Conferencia!

Ok first I have some matters of business for you all that I want you to see quick.

I got the package yay!! Who knew about the Sweetart chicks, ducks, and bunnies, and sent them "on Brian´s behalf"? That made me laugh a lot :) I love it all so thank you!!

I want to know more about my great-grandpa´s. And yes I mean specifically the grandpa´s thats not an english mistake :), Do you guys have stories or histories that you can send me? Also about the grandma´s too would be interesting :)

Also this week I got a letter from Bryce (Amanda’s great uncle) that I just loved! He said he was curious about how people speak here. The typical sh accent that everyone thinks is Argentine is actually just in Buenos Aires and other distinct parts, so no I don´t have it here or hear it here, except from the specific people who are Porteno as we call them, or from Buenos Aires. Also Uncle Bryce, I would love to hear about whatever stories you want to tell me! I promise I wouldn´t fall asleep from boredom or anything :)

So this week was long and involved a lot of travelling. We were in Posadas for two days and then we had divisiones for two days and then we went to Apostoles for two days for conference.

I wish i could share all my thoughts from conference but there are two many! I was gonna take a picture of my notes but then I forgot and now the computer is being stupid anyway. I decided that the title of the next Ensign (a magazine published by our Church) shouldn´t be Ensign, it should be Obedience. I lost count of how many talks were about that. I think Elder Bednar´s was my favorite, about taking upon us the Savior´s yoke and how our burdens are necessary to help us grow. I also liked how they talked about the "joyful burden" of discipleship, I thought that was interesting. Also "I would never have asked for this trial, but I would never give it away". That really touched me, and I´m starting to feel that way about my mission. Also in the prophet´s closing remarks him saying "Heavenly Father is personal and real. Realize how close He is willing to come and how far He is willing to go with us". I just really liked that. My thoughts about conference are a lot more poetic in my head but I got rushed along with some computer difficulties, so I´m sorry!

But know that I know that this is truly the church of Jesus Christ, and that His very prophet spoke to us this weekend. I testify that Christ Himself leads this church and will lead us as we follow Him and His loving guidance.

Questions from the Family:

Did you love conference?

Yes, how could you not love conference??!

Do you still understand English? :)

Yes, gratefully, but my notes show some really pathetic grammar mistakes :)

You haven't had mashed potatoes thrown at you, have you? :(  that talk by Elder Holland got to me! We are so proud of you! And know that you are sustained through very hard things.

nope, no mashed potatoes, but men do have a habit of yelling things at us that shouldn´t be said to a daughter of God.

love you guys a ton!!

-Hermana rawlins

Redefining Mormon Swag as we travelled to and from conference, including the people drinking mate up front. I really wanted to put a bumper sticker on the back of the sketchy bus that said "come, join with us" ;)

we love general conference!! especially in english!

guess what this is, and if you guess "giant ant hole" you´re right!

We had to come to Argentina to be friends

So this week has seemed like forever with cambios (transfers). We had planned to go around and say goodbye to everyone with Hermana Gonzalez on Tuesday, and then take a collectivo early Wednesday morning. But then all of a sudden our leaders told us we needed to leave Tuesday afternoon and stay the night in Posadas. So we ran around throwing things in suitcases, ran around the town saying goodbye to as many people as we could manage, and caught a collectivo Tuesday night. Sidenote: watching Hermana Gonzalez say goodbye to Virasoro made me so sad and I was crying too and I wasn´t even leaving. So that´ll be fun when it actually is me leaving.

Anyway, we arrived in Posadas at a pension with 6 other hermanas all staying the night, just to find out that there were riots and a collectivo strike in Paraguay and no one could travel. So we stayed an uncomfortable night there in posadas and then got sent back Wednesday morning with an indefinite answer about when cambios would be. We also don´t have a phone cause it stopped working, so we had to go to President’s house and borrow his phone to call Wednesday night and see what was happening, and they said transfers are tomorrow.

So then we traveled BACK to posadas Thursday morning, I waited for Hermana Anderson to arrive from Paraguay, and we made it to Virasoro Thursday afternoon. It was way hard to say goodbye to hermana gonzalez, because I´ve spent 5 months 24/7 with her, and then she just walked away and I was like wait you can´t just do that!! So that was hard and I miss her!!

But Hermana Anderson loves Virasoro (and me, obviously :) and says she´s basically in paradise or the Promised Land based on her other areas so she´s really happy. But that makes me never want to leave. And she won´t speak English to me, which is honestly probably good. She´s the Sister Training Leader (STL) for our zone and says she considers me her assistant STL, like it´s our job to do it all together, which makes me feel useful and I´m grateful for that. She´s at a conference today so we traveled to Apostoles last night, stayed the night, and then got up at 4 and kept traveling to Posadas. I´m passing the pday with another hermana (I literally can´t speak english I´m so sorry) and then we have to stay the night again, which no one kindly informed us about. That happens all the time. yay the mission!! haha but really missions are super great.

