Ariving in Los Alamos...
The welcoming committee...
The VIP taxi...
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Monday, November 24, 2014
Coming Home!
See y'all soon!
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| Another cockroach met it's doooooom, in our pench. But only after it had me screaming a bit. :) |
Monday, November 10, 2014
A Week with Sorrows and Letdowns
Today I got ten e-mails. Seven of them were from the mission and four of those seven were about activities for the missionaries who are going home. I'm dying. (In a missionary manner.) I have not been counting my days till I go home. Some of the other missionaries are. But if any of you were wondering, I've got three weeks left.
This week has been really... I won't lie: It hasn't been very good. It's had high points and low points. Actually, it's had the same number of high and low points as any other week, it's just that the low points were really really low this week.
As I think I told you all in my letter last week, Hermana Pastrana's brother died. Unfortunately we haven't been able to see her since Monday.
On Tuesday we had zone meeting. And the elder in charge did NOT tell us.
The way the mission checks on our work has changed again. Now we only have to report how many confirmations we have had that week, how many people were in church that Sunday, and how many less-active members who were in church had assignments. I really don't care that the metrics have changed again but I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that two of the three metrics have very little to do with what we as missionaries can do. (There are active members who don't come to church every Sunday. And missionaries can't give assignments to the less-active members who actually do show.) But I'm sure there is a reason these particular metrics are now being tracked.
On Friday we finally went back to Domingo's house. In his prayer he asked God to send us by more often. He missed us. :) Oh, and Friday morning was spent chipping paint off of walls so that the Cruz family can re-paint their house. Usually people here just paint on top of the cruddy old peeling paint. Needless to say, the new paint job doesn't last very long when they do that, because the paint underneath just keeps chipping off and peeling away and the newer paint peels away with it. I never thought I would see somebody do a point job even mostly right in Argentina, but now I have. :)
Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday we had appointments with Emiliano. We've finished up all of the missionary lessons with him. He had his baptismal interview Saturday in the morning.
And he didn't pass.
Turns out he had smoked two days beforehand and had never told us. What's more disappointing is that the person who offered him the cigarette was his brother, a recent convert, who shouldn't be smoking either.
Saturday after the interview, we had our last capilla abierta [open house at the chapel] in Banfield 2. While speaking with one of the members there, I was told that Emi's mother is also smoking in secret. Supposedly. And she is also a recent convert.
Sunday we went over to the house and found Emi's mom all alone. I don't even know how the topic came up but she told us that, yes, she did smoke a cigarette the other day. She knew she shouldn't but sometimes she has moments of very high stress and she falls into temptation. We still need to meet up with Emi's brother and find out what HIS story is, if he is smoking all the time or what.
Doing missionary work and seeing someone accept the gospel and make the necessary changes to his or her life is joyful, but this week had its share of sorrows and let downs.
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: As every smoker knows, it can be very difficult to quit. The following article might be helpful for those trying to overcome a smoking habit as well as those trying to be supportive of someone trying to quit:
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2002/02/tobacco-quitting-for-good?lang=eng
This week has been really... I won't lie: It hasn't been very good. It's had high points and low points. Actually, it's had the same number of high and low points as any other week, it's just that the low points were really really low this week.
As I think I told you all in my letter last week, Hermana Pastrana's brother died. Unfortunately we haven't been able to see her since Monday.
On Tuesday we had zone meeting. And the elder in charge did NOT tell us.
The way the mission checks on our work has changed again. Now we only have to report how many confirmations we have had that week, how many people were in church that Sunday, and how many less-active members who were in church had assignments. I really don't care that the metrics have changed again but I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that two of the three metrics have very little to do with what we as missionaries can do. (There are active members who don't come to church every Sunday. And missionaries can't give assignments to the less-active members who actually do show.) But I'm sure there is a reason these particular metrics are now being tracked.
On Friday we finally went back to Domingo's house. In his prayer he asked God to send us by more often. He missed us. :) Oh, and Friday morning was spent chipping paint off of walls so that the Cruz family can re-paint their house. Usually people here just paint on top of the cruddy old peeling paint. Needless to say, the new paint job doesn't last very long when they do that, because the paint underneath just keeps chipping off and peeling away and the newer paint peels away with it. I never thought I would see somebody do a point job even mostly right in Argentina, but now I have. :)
Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday we had appointments with Emiliano. We've finished up all of the missionary lessons with him. He had his baptismal interview Saturday in the morning.
And he didn't pass.
Turns out he had smoked two days beforehand and had never told us. What's more disappointing is that the person who offered him the cigarette was his brother, a recent convert, who shouldn't be smoking either.
Saturday after the interview, we had our last capilla abierta [open house at the chapel] in Banfield 2. While speaking with one of the members there, I was told that Emi's mother is also smoking in secret. Supposedly. And she is also a recent convert.
Sunday we went over to the house and found Emi's mom all alone. I don't even know how the topic came up but she told us that, yes, she did smoke a cigarette the other day. She knew she shouldn't but sometimes she has moments of very high stress and she falls into temptation. We still need to meet up with Emi's brother and find out what HIS story is, if he is smoking all the time or what.
Doing missionary work and seeing someone accept the gospel and make the necessary changes to his or her life is joyful, but this week had its share of sorrows and let downs.
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: As every smoker knows, it can be very difficult to quit. The following article might be helpful for those trying to overcome a smoking habit as well as those trying to be supportive of someone trying to quit:
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2002/02/tobacco-quitting-for-good?lang=eng
Monday, November 3, 2014
Emi es un Capo!!!
I'm writing this e-mail late because we had a really really pleasant p-day right up to 4:00pm when one of our less active members called us. Her brother had died and she needed us RIGHT THEN! We were in ChangoMas (aka Wal-mart) when she called. We told her we were coming as fast as we could, finished up our purchases, took a bus to our house, dropped off the groceries, and then took another bus to her house. The truth is that any other day and any other situation, we would have walked. It's really not all that far. But seeing as she needed us NOW-- we took the bus.
Funnily enough, our normal appointment for Monday nights was canceled. :( And that is how we were able to do all of this. Go and comfort a lady very very very upset about the loss of her brother AND still write our e-mail home.
We might be having a baptism the 15th!! His name is Emiliano and he is the brother of Gabriel and one of the sons of the Ferreyra family. Like all of the other people I have ever been blessed to teach, he came to us. He told us he was finally ready to listen to the lessons. We can barely keep up with him. He starts keeping commandments before we have even taught them. I guess it comes from listening to alllll of the lessons the sister missionaries gave to his parents and his brother.
He and Gabriel came to church this Sunday. Both of them in white shirts. (No ties, but whatever.) Like they say here, Emi es un capo!!! -- He's a boss! We just need to finish teaching all of the lessons before the 8th. Pray for the Ferreyra family. They need it.
Things are a little less cheery with Andrea and Debora. Unfortunately their mother has decided that she does not want Andrea to be baptized. Participating is fine, but she doesn't want us to teach her daughter. She never told us anything, but when we had our appointment with Andrea and pulled out our scriptures, she told us that she won't go behind her mother's back. Her mother had told her that she couldn't take the lessons. But Andrea also said that she knows that the church is something good and that she wants to be a part of it. She is willing to wait a year to be baptized when she turns 18. And during all that time, she has plans to be fully active. She'll be what we call a dry Mormon -- completely active but never baptized.
Tuesday night there was a really bad storm. The members on our side of the area made it through pretty well, but a lot of the roofs of the houses on the elder's side of the area blew off. The power went out in the Ferreyra's house for three days. The house of the family Cruz flooded. The roof of the Canerelli's caved in. Etc, etc. It was really bad. The last couple of days have been spent helping clean up the mess. Debora's roof folded in half. And the worst part is that it just keeps raining and raining and raining. There's no time to FIX the roofs.
Annnd... Thats all I've got for now.
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
Funnily enough, our normal appointment for Monday nights was canceled. :( And that is how we were able to do all of this. Go and comfort a lady very very very upset about the loss of her brother AND still write our e-mail home.
We might be having a baptism the 15th!! His name is Emiliano and he is the brother of Gabriel and one of the sons of the Ferreyra family. Like all of the other people I have ever been blessed to teach, he came to us. He told us he was finally ready to listen to the lessons. We can barely keep up with him. He starts keeping commandments before we have even taught them. I guess it comes from listening to alllll of the lessons the sister missionaries gave to his parents and his brother.
He and Gabriel came to church this Sunday. Both of them in white shirts. (No ties, but whatever.) Like they say here, Emi es un capo!!! -- He's a boss! We just need to finish teaching all of the lessons before the 8th. Pray for the Ferreyra family. They need it.
Things are a little less cheery with Andrea and Debora. Unfortunately their mother has decided that she does not want Andrea to be baptized. Participating is fine, but she doesn't want us to teach her daughter. She never told us anything, but when we had our appointment with Andrea and pulled out our scriptures, she told us that she won't go behind her mother's back. Her mother had told her that she couldn't take the lessons. But Andrea also said that she knows that the church is something good and that she wants to be a part of it. She is willing to wait a year to be baptized when she turns 18. And during all that time, she has plans to be fully active. She'll be what we call a dry Mormon -- completely active but never baptized.
Tuesday night there was a really bad storm. The members on our side of the area made it through pretty well, but a lot of the roofs of the houses on the elder's side of the area blew off. The power went out in the Ferreyra's house for three days. The house of the family Cruz flooded. The roof of the Canerelli's caved in. Etc, etc. It was really bad. The last couple of days have been spent helping clean up the mess. Debora's roof folded in half. And the worst part is that it just keeps raining and raining and raining. There's no time to FIX the roofs.
Annnd... Thats all I've got for now.
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, October 27, 2014
Polar Bears and Chickens...
This week we had stake conference. The Saturday session was held in Banfield 2, just a half an hour travel. To our very very very very very great surprise, Gabriel, Martin and their father attended the priesthood session! To our even greater surprise, they all came back an hour later to the general adult session bringing with them Hna Ferreyra!! They had originally indicated they weren't coming because, a) Saturday was Gabriel's birthday, b) Friday was Emiliano's birthday and c) Sunday was Ivan's birthday. Andrea, one of our investigators, went to the Saturday night session as well.
And the best part!!! Gabriel FINALLY came in a white shirt and tie. It's a kinda funny story. During the priesthood session he was in his usual blue and white checkered shirt. When he came back he was wearing a white shirt and the tie that Elder Villegas gave him. I guess being in a roomful of men and being the only one in a colored shirt made him feel as visible as a polar bear in a room full of chickens. Now we just have to get him to tuck the dang shirt in properly... :)
Andrea also came to the Sunday morning session. When I say "Sunday morning" I do mean MORNING. The bus for Lanus left at 7:45am for the investigator and new member meeting that started at 8:30am. We got there a few minutes late. Andrea has also started dating one of the less active youth in the ward. He is now active. :)
The stake presidents here did something new. I guess. The choir for the stake conference was us missionaries. We had two sessions of practice total so I hope we sounded nice. Supposedly the only female voice anybody could really hear was mine. There are only four sister missionaries in the zone. My companion is kinda tone deaf. (I'm not being mean, she really hates singing) and the other two sister missionaries never showed to any of the practices, so they had no idea what they were doing. Well... I sure hope I sounded nice because EVERYBODY knows it was MY voice they were hearing... If not, that's embarrassing.
