that we found clapping doors. We went back later, and C- let us in and we got to know them and had a lesson with them. We left them a Libro de Mormón and when we went back, R- had already read up to where Joseph Smith went to get the plates. Now she is in First Nephi. She was excited to find out that Nephi is a descendent of Joseph. She seemed to really like church, and told us to call her Monday night to set up an appointment to go and answer all of their questions etc. C- also has a big smoking problem, but wants to stop. We are going to start working on that this week and talk about how he needs to read the LDM to help him quit (he has not started reading todadvía.) They have a baptismal date for 27 Diciembre! 

 

Divisiones

Atalya definitely isn´t the most tranquil place on earth, but it also isn´t downtown city like Ramos. It´s a suburb--kind of like Hillsboro, but a lot more jammed together with people living behind and around and on top of all the other people. And there is very little green space--although there are a lot of trees (but not like Oregon). If we have to teach someone outside on the street then it´s a little hectic sometimes, and distracting. But usually if we can go in their house, we can eliminate distractions--like the tv--and it´s good. 

Christmas isn´t a huge deal here. It´s time to get together and eat food as a family, or have a fiesta, or a baila. But it´s nothing like in the states. Also, it doesn´t really feel like Christmas since it´s super hot. The other day it got up to 33 degrees. 

Mucho Amor!

Hermana Durfee :D

Dec. 1, 2014 El es la Dadiva!

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!                                                                                Dec 1, 2014

This week has been awesome, as usual. On Friday we started the new church initiative: He is the Gift. We have already found 3 new investigators using this! They are super awesome. (We found 4 other new investigators this week, which makes a total of 7! Woohoo!) Anyway, this is an amazing time of year to remember Jesucristo and all that He has done for us! We are sharing messages about Christ with the people and helping them to feel of His importance and feel of His love in this time of the year. :D The sad thing is that here Christmas is not a huge deal like in the states. It`s just another party day and they might have a fiesta or baila or something, but it`s nothing like at home. But, we are going to change that by bringing Christ to the people! The church has an AMAZING new video (He is the Gift). Check out christmas.mormon.org to see it and to find out more about how to DISCOVER, EMBRACE, and SHARE the gift! Also December 7 the church is going to buy the coverpage and all of the adds on facebook and over 2 million people are going to see a 30 second version of the 2 minute movie! Help spread the word and bring The Gift to your friends and family!
 WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Check out the website, share it on FB-Twitter-whatever you are using. Bring up Christ in conversations with your friends. Share the video with them! Read the account in the Book of Mormon of Christ`s birth with the people you love--your friends and family. Give away a Book of Mormon with your testimony of Christ in it! Invite others to Discover, Embrace, and Share the gift!

We got COMPLETELY soaked on Saturday and it was glorious! We had an activity in San Justo helping the Hermanas there contact, find menos activos, contact antiguos investigadores, etc. Luckily we were in the capilla when it started to pour, and we left when it cleared up a little. But it started raining again when we were in the collectivo. It was literally a river--at least 3 feet dee--in a few of the streets we drove down. At one point water started coming in the collectivo! When we got off we started to run, but we were already completely soaked, so we just walked and enjoyed it. It was super fun! I have pics, but this computer doesn`t want to let me upload them, so I`ll send them next week.

Thanks to la Familia Wilkinson for their letter! Also to Grandma Durfee and to Sterling! We went to the offices today for a Zone Activity (we played ultimate frisbee and fùtbol), so I got my mail! Thanks for all of the support and love!

Mucho amor y besitos!

Hermana Durfee

P.S. You know Elder Lyman from our stake? He`s in my Zone now!

Nov. 24, 2014 Milagros!

Querido familia y amigos,                                                                                 Nov. 24, 2014

This week we have not had a ton of time, but with the time we did have we have seen amazing miracles! We had to go to Ramos almost every day this week--for pday to write our families, Martes for District Meeting, Miércoloes for Zone Conference, and Jueves to drop off Hna M-t so she could leave to go to the airport! (So that´s why we didn´t ahve a ton of time). 

 

On Monday we found S- y her daughter L- while trying to contact a reference. (It turns out that the reference is her neighbor). S- attended church and studied with the missionaries when she was 12-13, but then her parents made her stop. We introduced ourselves as representatives of Christ, and she said that she knew and told us about her background and invited us in to talk. We taught her the first lesson about the restoration. We asked her what she knew about prophets, and her first response was that Joseph Smith was a prophet! She has a baptismal date for 13 Dic. She recognized the miracle it was that we found her, because usually she doesn´t come home from work until later, but this day she got home about 5 minutes before we went to her house. L- came home as we were ending the lesson, and she is super friendly and loving! Usually the youth here are a bit rebellious, but she was very receptive to our message. We returned later in the week and taught her about prayer, and she was excited to attend church with her mom on Sunday. They ended up not attending because they went to a different place Saturday night, but we know that they are going to progress well towards baptism!

Yesterday we found a woman named C- who is SUPER open. She has traveled a lot, and knows English and German, so it was really fun to teach her and get to listen to her talk in English a little. (It´s weird, but I really don´t like talking in English now. Especially praying in English. It´s better to listen to Latinos speak it with an accent.) We taught her about the Book of Mormon, and how she could read it and pray to know if it was true. She said that there was no way she would know if it was true or not without reading, and so obviously, she has to read it. She told us a little bit about her schedule, and so really she is busy and doesn´t have a lot of time, but I feel that she will read it. Hna M-o and I both felt that if she reads it, she will recieve an answer and will be converted. And she will be a great help to the church, because she will bring all of her friends and family with her!

 

WEEKLY CHALLENGE! Read a conference talk from this last conference. Take notes about how you feel and the thoughts that come to your mind. Create a plan to apply what you learn throughout the week. Share your experience with a friend or family member!

News:

-In our Zone Conference on Wednesday, we got all new pots, cups, silverware, etc! We are super happy about this! They are working on updating the conditions of the pensions etc. (I guess some of them the missionaries have lived there for 30 years!)

-We got a new District Leader on Thursday. Elder M- called us to tell us that they had a "Flash"and that he was leaving (He´s now a Zone Leader in Castelar). Our new Líder de Distrito is Elder V-. 

-The church is going to do an AMAZING thing this Christmas (maybe you´ve already heard about it???) They are going to ahve a super cool focus on Christ with a video "He is the Gift," and website (christmas.mormon.org). It´s going to start Nov 28 (this Thursday!). We are going to have passalong cards for this and be teaching people specifically about Christ all of December. Also, the church is putting a ton of advertisments in NYC and on Dec 7 they are buying all of the ads on Youtube for this video! Check it out and share it with your friends!!!

¡Mucho amor por todos!

Hermana Durfee