And the only other news is that I´m so pumped from General Conference!! I´m honestly more excited about it than like for my birthday or something. This Conference marks my six month mark, as last conference was my last weekend home and I was packing my suitcases. I´ve been thinking about that this week and all that´s happened since. I know that we have a living prophet on the earth and that he speaks directly for Jesus Christ and Christ directs the church. The prophet is our light and guide in this confusing world, and so I´m very eager to listen to him this weekend. In English :)

Questions from the family:

so i've been waiting, is it 52nd ward Hermana Anderson or a different Hermana Anderson? How do you like the new comp so far? Are you glad you have a change or no?

.... and so it was that the two girls from BYU 52nd ward traveled all the way to Argentina to be companions. Someone tell the Patches. She´s super great! The change was hard but good, so yes and no. I miss Hermana Gonzalez a ton!

did you get to watch the General Womens Meeting on Saturday? 

nooo I was so sad!!

Will you get to watch conference this upcoming weekend? 

yes yes!! Because our chapel doesn´t have wifi the whole branch has to travel to Apostoles. They only manage to coordinate that for Sunday, so Hermana Anderson and I are gonna take a collectivo there Saturday, stay the night with the Hermanas in that area, and be there Sunday as well.

your mud pictures were insane! do you wash it off when you get home or go to bed like that? :) 

heck no I don´t go to bed like that! I´ve taken to showering at night cause I´m always just so dirty hahaha

Have you been wearing your boots with all the mud or not because they were cutting your calves?

nope, I haven´t tried again. hna Anderson has duct tape that I´m gonna try putting on the back, when I ever get around to it

Were you able to give Sis Gonzales the little present in the package before you parted ways? 

nooo because the Elder in charge STILL hasn´t taken the package out of the mail place and I don´t have anything nice to say about that so I´ll stop. but on the plus side, this week I got letters! one from Mom from when she was flying, one from Isaac, and one from Bishop Ross. Thank you!!

Do you have more investigators you are teaching, or do you work most with members?

the problem we have right now is that all of our investigators got baptized. Which isn´t actually a problem haha. So we´re looking for new people and focusing on helping the recent converts as well. This week we met M., and she is super, super prepared. It was amazing and so I´m excited to keep teaching her!

Also, Happy Birthday Emmy!!!! Woooot!!! I´ll be singing feliz cumpleanos for you from over here and for future reference if I forget anyone´s birthday in the next year no one hate me please.

lots of love,

Hermana Rawlins

A Very Scatterbrained Letter

It´s Monday again!!

Transfers are this week and we just got the news! I will still be in Virasoro, wooot! Hermana Gonzalez is going to Paraguay, and my new companion is Hermana Anderson. She´s senior companion and will be our Sister Training Leader tambien. There are two Hermana Anderson´s in the mission right now, one of which I know from BYU 52nd ward (that was our ward, right?? haha), but I´m not sure if it´s her or not. And the other one has less time than me in the mission, so I´m not sure which one it is. I´ll find out on Wednesday morning! 

I haven´t gotten my package yet, because no one´s gone to Posadas, but now I will be on Wednesday so I´ll pick it up then!

And I´m glad you guys got the Amanda bus picture! (a ward member sent it to us) It´s officially one of my favorite pictures from the mission and should go on the blog por favor.

R and J got baptized this week, which was awesome because they´re both two very sincere men. I´m happy I´m staying in Virasoro so we can make sure they get integrated into the ward the way they need to be. 

Hermana gonzalez and I have gotten into a rhythm and very much enjoyed the last few weeks together, so I really will miss her when she goes. It´s gonna be weird being without her and I really do love her. She´s training someone new in Paraguay, and she´s openly told me she doesn´t want to train a latina because their characters are "fuerte" haha :) Anyway, I just wanted to say that so you all don´t think bad about her or anything, she drives me crazy sometimes but is also really super great to me.

The most interesting thing that happened this week is best shown through photos and videos, so I´m attaching a bunch for you guys. It rained every day at the beginning of the week, so everything was just swamped with mud and we trekked around laughing hysterically about how ridiculous our lives are. And then we used my hair dryer to dry our shoes so they would be dry for the next day cause everything was just so wet. But now it´s suuper wonderfully beautiful outside and feels like fall, which is weird in march but I´m loving it!!

Sorry this letter is incredibly short but hopefully the photos will make up for it :) 

I love you all a ton, and I know that this church is the very church of Jesus Christ on the face of the earth. That is a fact, and I´m here in the mud because of it. :)

much love,

hermana rawlins

This picture wins the award for being the most awkward baptismal picture ever

We always say, "sonrisas!" and this is what happens. At least Hermana Gonzalez is smiling... :)

So we were trekking through some serious mud on Thursday to get to our lunch appointment, and the best place to walk is right in the middle of the road cause the sides are even worse than the middle. So we were going along and all of a sudden a car drove by, splattering me (because Hermana Gonzalez was smart enough to move her leg) and all over my ankle. This picture is the result of that.

My "rock on world my life is ridiculous" pose :)

The roads all end up like this