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
And the best part!!! Gabriel FINALLY came in a white shirt and tie. It's a kinda funny story. During the priesthood session he was in his usual blue and white checkered shirt. When he came back he was wearing a white shirt and the tie that Elder Villegas gave him. I guess being in a roomful of men and being the only one in a colored shirt made him feel as visible as a polar bear in a room full of chickens. Now we just have to get him to tuck the dang shirt in properly... :)
Andrea also came to the Sunday morning session. When I say "Sunday morning" I do mean MORNING. The bus for Lanus left at 7:45am for the investigator and new member meeting that started at 8:30am. We got there a few minutes late. Andrea has also started dating one of the less active youth in the ward. He is now active. :)
The stake presidents here did something new. I guess. The choir for the stake conference was us missionaries. We had two sessions of practice total so I hope we sounded nice. Supposedly the only female voice anybody could really hear was mine. There are only four sister missionaries in the zone. My companion is kinda tone deaf. (I'm not being mean, she really hates singing) and the other two sister missionaries never showed to any of the practices, so they had no idea what they were doing. Well... I sure hope I sounded nice because EVERYBODY knows it was MY voice they were hearing... If not, that's embarrassing.
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, October 20, 2014
Lots of Really Good Things
I had the joy of taking an online class for BYU-Idaho today, so my e-mail this week is going to be a little shorter than usual because I'm out of computer time.
It's been a really long week. We've had a lot of really really good things happen and a lot of little bad things happen. For example:
Andrea, one of our investigators and sister of a recent convert is 17 years old. Because she is a minor, we have to ask her mother (or father) permission to teach her. Her mom didn't tell us that we could teach her daughter, but she didn't tell us that we couldn't either. But it turns out that later in the week, Andrea's mother told Andrea that she couldn't talk to us anymore. As such, we haven't had a single lesson with her for a while -- until her mother lifts the "no sister missionaries" ban. BUT, Andrea went to Mutual, and another youth activity and came to church all by herself this week!
Gabriel made an appointment with us without us pestering him. And he came to Sacrament meeting, too. Now we just have to convince him that he needs to come to ALL of the meetings EVERY Sunday. :)
Hope all of you are doing great --
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
It's been a really long week. We've had a lot of really really good things happen and a lot of little bad things happen. For example:
Andrea, one of our investigators and sister of a recent convert is 17 years old. Because she is a minor, we have to ask her mother (or father) permission to teach her. Her mom didn't tell us that we could teach her daughter, but she didn't tell us that we couldn't either. But it turns out that later in the week, Andrea's mother told Andrea that she couldn't talk to us anymore. As such, we haven't had a single lesson with her for a while -- until her mother lifts the "no sister missionaries" ban. BUT, Andrea went to Mutual, and another youth activity and came to church all by herself this week!
Gabriel made an appointment with us without us pestering him. And he came to Sacrament meeting, too. Now we just have to convince him that he needs to come to ALL of the meetings EVERY Sunday. :)
Hope all of you are doing great --
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, October 6, 2014
Rain and More Missionary Work
It's been a really long week full of rain. Lots and lots of rain.
Every week we have to keep track of all of the lessons we have taught to members and investigators, and the number of people we talked to and stuff like that. This week there were a lot of zeros. We had other activities going on, but they didn't help our numbers any. And next week won't be any better as far as our numbers.
Monday we had our usual Noche de Hogar [Family Home Evening] with the Ferreyra family. The only difference this week was who was present.
Tuesday we had our district meeting and lunch (a miracle) and then we spent the rest of the day wandering around trying to find someone to talk to. It was rainy so nobody was interested.
Wednesday we ran around like lunatics from one end of our area to the other. (Our area is pretty big.) That night we had meetings. We followed up with Gabriel. We also asked the bishop to meet with him, to try and find out why he doesn't want to come to church.
Thursday was actually a productive day. We did stuff and talked to people.
Friday we locked ourselves out of the house (wasn't my fault) and so we spent the whole day locked outside. And it was raining cats and dogs. Hno Cortese [Brother Cortese] had to come, jump the neighbor's fence and dismantle the doorknob to get us our keys. Friday wasn't my best day.
Aannnd, Saturday and Sunday were General Conference. The broadcast timing is a little different here so we weren't able to do any proselyting.
Next week we have an open house in one of the chapels, and Hermana Sanchez has tramites. (No, I don't know the English word for tramites but it has a lot to do with standing in line all day and waiting. Think "frustrating like going to the DMV to renew your driver's license" but longer. Exactly like that.)
'Til next week --
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: Tramites is some kind of government procedure or process, and most likely has to do with Hermana Sanchez' passport / visa status. She is originally from Bolivia.
Every week we have to keep track of all of the lessons we have taught to members and investigators, and the number of people we talked to and stuff like that. This week there were a lot of zeros. We had other activities going on, but they didn't help our numbers any. And next week won't be any better as far as our numbers.
Monday we had our usual Noche de Hogar [Family Home Evening] with the Ferreyra family. The only difference this week was who was present.
Tuesday we had our district meeting and lunch (a miracle) and then we spent the rest of the day wandering around trying to find someone to talk to. It was rainy so nobody was interested.
Wednesday we ran around like lunatics from one end of our area to the other. (Our area is pretty big.) That night we had meetings. We followed up with Gabriel. We also asked the bishop to meet with him, to try and find out why he doesn't want to come to church.
Thursday was actually a productive day. We did stuff and talked to people.
Friday we locked ourselves out of the house (wasn't my fault) and so we spent the whole day locked outside. And it was raining cats and dogs. Hno Cortese [Brother Cortese] had to come, jump the neighbor's fence and dismantle the doorknob to get us our keys. Friday wasn't my best day.
Aannnd, Saturday and Sunday were General Conference. The broadcast timing is a little different here so we weren't able to do any proselyting.
Next week we have an open house in one of the chapels, and Hermana Sanchez has tramites. (No, I don't know the English word for tramites but it has a lot to do with standing in line all day and waiting. Think "frustrating like going to the DMV to renew your driver's license" but longer. Exactly like that.)
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| Hermanas Crotzer and Sanchez |
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: Tramites is some kind of government procedure or process, and most likely has to do with Hermana Sanchez' passport / visa status. She is originally from Bolivia.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
Busy, Busy, Busy
This week was really really really really really busy. You can see how busy it really was by the fact that I took the time to type the word "really" seven times.
Monday we had a really nice family home evening with the Ferreyra family.
Tuesday we spent all stinking day in meetings. (And we were an hour late to one of them. It was the elders' fault.) Between all of the meetings Tuesday, we managed to have an appointment with Gabriel. He told us he was bored because we just keep teaching the same things. Yup. That's right. That's because they are the "new member lessons." ·sigh· Sometimes this man is just so... finicky. :)
Wednesday we had our first appointment with Tati (Andrea). She's gonna get baptized soon. She already has a date for the 18th of October.
Thursday the bishop canceled his meeting with us, so we waited in the chapel for the elders so that we could return their vacuum.
Friday we planned in less than an hour. I still can't decide if that was a good thing or not. Because our planning was really in depth, it just didn't take the usual three hours... We also had an appointment with Gabriel. We taught something new!!! :)
Saturday we had a ward service project in the morning and a capilla abierta [open house at the chapel] in the night. We did nothing alllllll day long. (That's not true, we did lots of stuff it's just that none of the stuff we did helped us have better numbers.) For the service project, we painted/cleaned a preschool. I don't ever remember my school being quite so dirty. But maybe that's the reason we were doing the service project. It was desperately needed and there wasn't anybody else to do it.
I have absolutely nooo idea what I am doing training. It doesn't help that I (still) don't have the booklet used to do the training program. I'm not even sure if we finished all of the stuff we were supposed to this week. And we sure haven't had language study even once.
What Thomas wrote about in his letter about how hard it is to let the new companion do stuff is sooooo true. I know that it would be sooo much easier and faster if I did everything. But at the same time, my companion would never learn. I'm not so sure how well I've been doing. I can't seem to let go of the cell phone. I'm pretty sure she thinks that it's my phone and not OUR phone. Yeah... I should probably work on that...
Diego got baptized the other month. The elders in Madariaga sent me photos!
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
Editors note: Full-time missionaries take the lead in teaching lessons before baptism with the help of ward missionaries and other members. After baptism, new members are taught the first four lessons again. The lessons contain the essential doctrines, principles, and commandments. They are organized so that missionaries can help others clearly understand the doctrines of Christ.
The first four lessons are:
• The Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
• The Plan of Salvation
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ
• The Commandments
Monday we had a really nice family home evening with the Ferreyra family.
Tuesday we spent all stinking day in meetings. (And we were an hour late to one of them. It was the elders' fault.) Between all of the meetings Tuesday, we managed to have an appointment with Gabriel. He told us he was bored because we just keep teaching the same things. Yup. That's right. That's because they are the "new member lessons." ·sigh· Sometimes this man is just so... finicky. :)
Wednesday we had our first appointment with Tati (Andrea). She's gonna get baptized soon. She already has a date for the 18th of October.
Thursday the bishop canceled his meeting with us, so we waited in the chapel for the elders so that we could return their vacuum.
Friday we planned in less than an hour. I still can't decide if that was a good thing or not. Because our planning was really in depth, it just didn't take the usual three hours... We also had an appointment with Gabriel. We taught something new!!! :)
Saturday we had a ward service project in the morning and a capilla abierta [open house at the chapel] in the night. We did nothing alllllll day long. (That's not true, we did lots of stuff it's just that none of the stuff we did helped us have better numbers.) For the service project, we painted/cleaned a preschool. I don't ever remember my school being quite so dirty. But maybe that's the reason we were doing the service project. It was desperately needed and there wasn't anybody else to do it.
I have absolutely nooo idea what I am doing training. It doesn't help that I (still) don't have the booklet used to do the training program. I'm not even sure if we finished all of the stuff we were supposed to this week. And we sure haven't had language study even once.
What Thomas wrote about in his letter about how hard it is to let the new companion do stuff is sooooo true. I know that it would be sooo much easier and faster if I did everything. But at the same time, my companion would never learn. I'm not so sure how well I've been doing. I can't seem to let go of the cell phone. I'm pretty sure she thinks that it's my phone and not OUR phone. Yeah... I should probably work on that...
Diego got baptized the other month. The elders in Madariaga sent me photos!
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
Editors note: Full-time missionaries take the lead in teaching lessons before baptism with the help of ward missionaries and other members. After baptism, new members are taught the first four lessons again. The lessons contain the essential doctrines, principles, and commandments. They are organized so that missionaries can help others clearly understand the doctrines of Christ.
The first four lessons are:
• The Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
• The Plan of Salvation
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ
• The Commandments
Monday, September 15, 2014
Perfection vs. One's Best
Well... It's been my first week training. Let's just put it this way: I don't really know what I'm doing. Tuesday morning the assistants to the mission president did all of us trainers a huge favor by sharing a hell fire and brimstone scripture, saying that if we didn't do a good job training we would destroy the mission as well as the lives of the missionaries we were going to train and several additional generations of missionaries in the mission.
Thanks Elders...
Since it seems that perfection is the only thing the assistants accept, I have failed them dramatically. Thankfully the mission president and the Lord are a little more easy-going. The only thing they want from me is that I do my best. I can do that. I'm not sure I can be completely perfect, but I can do my best.
My new companion is Hermana Sanchez. She is from Bolivia where it is really really really hot. And so no matter how hot it is HERE, the heater is on. Saturday night, I think I almost had a heat stroke while I was sleeping. I woke up at 2:30 in the morning dying. And no matter how I tried, I couldn't get back to sleep because it was soooooo hot in our room. So what did I do? I took a freezing cold shower at 3:00 in the morning and drank half a liter of cold water. (And turned off the stinking heater.) All I know is that I will be doing a whole heck of a lot less cooking this transfer because she thinks I can't cook. I made popcorn the other day and she stood and watched me do it with this doubtful face saying, "this is never going to work." (I don't use any oil and she uses a LOT. The popcorn still pops. It doesn't matter how you do it.)
We have a new investigator to teach: Debora's sister told us she wants us to teach her the lessons. The other day I read a scripture about fishers and hunters. I've decided that I am a fisher. Hunters have to go and knock on a bunch of doors and stuff like that to hunt down baptisms. Fishers just cast in their hook and wait until a fish bites. All of the people I have gotten to teach have just appeared. They just fall into my lap. Oh, I've knocked on a whole heck of a lot of doors, but nothing has ever come out of it. Gabriel just showed up at church one day. Andrea asked us to teach her so she can be baptized.
And so now we are teaching Debora's sister.
And that's all I've got.
Con amor --
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: For additional explanation about the reference to "fishers and hunters", see "In the Mountain of the Lord's House", a talk by LeGrand Richards reprinted in the Ensign magazine or "Friend to Friend", an interview with Gary J. Coleman that appeared in the Friend magazine.
Thanks Elders...
Since it seems that perfection is the only thing the assistants accept, I have failed them dramatically. Thankfully the mission president and the Lord are a little more easy-going. The only thing they want from me is that I do my best. I can do that. I'm not sure I can be completely perfect, but I can do my best.
My new companion is Hermana Sanchez. She is from Bolivia where it is really really really hot. And so no matter how hot it is HERE, the heater is on. Saturday night, I think I almost had a heat stroke while I was sleeping. I woke up at 2:30 in the morning dying. And no matter how I tried, I couldn't get back to sleep because it was soooooo hot in our room. So what did I do? I took a freezing cold shower at 3:00 in the morning and drank half a liter of cold water. (And turned off the stinking heater.) All I know is that I will be doing a whole heck of a lot less cooking this transfer because she thinks I can't cook. I made popcorn the other day and she stood and watched me do it with this doubtful face saying, "this is never going to work." (I don't use any oil and she uses a LOT. The popcorn still pops. It doesn't matter how you do it.)
We have a new investigator to teach: Debora's sister told us she wants us to teach her the lessons. The other day I read a scripture about fishers and hunters. I've decided that I am a fisher. Hunters have to go and knock on a bunch of doors and stuff like that to hunt down baptisms. Fishers just cast in their hook and wait until a fish bites. All of the people I have gotten to teach have just appeared. They just fall into my lap. Oh, I've knocked on a whole heck of a lot of doors, but nothing has ever come out of it. Gabriel just showed up at church one day. Andrea asked us to teach her so she can be baptized.
And so now we are teaching Debora's sister.
And that's all I've got.
Con amor --
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: For additional explanation about the reference to "fishers and hunters", see "In the Mountain of the Lord's House", a talk by LeGrand Richards reprinted in the Ensign magazine or "Friend to Friend", an interview with Gary J. Coleman that appeared in the Friend magazine.
Monday, September 8, 2014
Staying in Banfield and Training
It's a new transfer and I'm staying in Banfield 1. I'll be training. So today I have seven companions and tomorrow I'll know who my new companion will be. I have no idea how I will train somebody when I don't have any idea what I'm doing myself.
With Gabriel's baptism behind us, we have NO investigators. Finding people to teach is the most difficult for me. We've been doing a lot of walking around recently. We haven't talked to that many people but the ones we did talk to were NOT interested. The other day we talked to someone who, while waving a hatchet in our faces, told us how all of the Argentine government is a conspiracy and the Mormons are from England but that the inventor of the Mormons was really from Holland. Yup.
Thanks for your e-mails.
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: To anyone who might have sent Catherine an e-mail or card or letter, thank you for supporting her.
With Gabriel's baptism behind us, we have NO investigators. Finding people to teach is the most difficult for me. We've been doing a lot of walking around recently. We haven't talked to that many people but the ones we did talk to were NOT interested. The other day we talked to someone who, while waving a hatchet in our faces, told us how all of the Argentine government is a conspiracy and the Mormons are from England but that the inventor of the Mormons was really from Holland. Yup.
Thanks for your e-mails.
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: To anyone who might have sent Catherine an e-mail or card or letter, thank you for supporting her.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Gabriel's Baptism
Gabriel was baptized on the 30th! The baptismal service went as planned but took place an hour late. Which was fine. Long story made short: we had turned on the water pump to drain the little smidge of water that was left in the font and forgot to turn it back off when we started to fill the font. Not that it really mattered because Gabriel showed up late as well. But a whole bunch of people came. And the Noche de Hogar [Family Home Evening] that we hosted directly after the baptism was a complete success.
Yesterday we had a lesson in the Ferreyra's home. Gabriel directed the lesson and his younger brother gave the lesson. One of the other brothers who doesn't live there but was visiting also participated. Hna Ferreyra was sooooo happy. She wants to be sealed with all of her children, not just some of them. Now all we have to do is teach and baptize her three other kids. :)
Uuuummm... The rest of the week was spent in a bunch of lessons with Gabriel and a lot of walking around looking for people to teach.
-- Hermana Crotzer
Yesterday we had a lesson in the Ferreyra's home. Gabriel directed the lesson and his younger brother gave the lesson. One of the other brothers who doesn't live there but was visiting also participated. Hna Ferreyra was sooooo happy. She wants to be sealed with all of her children, not just some of them. Now all we have to do is teach and baptize her three other kids. :)
Uuuummm... The rest of the week was spent in a bunch of lessons with Gabriel and a lot of walking around looking for people to teach.
-- Hermana Crotzer
Monday, August 25, 2014
Another Baptism Scheduled
Gabriel had his baptismal interview and he will be baptized this coming Saturday. Elder Herrera, our district leader, thinks he's really funny so he pulled a joke on us with Gabriel after the baptismal interview. My companion and I were in a meeting with the ward missionaries planning for our upcoming Noche de Hogar [Family Home Evening]. Elder Herrera pulled us out and started on this spiel about how Gabriel shouldn't give up hope and that we were going to keep working with him and blah blah blah. It sounded like Gabrial hadn't passed the interview and the only thing I could think was, "What did he DO?" And then Elder Herrera said, "Congratulations.
...Wait... What?
And then he and Gabriel busted up laughing.
I also had exchanges this week, where the sister training leaders come and train us and help us improve how we teach and stuff. My companion had a great experience. My exchange is something I would rather forget. During the course of 30 minutes, the sister training leader told me every single one of my faults, that I wasn't doing a good job and that Gabriel would be exactly the same as Pablo, one of our recent converts. By the time she was through with me, I honestly felt like it would have been better if I had never come on the mission and that I might as well just call the president right then and there and tell him to send me home. It was awful and I don't understand WHY she would do that to me. She is a sister training leader and is supposed to HELP me, not tear me down and then stomp on me.
Elder Herrera told her that she needs to call me and talk to me. Apparently she told him that she was "uncomfortable" in our exchange. When I started bawling right there in front of Elder Herrera and his companion, my own companion did me the favor of explaining that I was a lot more than just uncomfortable. I don't really know what to think now.
And now I don't know what to do about Gabriel. Before our exchange, I thought he was ready. Now I don't know.
Pablo is going to the Iglesia Universal now. He doesn't really want anything to do with us but doesn't actually come right out and say so. Instead, he makes appointments and then later calls us and tells us that he can't make it.
And that was my week. Hope that you all had a really nice week.
Hermana Crotzer
...Wait... What?
And then he and Gabriel busted up laughing.
I also had exchanges this week, where the sister training leaders come and train us and help us improve how we teach and stuff. My companion had a great experience. My exchange is something I would rather forget. During the course of 30 minutes, the sister training leader told me every single one of my faults, that I wasn't doing a good job and that Gabriel would be exactly the same as Pablo, one of our recent converts. By the time she was through with me, I honestly felt like it would have been better if I had never come on the mission and that I might as well just call the president right then and there and tell him to send me home. It was awful and I don't understand WHY she would do that to me. She is a sister training leader and is supposed to HELP me, not tear me down and then stomp on me.
Elder Herrera told her that she needs to call me and talk to me. Apparently she told him that she was "uncomfortable" in our exchange. When I started bawling right there in front of Elder Herrera and his companion, my own companion did me the favor of explaining that I was a lot more than just uncomfortable. I don't really know what to think now.
And now I don't know what to do about Gabriel. Before our exchange, I thought he was ready. Now I don't know.
Pablo is going to the Iglesia Universal now. He doesn't really want anything to do with us but doesn't actually come right out and say so. Instead, he makes appointments and then later calls us and tells us that he can't make it.
And that was my week. Hope that you all had a really nice week.
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, August 18, 2014
Empty Mail Boxes are Discouraging
The last month (and the four months before that) my mail box has been starving to death. And so, to conserve its energy, I have decided that I won't write anyone until they send me something. A letter is all I'm asking folks -- a good heart-felt letter.
There are about 3 to 6 weeks left of my mission for you to mail me a letter or card and have it arrive in time. If postage is too much, send me e-mails. This week I had 11 e-mails and 9 were from the mission office. (Last week I had 15 and 13 were from the mission office.)
I had a great week. If you want to hear about it, write me.
:) Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: The mission office has asked that we not send any packages. It is too costly (both in time and money) to retrieve packages from customs. But cards or letters work great.
There are about 3 to 6 weeks left of my mission for you to mail me a letter or card and have it arrive in time. If postage is too much, send me e-mails. This week I had 11 e-mails and 9 were from the mission office. (Last week I had 15 and 13 were from the mission office.)
I had a great week. If you want to hear about it, write me.
:) Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: The mission office has asked that we not send any packages. It is too costly (both in time and money) to retrieve packages from customs. But cards or letters work great.
Monday, August 4, 2014
"Mini" Hna Carrizo
My new companion is Hna Carrizo and she is 22 years old. She says she is on the mini mission because she can't decide between being a missionary or serving the "other mission" -- i.e. being a full-time mother. She loves to talk about how she doesn't know which path to take with whoever asks her about her mini mission. Not that it's a bad thing that she doesn't know yet what to do.
My brain is still trying to change back to speaking Spanish all the time and I've been having a little bit of trouble. Sometimes, mostly in the mornings, I have a really hard time understanding what Hna Carrizo is saying. She also told me that I have a really bad gringo accent. It's a little true.
It's supposed to be the middle of winter but it's really hot. Most days we don't even have to take jackets with us because it's just soooo hot.
This Monday we went to a district activity. We played a bunch of soccer and then the elders (we are the only sister missionaries in the district) changed over to basketball. I don't do basketball with a bunch of boys so I sat out on the side. It turns out there are a couple of other elders that don't like basketball either so we played some weird version of soccer were there is one goal and two teams of two. The person who scores a goal becomes the next goalie until somebody else scores a goal. It was REALLY fun.
Gabriel is still progressing like crazy. Please keep him in your prayers. AND I found out that Diego Quiroga, the son who I was teaching in Madariaga is going to be baptized the 9th! Whoooo hoooo!
Hope that all of you have a really great week.
Con amor --
Hermana Crotzer
My brain is still trying to change back to speaking Spanish all the time and I've been having a little bit of trouble. Sometimes, mostly in the mornings, I have a really hard time understanding what Hna Carrizo is saying. She also told me that I have a really bad gringo accent. It's a little true.
It's supposed to be the middle of winter but it's really hot. Most days we don't even have to take jackets with us because it's just soooo hot.
This Monday we went to a district activity. We played a bunch of soccer and then the elders (we are the only sister missionaries in the district) changed over to basketball. I don't do basketball with a bunch of boys so I sat out on the side. It turns out there are a couple of other elders that don't like basketball either so we played some weird version of soccer were there is one goal and two teams of two. The person who scores a goal becomes the next goalie until somebody else scores a goal. It was REALLY fun.
Gabriel is still progressing like crazy. Please keep him in your prayers. AND I found out that Diego Quiroga, the son who I was teaching in Madariaga is going to be baptized the 9th! Whoooo hoooo!
Hope that all of you have a really great week.
Con amor --
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, July 28, 2014
Mini-missionary Companion in Banfield
Not a whole lot has gone on this week. We had visits on Friday, Sunday and Monday. I have a new companion. She's a mini-missionary and she's from here. (She lives in the stake.) That means that Hermana Kent got transferred. She is now in Ezeiza. We have a lot of appointments this coming week. We'll see how that turns out.
Gabriel came to church on Sunday with all of his family. He's progressing soooo well. Please keep him in your prayers.
Hope you all have a nice week --
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: A "mini-missionary" is someone who is paired with a regular full-time missionary to help out for a transfer or two. (A transfer is six weeks.) It could be that the mission is short of companionships and so a local youth is helping out, or it could be that someone is wanting to experience what it is like to serve a mission before they put in their full-time papers. We'll ask Catherine for more details for next week. As a reminder: a "stake" is just a geographic area containing multiple congregations or "wards" of church members. So the new mini-missionary lives somewhere not too far from where Catherine is serving, i.e. she is a local young woman.
Gabriel came to church on Sunday with all of his family. He's progressing soooo well. Please keep him in your prayers.
Hope you all have a nice week --
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: A "mini-missionary" is someone who is paired with a regular full-time missionary to help out for a transfer or two. (A transfer is six weeks.) It could be that the mission is short of companionships and so a local youth is helping out, or it could be that someone is wanting to experience what it is like to serve a mission before they put in their full-time papers. We'll ask Catherine for more details for next week. As a reminder: a "stake" is just a geographic area containing multiple congregations or "wards" of church members. So the new mini-missionary lives somewhere not too far from where Catherine is serving, i.e. she is a local young woman.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Still Looking for People to Teach
Not much to report this week. We walked a lot and we haven't found all that many people to teach. Hna Kent and I thought it would be a good idea to go and see a bunch of the old investigators we have records for and see if they might be interested this time around. The majority of them aren't but...
One of the statistics we report is how many people we talk to and try to share the gospel with. I don't know if contacting old investigators counts towards this statistic so we haven't been counting it. But if we did, we would have really, really, really high numbers.
We have one new investigator named Gabriel. His parents are recent converts (of about a year) and we started teaching him recently. He read all of the pamphlet for lesson one in one day for our next lesson. We had only asked him to read a page!
Con amor --
Hermana Crotzer (formerly Cortez)
One of the statistics we report is how many people we talk to and try to share the gospel with. I don't know if contacting old investigators counts towards this statistic so we haven't been counting it. But if we did, we would have really, really, really high numbers.
We have one new investigator named Gabriel. His parents are recent converts (of about a year) and we started teaching him recently. He read all of the pamphlet for lesson one in one day for our next lesson. We had only asked him to read a page!
Con amor --
Hermana Crotzer (formerly Cortez)
Monday, July 14, 2014
World Cup Finally Over
My brain is complete and total mush right now. It probably has something to do with the fact that I inhaled a lot of chemicals this morning trying to kill a giant cockroach. Bleh.
I forgot to tell you all last week about the cockroach family I found under the sink. Mommy cockroach, Daddy, two kids, and Grandpa cockroach. They are very dead now. Raid for flys and mosquitos also kills cockroaches. Maybe it's because these are the huge flying cockroaches.
This morning, the other grandpa cockroach invaded our apartment. Probably to get revenge for killing his daughter and grandkids. (I doubt he cares very much that we killed his son-in-law, but who knows. Maybe they had a good relationship.) After a lot of screaming and spraying of chemicals, Hna Kent finally succeeded in killing it with the mop. The person who lives next door asked us if we were all right. And we need to buy more Raid.
In other news, we walked around a lot. A LOT. And that's all I've got for the week. I don't think we had any lessons.
Germany won the World Cup and I might change my last name to something less German. I have a feeling there are a lot of anti-German feelings in Argentina right now. Cortez sounds like a nice new last name. ;)
Until next week --
Hermana Cortez
I forgot to tell you all last week about the cockroach family I found under the sink. Mommy cockroach, Daddy, two kids, and Grandpa cockroach. They are very dead now. Raid for flys and mosquitos also kills cockroaches. Maybe it's because these are the huge flying cockroaches.
This morning, the other grandpa cockroach invaded our apartment. Probably to get revenge for killing his daughter and grandkids. (I doubt he cares very much that we killed his son-in-law, but who knows. Maybe they had a good relationship.) After a lot of screaming and spraying of chemicals, Hna Kent finally succeeded in killing it with the mop. The person who lives next door asked us if we were all right. And we need to buy more Raid.
In other news, we walked around a lot. A LOT. And that's all I've got for the week. I don't think we had any lessons.
 |
| Hermanas Crotzer and Kent (and a third companion???) |
Until next week --
Hermana Cortez
Monday, July 7, 2014
Weird Week in Banfield
It's been a really weird week. That's pretty much all I've got to say.
We had a nice lesson with Hector and Claudia which means that they are progressing.
We had to plan three times on Wednesday because people kept canceling things on us.
Friday was the fourth of July and we had "exchanges" that day. Both the sister training leaders came to our area.
Saturday I turned 13 months old in the mission.
Sunday was Hna Newman's birthday. We fibbed to her and her companion and set up a fake appointment in their area with somebody named Sabrina. Sabrina was really Debora -- a recent convert of about four weeks. Debora got baptized the Saturday before Hna Newman left. Debora got a video from Hna Newman's mom and a bunch of other people singing "Happy Birthday" and she also made a cake and the whole nine yards.
Pablo didn't go to church this week because he wanted to watch a tennis match. I'm worried he's going to go inactive soon. He knows all the "right" answers but he doesn't know how to apply the Gospel to himself. That's just a little important. And of course I ignored that little voice inside my head because everybody else thought things were going great.
Today somebody sent me an envelope. Just an envelope with my name on it. There wasn't anything inside. And only my mom sent me an e-mail this week. So when I finish typing this I'll probably spend the rest of my hour and a half of time watching Mormon messages without sound. I might even have time to watch the Joseph Smith movie.
Hope all of you had a nice week --
Hermana Crotzer
We had a nice lesson with Hector and Claudia which means that they are progressing.
We had to plan three times on Wednesday because people kept canceling things on us.
Friday was the fourth of July and we had "exchanges" that day. Both the sister training leaders came to our area.
Saturday I turned 13 months old in the mission.
Sunday was Hna Newman's birthday. We fibbed to her and her companion and set up a fake appointment in their area with somebody named Sabrina. Sabrina was really Debora -- a recent convert of about four weeks. Debora got baptized the Saturday before Hna Newman left. Debora got a video from Hna Newman's mom and a bunch of other people singing "Happy Birthday" and she also made a cake and the whole nine yards.
Pablo didn't go to church this week because he wanted to watch a tennis match. I'm worried he's going to go inactive soon. He knows all the "right" answers but he doesn't know how to apply the Gospel to himself. That's just a little important. And of course I ignored that little voice inside my head because everybody else thought things were going great.
Today somebody sent me an envelope. Just an envelope with my name on it. There wasn't anything inside. And only my mom sent me an e-mail this week. So when I finish typing this I'll probably spend the rest of my hour and a half of time watching Mormon messages without sound. I might even have time to watch the Joseph Smith movie.
Hope all of you had a nice week --
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, June 30, 2014
Banfield Baptism and Hailstorm
Well, we had a baptism this Saturday. It has to have been the worse planned baptism I have ever been to. And we planned it...
It's not that we did a bad job planning it, it's just that ALL -- and I mean AAALLLL -- of our plans fell through and didn't work. Both of the talks didn't show up and neither did the prayers, so the missionaries ended up giving them. Only one family came, even though about half the ward promised to come. And to top it all off, the stupid video thingie didn't work. Hna Kent and I went home after the baptism was finished even though we had another hour left to keep working. We were just toooo stressed and our heads hurt. But Debora, another recent convert, said that the baptism was nice and that she couldn't tell that NOTHING went according to plan. That's my one little bright ray of sunshine. And it seemed like Pablo, the guy who got baptized, liked it.
Last P-day, I mopped the floor. This picture of a yellow tub and black water is what came up off the floor. And that's just from the living room. I dumped out the icky water and got fresh water to mop every room. It was disgusting. And I still haven't finished. I doubt I'll get around to finishing it today but I did at least sweep up the fluff balls of lint and dust. (I honestly have NO IDEA where all of the dirt comes from.)
We had interviews with the President this week. He told me in his e-mail to me this week that I'm the new poster girl for his wife's cleaning campaign. ;)
Oh, and it hailed A LOT while I was mopping. I was scared it was going to break the windows and the roof. The people here tell me that it wasn't normal. They say that the hail stones are normally much much much larger but that not nearly as many fall. For them, it was a little like snow.
There was a youth activity Sunday night and they asked all the missionaries in the stake to come and teach the youth how to give a Book of Mormon to their friends. It was really quite good.
And that was my week... Hope all of you have had a great week --
Hermana Crotzer
It's not that we did a bad job planning it, it's just that ALL -- and I mean AAALLLL -- of our plans fell through and didn't work. Both of the talks didn't show up and neither did the prayers, so the missionaries ended up giving them. Only one family came, even though about half the ward promised to come. And to top it all off, the stupid video thingie didn't work. Hna Kent and I went home after the baptism was finished even though we had another hour left to keep working. We were just toooo stressed and our heads hurt. But Debora, another recent convert, said that the baptism was nice and that she couldn't tell that NOTHING went according to plan. That's my one little bright ray of sunshine. And it seemed like Pablo, the guy who got baptized, liked it.
Last P-day, I mopped the floor. This picture of a yellow tub and black water is what came up off the floor. And that's just from the living room. I dumped out the icky water and got fresh water to mop every room. It was disgusting. And I still haven't finished. I doubt I'll get around to finishing it today but I did at least sweep up the fluff balls of lint and dust. (I honestly have NO IDEA where all of the dirt comes from.)
We had interviews with the President this week. He told me in his e-mail to me this week that I'm the new poster girl for his wife's cleaning campaign. ;)
Oh, and it hailed A LOT while I was mopping. I was scared it was going to break the windows and the roof. The people here tell me that it wasn't normal. They say that the hail stones are normally much much much larger but that not nearly as many fall. For them, it was a little like snow.
There was a youth activity Sunday night and they asked all the missionaries in the stake to come and teach the youth how to give a Book of Mormon to their friends. It was really quite good.
And that was my week... Hope all of you have had a great week --
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, June 23, 2014
Mundial [World Cup] and the Pony
As a very short summary for this week: it was really long and really exhausting. We have no investigators and as a result we spend hours upon hours walking around in the streets. And that it's the mundial [World Cup] really doesn't help. People keep asking us, "Why aren't you inside with everybody else watching fútbol [soccer]?"
We started off the week with several more investigators but they dropped us (the nerve). Turns out they were just listening to the missionaries because they really liked Hna Newman.
There was a game Saturday between Argentina and Iran. We were out in the streets when the first and only goal was scored. Let's just say that my experience was a lot like the one Thomas had. Everything was completely quiet and there wasn't anybody outside and then the next thing we know, there are a million people screaming all across Argentina. People started running outside and shooting off fireworks and pistols and the whole works. Hermana Kent and I thought we were going to die for a minute.
Sunday, we were considering going home early because there were so many drunks outside and because so many of them were following us and saying all sorts of drunken awfulness and absurdities. We ended up going to a member's house, staying there for a couple of hours. I hate to think what will happen this coming Saturday if Argentina loses the match.
Hopefully next week I'll have something to share about people we have found and are teaching but for now the only things I've got are funny things that happened to us while we were walking around in the streets looking for people. For example, on Friday we got attacked by a pony. Actually, it was just playing. It would run at us and other people until it was just about to trample us and then it would turn and go find a new target all the while prancing happily in its new-found untied freedom. It ran at us about three times and an old lady whacked it with her cane. That was funny.
I finished reading the Book of Mormon again and I'm thinking of reading Doctrine and Covenants. We'll see what happens.
Until next week --
Hermana Crotzer
We started off the week with several more investigators but they dropped us (the nerve). Turns out they were just listening to the missionaries because they really liked Hna Newman.
There was a game Saturday between Argentina and Iran. We were out in the streets when the first and only goal was scored. Let's just say that my experience was a lot like the one Thomas had. Everything was completely quiet and there wasn't anybody outside and then the next thing we know, there are a million people screaming all across Argentina. People started running outside and shooting off fireworks and pistols and the whole works. Hermana Kent and I thought we were going to die for a minute.
Sunday, we were considering going home early because there were so many drunks outside and because so many of them were following us and saying all sorts of drunken awfulness and absurdities. We ended up going to a member's house, staying there for a couple of hours. I hate to think what will happen this coming Saturday if Argentina loses the match.
Hopefully next week I'll have something to share about people we have found and are teaching but for now the only things I've got are funny things that happened to us while we were walking around in the streets looking for people. For example, on Friday we got attacked by a pony. Actually, it was just playing. It would run at us and other people until it was just about to trample us and then it would turn and go find a new target all the while prancing happily in its new-found untied freedom. It ran at us about three times and an old lady whacked it with her cane. That was funny.
I finished reading the Book of Mormon again and I'm thinking of reading Doctrine and Covenants. We'll see what happens.
Until next week --
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, June 16, 2014
Hello Banfield!
Well... I'm in my new area: Banfield-1a and I'm replacing Hna Newman. (And Hna Newman is going to one of my old areas: Luis Guillon.)
A taxi came and picked up Hna Pomader and me in Madariaga Sunday at 4:00pm. We drove four hours to the apartment in Banfield-1a. The apartment in Banfield-1a is really big! It has eight beds and it's where people come to stay the night if they have to travel somewhere. It's also really close to the mission home. It's like a really big, shiny castle after what we had in Madariaga.
Tonight there are five other people staying the night with us. (Their companions are all MTC new and don't arrive until tomorrow.) When we left this morning we didn't have light or water so we weren't sure how we were going to accommodate five other people. But it got fixed so it's all okay. :)
Manolo made us cry when he called at 3:00pm, an hour before we left and told us to have a good life -- like we aren't ever going to see him again. And he might be right... I might never see him or anybody in Argentina again.
Hna Kent is my new companion. She has three months in the mission and she will be my first gringa companion. I guess President Thurgood thinks my Spanish is good enough to teach somebody else. I'm not so sure but it should be fun.
The picture attached is the Quiroga family. The father is a less active member and we were teaching his wife and kids in Madariaga.
'Til next week when I have some more stuff to share --
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: Hermana Newman was Catherine's first and only companion in Baltimore when both Catherine and Hermana Newman were waiting for their visas to Argentina. They worked together for five months, got their visas at the same time, travelled together to Argentina, and have had different companions and areas ever since. Hermana Newman's family posts Hermana Newman's messages home on a blog, which you might enjoy reading:
http://hermananewman.blogspot.com/
If you take a look at Hermana Newman's blog post dated June 9, 2014, you will see that Hermana Newman just sent her family some pictures of the apartment that Catherine describes as a castle. It does look pretty nice! But if you read further back to the post dated April 28, 2014, you will see that there were some exciting plumbing issues involving shower water flooding the apartment one week.
We hope Catherine doesn't have any of those problems! :)
A taxi came and picked up Hna Pomader and me in Madariaga Sunday at 4:00pm. We drove four hours to the apartment in Banfield-1a. The apartment in Banfield-1a is really big! It has eight beds and it's where people come to stay the night if they have to travel somewhere. It's also really close to the mission home. It's like a really big, shiny castle after what we had in Madariaga.
Tonight there are five other people staying the night with us. (Their companions are all MTC new and don't arrive until tomorrow.) When we left this morning we didn't have light or water so we weren't sure how we were going to accommodate five other people. But it got fixed so it's all okay. :)
Manolo made us cry when he called at 3:00pm, an hour before we left and told us to have a good life -- like we aren't ever going to see him again. And he might be right... I might never see him or anybody in Argentina again.
Hna Kent is my new companion. She has three months in the mission and she will be my first gringa companion. I guess President Thurgood thinks my Spanish is good enough to teach somebody else. I'm not so sure but it should be fun.
The picture attached is the Quiroga family. The father is a less active member and we were teaching his wife and kids in Madariaga.
'Til next week when I have some more stuff to share --
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: Hermana Newman was Catherine's first and only companion in Baltimore when both Catherine and Hermana Newman were waiting for their visas to Argentina. They worked together for five months, got their visas at the same time, travelled together to Argentina, and have had different companions and areas ever since. Hermana Newman's family posts Hermana Newman's messages home on a blog, which you might enjoy reading:
http://hermananewman.blogspot.com/
If you take a look at Hermana Newman's blog post dated June 9, 2014, you will see that Hermana Newman just sent her family some pictures of the apartment that Catherine describes as a castle. It does look pretty nice! But if you read further back to the post dated April 28, 2014, you will see that there were some exciting plumbing issues involving shower water flooding the apartment one week.
We hope Catherine doesn't have any of those problems! :)
Monday, June 9, 2014
Sad to be Leaving Madariaga
Look at what I found!!!! We bought it because I wanted a picture.
And then we ate it because we didn't have any other food and it was actually one of the better tasting hamburger patties I have ever eaten...
Here is a picture of (from left) Etelvina, Lutmilda, and Ivañes, one of the families we have been working with.
Etelvina was going to get baptized on the 14th, a few days before we left Madariaga but her date fell through. Her husband, Ivañes, has been trying to quit smoking, but is struggling to be successful. The little girl in Etelvina's lap is Lutmilda, their grandaughter. She lives with Ivañes and Etelvina.
This next picture is of (from left to right) Manolo, the Sanchez family, and us missionaries.
Hermano Sanchez invited us over for one last meal at his house before we leave Madariaga. We ate rice with clams and shrimp. (And because he knows that I don't really like squid, he left it out this time.) It was very very tasty and very fun with Manolo and Hermano Sanchez together.
The next picture is Manolo and the three pots of stew that he cooked for us.
Three pots. One for each one of us. It was very tasty, again, until my companion and he started sucking the nasty jello-y stuff out of the centers of the bones. Manolo is single so he puts his table and chairs outside so that we can eat with him.
(People have been giving us a lot more food than normal this last week. We've had three meals this week in place of the normal once every other week.)
This last picture is Manolo before he got his hair cut.
We had a service project and went with him to the barber shop. :) We've been begging him for the last three months to cut his hair. He wouldn't even cut his hair for his girlfriend -- but when the missionary sisters are going to leave Madariaga, well, that changes things. :) Manolo is like our crazy older brother. If we ever need anything, we can always ask him. We just have to keep reminding him to make sure that it gets done.
I think I'm a little sad to be leaving Madariaga.
Hermana Crotzer
And then we ate it because we didn't have any other food and it was actually one of the better tasting hamburger patties I have ever eaten...
Here is a picture of (from left) Etelvina, Lutmilda, and Ivañes, one of the families we have been working with.
Etelvina was going to get baptized on the 14th, a few days before we left Madariaga but her date fell through. Her husband, Ivañes, has been trying to quit smoking, but is struggling to be successful. The little girl in Etelvina's lap is Lutmilda, their grandaughter. She lives with Ivañes and Etelvina.
This next picture is of (from left to right) Manolo, the Sanchez family, and us missionaries.
Hermano Sanchez invited us over for one last meal at his house before we leave Madariaga. We ate rice with clams and shrimp. (And because he knows that I don't really like squid, he left it out this time.) It was very very tasty and very fun with Manolo and Hermano Sanchez together.
The next picture is Manolo and the three pots of stew that he cooked for us.
Three pots. One for each one of us. It was very tasty, again, until my companion and he started sucking the nasty jello-y stuff out of the centers of the bones. Manolo is single so he puts his table and chairs outside so that we can eat with him.
(People have been giving us a lot more food than normal this last week. We've had three meals this week in place of the normal once every other week.)
This last picture is Manolo before he got his hair cut.
We had a service project and went with him to the barber shop. :) We've been begging him for the last three months to cut his hair. He wouldn't even cut his hair for his girlfriend -- but when the missionary sisters are going to leave Madariaga, well, that changes things. :) Manolo is like our crazy older brother. If we ever need anything, we can always ask him. We just have to keep reminding him to make sure that it gets done.
I think I'm a little sad to be leaving Madariaga.
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, June 2, 2014
Elders are Coming to Madariaga
My biggest news this week is that elders are coming to Madariaga.
We had zone conference in La Costa this Saturday. President and his wife and the Dance couple came along with the councilors of the mission. It was very good. We learned lots of new things like the importance of Preach My Gospel and how to work better with the local church leaders.
I have to say that the best part of all the conference was a talk given about how to work more closely with the local leaders to help the less-active members. The talk was given by the amazing pair of Hermana Pomader and Hermana Crotzer. :) Just kidding. But we really did give a talk about how to work with the leaders to help the less-active members. And I suppose we did a good job because everybody told us, "good job" afterwards.
Afterwards, we were waiting for the President to finish up talking with all of the people who wanted to talk with him (he was our ride back to our area) and we kept hearing the name "Madariaga" whispered over and over again. After talking with the zone leaders, President came over to us and told us that he wants to put elders in Madariaga so we need to make sure the area book is in good condition and we need to be packed and ready to go in two weeks.
He also told us that it wasn't our fault or anything. That made me feel much better because for a minute I thought it was the e-mail I sent him last week telling him about how much, and why, I dislike the apartment here.
Speaking of the apartment, we found a rat outside the door of our apartment.
Actually, it was a baby rat and we only found it's guts, tail and paw. I suppose a cat got it. But where there is one baby rat, there are probably more. I was going to tell President in my letter to him that if we got rats in our apartment, we were moving. But I guess it doesn't really matter anymore.
One of our investigators has decided, maybe, that she doesn't want anything to do with our church. Not because she says it isn't true, but because we worship different than she is used to. She is used to singing praises and great miracles -- like people speaking in tongues and convulsing on the floor in the middle of church. Her husband is still progressing except that he fibs to us about how many cigarettes he is smoking. I'm not really sure what to think. If she doesn't what to be part of our church, she doesn't have to be. But it makes me very sad because I know that she won't find the same happiness or fullness anywhere else.
Our other investigators, on the other hand, told us in our appointment last night that they are going to get married. (We won't be here so it's a little sad but they said they would send pictures. And the elders will be able to help their son a lot.) It's like the miracle we were praying for. We weren't sure how to move forward with their family because the wife wasn't progressing but the kids were. Well, now the wife is progressing a lot and it turns out the kids weren't quite as ready for baptism as we thought. Now the husband and wife will get married, and the kids will wait a bit so that they can learn more and understand better. And with all of this working together, the father --a less active member -- will be able to baptize his kids.
Our branch mission leader is a little sad that we are leaving and that the elders are going to take over the responsibility of Madariaga, but the branch needs help with priesthood leadership. I guess the lack of women in his life might be some incentive for him to get married. :)
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
We had zone conference in La Costa this Saturday. President and his wife and the Dance couple came along with the councilors of the mission. It was very good. We learned lots of new things like the importance of Preach My Gospel and how to work better with the local church leaders.
I have to say that the best part of all the conference was a talk given about how to work more closely with the local leaders to help the less-active members. The talk was given by the amazing pair of Hermana Pomader and Hermana Crotzer. :) Just kidding. But we really did give a talk about how to work with the leaders to help the less-active members. And I suppose we did a good job because everybody told us, "good job" afterwards.
Afterwards, we were waiting for the President to finish up talking with all of the people who wanted to talk with him (he was our ride back to our area) and we kept hearing the name "Madariaga" whispered over and over again. After talking with the zone leaders, President came over to us and told us that he wants to put elders in Madariaga so we need to make sure the area book is in good condition and we need to be packed and ready to go in two weeks.
He also told us that it wasn't our fault or anything. That made me feel much better because for a minute I thought it was the e-mail I sent him last week telling him about how much, and why, I dislike the apartment here.
Speaking of the apartment, we found a rat outside the door of our apartment.
Actually, it was a baby rat and we only found it's guts, tail and paw. I suppose a cat got it. But where there is one baby rat, there are probably more. I was going to tell President in my letter to him that if we got rats in our apartment, we were moving. But I guess it doesn't really matter anymore.
One of our investigators has decided, maybe, that she doesn't want anything to do with our church. Not because she says it isn't true, but because we worship different than she is used to. She is used to singing praises and great miracles -- like people speaking in tongues and convulsing on the floor in the middle of church. Her husband is still progressing except that he fibs to us about how many cigarettes he is smoking. I'm not really sure what to think. If she doesn't what to be part of our church, she doesn't have to be. But it makes me very sad because I know that she won't find the same happiness or fullness anywhere else.
Our other investigators, on the other hand, told us in our appointment last night that they are going to get married. (We won't be here so it's a little sad but they said they would send pictures. And the elders will be able to help their son a lot.) It's like the miracle we were praying for. We weren't sure how to move forward with their family because the wife wasn't progressing but the kids were. Well, now the wife is progressing a lot and it turns out the kids weren't quite as ready for baptism as we thought. Now the husband and wife will get married, and the kids will wait a bit so that they can learn more and understand better. And with all of this working together, the father --a less active member -- will be able to baptize his kids.
Our branch mission leader is a little sad that we are leaving and that the elders are going to take over the responsibility of Madariaga, but the branch needs help with priesthood leadership. I guess the lack of women in his life might be some incentive for him to get married. :)
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, May 26, 2014
My "Hole-y" Week
This week has been full of holes. Literally. And I will explain why.
On Tuesday, we didn't spend all that much time outside proselyting. We had our traditional district meeting in Pinamar, we came back to Madariaga, cooked, ate, and studied English or Spanish. After all that my companion and I went out for about a half hour and had a little dispute. I wasn't feeling well, Hna Pomader wasn't feeling well, and we let it show in our words and actions with the other. So, we went back to the house and worked things out.
Hermana Pomader was mad at me because she thinks I should try harder when it comes to making decisions and I was angry because what difference does it make if I say what I think we should do -- to me it seemed like my opinion didn't matter. She was also mad at me because she says that I whine like a rich, spoiled American brat about all of things I don't like about our house. That part probably is true. And I should change it.
And moving on, my companion got attacked by a dog. She has this big black rain poncho like the ones the Boy Scouts wear -- big and plastic-y with a hood. When she wears it and rides the bike she becomes this big black flapping thing that just begs the dogs to bite her. It wasn't funny while it was happening, but afterwards -- and maybe only to me -- it's really really roll-on-the-ground-laughing funny. Here's a picture of the hole the dog made when it bit her rain poncho.
For service, we dug a hole in skirts to help one of our less-active members. Unfortunately I don't have a picture. :( And she didn't come to church this Sunday anyway. But, whatever, there's always next week.
I had to chuck out one of my skirts because, I think, the bike chewed a hole in the hem. Or a few holes.
I guess my skirt got caught between the tire and the mud guard while I was riding and I didn't find out until we got back the house. Good thing I was wearing leggings underneath my skirt because it's so cold. Now I have a cute new headband made of exactly the same fabric as this said skirt. :)
Etelvina and the Quiroga families came to church on Sunday and also 10 less-active members -- four of whom haven't come to church in the last two months. And there were 38 people in the sacrament meeting. Normally we have between 10 and 15.
Today we went to the museum here in Madariaga. It was pretty interesting. The owner showed us around personally and he let us touch everything. Actually, he handed us these who-knows-how-many hundreds of years old bones and fossils saying, "Here, take this." I would guess that people don't pass by very often. We also went to see the giant Christ statue and I got attacked by flying spiders.
I managed to take the picture before the spiders started flying at me.
This evening we are going to finish off our p-day by going to the cemetery. My companion wants to and who knows, it's an oooold cemetery so maybe we'll find something interesting. And then we are going to make tacos with Etelvina and her family for a family home evening.
I finished reading Alma in the Book of Mormon.
And I've run out of time so I have to go now.
Until next week --
Hermana Crotzer
On Tuesday, we didn't spend all that much time outside proselyting. We had our traditional district meeting in Pinamar, we came back to Madariaga, cooked, ate, and studied English or Spanish. After all that my companion and I went out for about a half hour and had a little dispute. I wasn't feeling well, Hna Pomader wasn't feeling well, and we let it show in our words and actions with the other. So, we went back to the house and worked things out.
Hermana Pomader was mad at me because she thinks I should try harder when it comes to making decisions and I was angry because what difference does it make if I say what I think we should do -- to me it seemed like my opinion didn't matter. She was also mad at me because she says that I whine like a rich, spoiled American brat about all of things I don't like about our house. That part probably is true. And I should change it.
And moving on, my companion got attacked by a dog. She has this big black rain poncho like the ones the Boy Scouts wear -- big and plastic-y with a hood. When she wears it and rides the bike she becomes this big black flapping thing that just begs the dogs to bite her. It wasn't funny while it was happening, but afterwards -- and maybe only to me -- it's really really roll-on-the-ground-laughing funny. Here's a picture of the hole the dog made when it bit her rain poncho.
For service, we dug a hole in skirts to help one of our less-active members. Unfortunately I don't have a picture. :( And she didn't come to church this Sunday anyway. But, whatever, there's always next week.
I had to chuck out one of my skirts because, I think, the bike chewed a hole in the hem. Or a few holes.
I guess my skirt got caught between the tire and the mud guard while I was riding and I didn't find out until we got back the house. Good thing I was wearing leggings underneath my skirt because it's so cold. Now I have a cute new headband made of exactly the same fabric as this said skirt. :)
Etelvina and the Quiroga families came to church on Sunday and also 10 less-active members -- four of whom haven't come to church in the last two months. And there were 38 people in the sacrament meeting. Normally we have between 10 and 15.
Today we went to the museum here in Madariaga. It was pretty interesting. The owner showed us around personally and he let us touch everything. Actually, he handed us these who-knows-how-many hundreds of years old bones and fossils saying, "Here, take this." I would guess that people don't pass by very often. We also went to see the giant Christ statue and I got attacked by flying spiders.
I managed to take the picture before the spiders started flying at me.
This evening we are going to finish off our p-day by going to the cemetery. My companion wants to and who knows, it's an oooold cemetery so maybe we'll find something interesting. And then we are going to make tacos with Etelvina and her family for a family home evening.
I finished reading Alma in the Book of Mormon.
And I've run out of time so I have to go now.
Until next week --
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, May 19, 2014
Zone P-day at Beach (and River Wins!)
Well... It's been another week. And, as always, I'm not really sure what to write. Yet again, I don't have my planner with me, but this time it's because we are in Pinamar for a zone p-day.
(Let me just say that I hate this keyboard I'm using... Okay, now that that's out of the way...)
I really feel like people need to learn how to plan ahead. Maybe in school they would receive half credit for trying. :) Yesterday, late at night, we were informed that, for our zone p-day, we would be watching a movie, eating lunch and then going to the beach. (In the mission Buenos Aires Sur, we can watch one Disney movie every transfer -- six weeks -- as a group of missionaries.) Instead, we went to the beach, and then watched the movie. It wouldn't be so bad but the activity took up aaaalllll of our p-day. We don't have any more time to go and buy food and do whatever else we need to. Whatever. Next Monday, we can do what we want/need to do. :)
Yesterday I had to give a talk in church. And I had less than five minutes to prepare it. Both of the speakers that the president had asked to give talks didn't show. So, while the only young man in the branch passed the sacrament, the president was mouthing at me, asking me to give a talk. Yup. That's when you pull out your scriptures, find a really long scripture to read and then talk about it for a bit.
My talk was about prayer and I used two (long) scriptures from the book of Alma. One was about where we can pray (anywhere), and the other was about what we can pray for (anything).
River, one of the futbol clubs here in Argentina won some important match yesterday. Something about being the best team in all of South America. All of the River fans were out partying it up in the center of town. I really wish I had had my camera with me. But I didn't. :( Bummer. Let's just say all of the River fans who had cars drove, very slowly, down main street so we couldn't pass. And when we finally did pass, the next street had all of the rest of the River fans who didn't have cars. There was even a dump truck full of teenagers with more people jumping in whenever the truck stopped.
One of our investigators, Etelvina and Ivañes, fed us dinner the other day. And a few days before that too. The first time, we didn't know that they were going to feed us, so we finished the lesson with only 15 min to get back to our house. We were late. And the worst part is that President Gonzalez, the owner of our house and our neighbor, got kind of worried when we didn't get back on time. So he called the president of the district (a mini stake) asking if he had the numbers to our district leaders... I don't feel bad about being late -- what more could we have done? But I do feel really really bad about making other people worry.
I'm sending pictures again. This first picture is of our wall. The roof leaks when it rains.
When we know that it's going to rain, we move the beds into the middle of the room so that we can sleep dry. Pres. Gonzalez said he was going to fix it soon.
This second picture is of my nice and clean study space. (It's actually not that clean in the picture.) I have become a clean freak.
I finally figured out how to take nice, warm showers. I fill up a bucket half way with the freezing cold water from the kitchen and then the rest of the way with the scaldingly hot water from the shower. And then I use a cup to dump the water on my head and wash out all of the shampoo and conditioner. It works pretty well. I have to say that my hair is cleaner than it has ever been before in Madariaga or Cañuelas because 1) there is sufficient water to rinse my hair and 2) I'm not scared of burning or freezing now.
This last picture is me with my new helmet. Yeah!
Somebody told us that they were listening to the radio the other day. The people on the radio were talking about traffic rules or something like that and they said that the only people who follow traffic rules are the Mormons -- because we have helmets.
As far as news regarding our investigators, it turns out that Ivañes and Etelvina ARE married and so we don't have to worry.
There was a dog following me yesterday. It happens a lot to me. It kept following me even when we passed the interstate and I was really worried it was going to get lost. And so, to try and make it stop following me and keep it from getting lost, I smacked it on the head and pushed it along with my foot telling it to go home. It kept following us anyway, and I felt awful for hitting the dumb thing even if it wasn't very hard. So what does my companion do? She smacks it really hard with her bag. Yeah. It stopped following us then. And I still feel bad for the poor thing.
Aannnnd. That's all I can remember for now. And I'm out of time anyway.
Until next week,
Hermana Crotzer
(Let me just say that I hate this keyboard I'm using... Okay, now that that's out of the way...)
I really feel like people need to learn how to plan ahead. Maybe in school they would receive half credit for trying. :) Yesterday, late at night, we were informed that, for our zone p-day, we would be watching a movie, eating lunch and then going to the beach. (In the mission Buenos Aires Sur, we can watch one Disney movie every transfer -- six weeks -- as a group of missionaries.) Instead, we went to the beach, and then watched the movie. It wouldn't be so bad but the activity took up aaaalllll of our p-day. We don't have any more time to go and buy food and do whatever else we need to. Whatever. Next Monday, we can do what we want/need to do. :)
Yesterday I had to give a talk in church. And I had less than five minutes to prepare it. Both of the speakers that the president had asked to give talks didn't show. So, while the only young man in the branch passed the sacrament, the president was mouthing at me, asking me to give a talk. Yup. That's when you pull out your scriptures, find a really long scripture to read and then talk about it for a bit.
My talk was about prayer and I used two (long) scriptures from the book of Alma. One was about where we can pray (anywhere), and the other was about what we can pray for (anything).
River, one of the futbol clubs here in Argentina won some important match yesterday. Something about being the best team in all of South America. All of the River fans were out partying it up in the center of town. I really wish I had had my camera with me. But I didn't. :( Bummer. Let's just say all of the River fans who had cars drove, very slowly, down main street so we couldn't pass. And when we finally did pass, the next street had all of the rest of the River fans who didn't have cars. There was even a dump truck full of teenagers with more people jumping in whenever the truck stopped.
One of our investigators, Etelvina and Ivañes, fed us dinner the other day. And a few days before that too. The first time, we didn't know that they were going to feed us, so we finished the lesson with only 15 min to get back to our house. We were late. And the worst part is that President Gonzalez, the owner of our house and our neighbor, got kind of worried when we didn't get back on time. So he called the president of the district (a mini stake) asking if he had the numbers to our district leaders... I don't feel bad about being late -- what more could we have done? But I do feel really really bad about making other people worry.
I'm sending pictures again. This first picture is of our wall. The roof leaks when it rains.
When we know that it's going to rain, we move the beds into the middle of the room so that we can sleep dry. Pres. Gonzalez said he was going to fix it soon.
This second picture is of my nice and clean study space. (It's actually not that clean in the picture.) I have become a clean freak.
I finally figured out how to take nice, warm showers. I fill up a bucket half way with the freezing cold water from the kitchen and then the rest of the way with the scaldingly hot water from the shower. And then I use a cup to dump the water on my head and wash out all of the shampoo and conditioner. It works pretty well. I have to say that my hair is cleaner than it has ever been before in Madariaga or Cañuelas because 1) there is sufficient water to rinse my hair and 2) I'm not scared of burning or freezing now.
This last picture is me with my new helmet. Yeah!
Somebody told us that they were listening to the radio the other day. The people on the radio were talking about traffic rules or something like that and they said that the only people who follow traffic rules are the Mormons -- because we have helmets.
As far as news regarding our investigators, it turns out that Ivañes and Etelvina ARE married and so we don't have to worry.
There was a dog following me yesterday. It happens a lot to me. It kept following me even when we passed the interstate and I was really worried it was going to get lost. And so, to try and make it stop following me and keep it from getting lost, I smacked it on the head and pushed it along with my foot telling it to go home. It kept following us anyway, and I felt awful for hitting the dumb thing even if it wasn't very hard. So what does my companion do? She smacks it really hard with her bag. Yeah. It stopped following us then. And I still feel bad for the poor thing.
Aannnnd. That's all I can remember for now. And I'm out of time anyway.
Until next week,
Hermana Crotzer
Monday, May 12, 2014
Q&A
Editor's note: In an effort to learn more about what Thomas does, his family sent him some questions. He sent answers back in a Q&A format. Catherine decided to answer the same questions this week in her report. Enjoy.
Q: What good have you done?
A: Well... I would sure hope that I have been helping the people in Argentina by trying to teach them the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I spend the majority of my day outside in the streets of Madariaga, Argentina looking for people who are ready and prepared to make changes in their lives and live in harmony with the commandments of God. These people can either be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints already or they can be someone who isn't a member of the Church.
Q: What successes have you had?
A: I wouldn't really say that I've had all that many successes. Now, now, let me finish. The thing is that I can only talk to and invite people to change their lives. And if they chose to change their lives, well, that's their own success now, isn't it? But, to answer the point of the question... There are several families that are now active in the Church and a few people who have chosen to be baptized.
Q: What disappointments or setbacks have you experienced?
A: I'm pretty sure every missionary feels a little, or a lot, disappointed when the people we are teaching decide that there are simply too many changes that they have to make in their lives to be members of the Church and keep God's commandments.
There are two really common setbacks that come from being a missionary in Argentina. 1) Nobody is married and 2) almost everybody smokes. And you have to change both in order to be baptized.
There is also a new program for the mission Argentina Buenos Aires South. We are going to start focusing a lot more on the less active members and at the same time baptize and retain the recent converts. The point is that now we are only going to report baptisms and confirmations and less active members who attend church and have an assignment. The assignment part is the problem. We missionaries can't give the assignment. The president of the Elders Quorum or the president of the Relief Society needs to give the assignment. Relief Society: no problem. Elders Quorum: not as easy. It's a little frustrating to me that one of the numbers we have to report has to do with the actions / willingness / enthusiasm / etc of another person who may or may not be willing / enthusiastic / whatever.
Q: What can your friends and family ask for in their prayers to help you?
A: Pray for our investigators!
Etelvina and Ivañes: Ivañes is trying to stop smoking and drinking and the two of them need to get married. Etelvina promised the Lord in her last prayer with us that she would get baptized but there are still a lot of changes she needs to make so that she can BE baptized. And I want her to be baptized with her husband.
The Quiroga Family: Victoria, the mother, needs to stop smoking. She also needs to be married with her husband, a less active member named Juan. The kids are darling and already have a desire to be baptized, so all we have to do is help Victoria quit smoking, get married, and be baptized with her family.
Q: Have you taught anyone any of the missionary discussions lately?
A: Yes. Every day we teach at least one lesson and that lesson always has something to do with the missionary discussions. Monday, for example, we taught Etelvina and Ivañes Lesson Three "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" from the Preach My Gospel manual. From there we went and taught Mamirta, a less active member about the importance of attending church.
Q: Do you do any tracting at all?
A: Yes. And I don't like it very much. It's not that I'm scared of what the people will say, it's just that it's very time consuming and not very efficient. We have to talk to at LEAST 200 people to find ONE person who, at least at first, is willing to talk to us. I get tired of people constantly telling me that they are busy at the moment but that we can come back later. And when we come back, they ignore us. The people in Argentina are also really, really, really good at lying. I can't even tell you how many times somebody has given us an address that doesn't exist.
Q: What have you learned lately from your gospel studies?
A: Well... This morning I read in Alma 13 that if we are sincere when we are baptized that, after we receive the Holy Ghost, we won't want to sin. I think that we will still have temptations but the Holy Ghost will help us resist these temptations.
All the miracles that happen in the world are because we have faith. If we don't have faith, it either wouldn't happen or we would think up some dumb excuse for the miracle.
Q: Did you provide any service this past week?
A: I helped empty the Pinamar baptismal font with a bucket. Two buckets, actually. We made a little line. I filled the bucket, a second hermana passed the filled bucket to a third hermana and this third hermana dumped the bucket out the window and finally, a fourth hermana passed the empty bucket back to me. And we did all of this continually, with the two buckets, so that I was always filling and the hermana at the window was always dumping. It took the four of us an hour to finish. (Two of the hermanas had to empty the font a few weeks before and it took them a little more than five hours. Somebody really needs to fix the pump...)
Q: What kinds of things have you accomplished in the office?
A: Nothing. I don't work in the office. This e-mail filled with questions was originally for my dear brother in Chile, and I just decided to respond to the same questions Mom sent Thomas.
Q: Who is your companion?
A: Hermana Pomader
Q: Where is she from?
A: Guayaquil (I think I spelled that right...) Ecuador
Q: How long has she been in the mission field?
A: A little more than a year. She and I will be leaving the mission field the same day.
Q: If you had ward or stake conference lately, what talks impressed you the most or what did you learn?
A: I heard a story about a bunch of ducks. Every morning the king duck that lived in a big castle went flying and all of the village ducks were envious of him and how he flew. So they asked him to teach them how to fly. He said "of course" and so one morning they all met up in the big castle and the king duck taught all of the village ducks how to fly. He taught them how to ride the currents and how to make formations -- how the lead duck would have to work harder so that all of the other ducks following didn't have to work so hard. He taught them how to glide, how to dive, and how to get up in the air and how to land. Eventually, after having lots of fun, all of the ducks returned to the castle and the king duck told all of the village ducks that now they could fly because they knew how. And when all of the village ducks left the castle to return to their houses, they left the castle walking.
How often do we learn something grand and then forget to live it?
Q: Do you have any investigators or less actives that you are working with?
A: I already told you about all of our investigators. We are working with a few less active members right now but I have a feeling that the number will increase.
Juan: He was the first or second counselor in the branch presidency but he hasn't really been coming to church lately.
Mamirta: Is a dear lady who we have been working with. She had an accident and was in the hospital for a little while. Now she can't come to church because she has to work a bunch to pay off the hospital bills.
The Acosta family: We found the Acosta family the other day so I still don't know a whole lot about them just yet.
I'm not sure if you all are going to be able to see my pictures. I think my drive has a virus. One of the pictures is my clean work space. Thanks to one of my companions, I can't stand it when things are dirty or messy. The other is of a frog that found its way into our house. And the other is what happens when it rains. The roof leaks. We have to move all of our stuff into the middle of the rooms so that it doesn't get wet. The picture is of the study room where we have the desk but our room where we sleep is a whole lot worse. Maybe someday the mission will fix the roof. Or maybe we'll get a new house. I have my hopes. I really don't like our current bathroom.
And that's all I've got for now.
Q: What good have you done?
A: Well... I would sure hope that I have been helping the people in Argentina by trying to teach them the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I spend the majority of my day outside in the streets of Madariaga, Argentina looking for people who are ready and prepared to make changes in their lives and live in harmony with the commandments of God. These people can either be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints already or they can be someone who isn't a member of the Church.
Q: What successes have you had?
A: I wouldn't really say that I've had all that many successes. Now, now, let me finish. The thing is that I can only talk to and invite people to change their lives. And if they chose to change their lives, well, that's their own success now, isn't it? But, to answer the point of the question... There are several families that are now active in the Church and a few people who have chosen to be baptized.
Q: What disappointments or setbacks have you experienced?
A: I'm pretty sure every missionary feels a little, or a lot, disappointed when the people we are teaching decide that there are simply too many changes that they have to make in their lives to be members of the Church and keep God's commandments.
There are two really common setbacks that come from being a missionary in Argentina. 1) Nobody is married and 2) almost everybody smokes. And you have to change both in order to be baptized.
There is also a new program for the mission Argentina Buenos Aires South. We are going to start focusing a lot more on the less active members and at the same time baptize and retain the recent converts. The point is that now we are only going to report baptisms and confirmations and less active members who attend church and have an assignment. The assignment part is the problem. We missionaries can't give the assignment. The president of the Elders Quorum or the president of the Relief Society needs to give the assignment. Relief Society: no problem. Elders Quorum: not as easy. It's a little frustrating to me that one of the numbers we have to report has to do with the actions / willingness / enthusiasm / etc of another person who may or may not be willing / enthusiastic / whatever.
Q: What can your friends and family ask for in their prayers to help you?
A: Pray for our investigators!
Etelvina and Ivañes: Ivañes is trying to stop smoking and drinking and the two of them need to get married. Etelvina promised the Lord in her last prayer with us that she would get baptized but there are still a lot of changes she needs to make so that she can BE baptized. And I want her to be baptized with her husband.
The Quiroga Family: Victoria, the mother, needs to stop smoking. She also needs to be married with her husband, a less active member named Juan. The kids are darling and already have a desire to be baptized, so all we have to do is help Victoria quit smoking, get married, and be baptized with her family.
Q: Have you taught anyone any of the missionary discussions lately?
A: Yes. Every day we teach at least one lesson and that lesson always has something to do with the missionary discussions. Monday, for example, we taught Etelvina and Ivañes Lesson Three "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" from the Preach My Gospel manual. From there we went and taught Mamirta, a less active member about the importance of attending church.
Q: Do you do any tracting at all?
A: Yes. And I don't like it very much. It's not that I'm scared of what the people will say, it's just that it's very time consuming and not very efficient. We have to talk to at LEAST 200 people to find ONE person who, at least at first, is willing to talk to us. I get tired of people constantly telling me that they are busy at the moment but that we can come back later. And when we come back, they ignore us. The people in Argentina are also really, really, really good at lying. I can't even tell you how many times somebody has given us an address that doesn't exist.
Q: What have you learned lately from your gospel studies?
A: Well... This morning I read in Alma 13 that if we are sincere when we are baptized that, after we receive the Holy Ghost, we won't want to sin. I think that we will still have temptations but the Holy Ghost will help us resist these temptations.
All the miracles that happen in the world are because we have faith. If we don't have faith, it either wouldn't happen or we would think up some dumb excuse for the miracle.
Q: Did you provide any service this past week?
A: I helped empty the Pinamar baptismal font with a bucket. Two buckets, actually. We made a little line. I filled the bucket, a second hermana passed the filled bucket to a third hermana and this third hermana dumped the bucket out the window and finally, a fourth hermana passed the empty bucket back to me. And we did all of this continually, with the two buckets, so that I was always filling and the hermana at the window was always dumping. It took the four of us an hour to finish. (Two of the hermanas had to empty the font a few weeks before and it took them a little more than five hours. Somebody really needs to fix the pump...)
Q: What kinds of things have you accomplished in the office?
A: Nothing. I don't work in the office. This e-mail filled with questions was originally for my dear brother in Chile, and I just decided to respond to the same questions Mom sent Thomas.
Q: Who is your companion?
A: Hermana Pomader
Q: Where is she from?
A: Guayaquil (I think I spelled that right...) Ecuador
Q: How long has she been in the mission field?
A: A little more than a year. She and I will be leaving the mission field the same day.
Q: If you had ward or stake conference lately, what talks impressed you the most or what did you learn?
A: I heard a story about a bunch of ducks. Every morning the king duck that lived in a big castle went flying and all of the village ducks were envious of him and how he flew. So they asked him to teach them how to fly. He said "of course" and so one morning they all met up in the big castle and the king duck taught all of the village ducks how to fly. He taught them how to ride the currents and how to make formations -- how the lead duck would have to work harder so that all of the other ducks following didn't have to work so hard. He taught them how to glide, how to dive, and how to get up in the air and how to land. Eventually, after having lots of fun, all of the ducks returned to the castle and the king duck told all of the village ducks that now they could fly because they knew how. And when all of the village ducks left the castle to return to their houses, they left the castle walking.
How often do we learn something grand and then forget to live it?
Q: Do you have any investigators or less actives that you are working with?
A: I already told you about all of our investigators. We are working with a few less active members right now but I have a feeling that the number will increase.
Juan: He was the first or second counselor in the branch presidency but he hasn't really been coming to church lately.
Mamirta: Is a dear lady who we have been working with. She had an accident and was in the hospital for a little while. Now she can't come to church because she has to work a bunch to pay off the hospital bills.
The Acosta family: We found the Acosta family the other day so I still don't know a whole lot about them just yet.
I'm not sure if you all are going to be able to see my pictures. I think my drive has a virus. One of the pictures is my clean work space. Thanks to one of my companions, I can't stand it when things are dirty or messy. The other is of a frog that found its way into our house. And the other is what happens when it rains. The roof leaks. We have to move all of our stuff into the middle of the rooms so that it doesn't get wet. The picture is of the study room where we have the desk but our room where we sleep is a whole lot worse. Maybe someday the mission will fix the roof. Or maybe we'll get a new house. I have my hopes. I really don't like our current bathroom.
And that's all I've got for now.
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer
Editor's note: The pictures Catherine attached were definitely messed up. We'll try to get new copies from her next week.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Happy Mother's Day!
Editor's note: Missionaries are allowed to call or skype their families twice each year, once on Mother's Day and once on Christmas Day. Both Thomas and Catherine skyped home and we enjoyed a 45-minute session with each of them.
Here are a few interesting tidbits from the conversations:
For Catherine's mission, the infamous bicycle has broken once again, and so when Catherine sent her weekly e-mail update to her mission president recently, she notified him of this. And asked for a horse instead. Her mission president wrote back that he enjoys reading her weekly updates and that she is very funny. (I think that means "no horse.")
Catherine thinks she has lost about 30kg (or about 60lbs). We thought it must be because of all the bicycling and walking that she does, but she says it is more because they only eat one meal a day. They are on a very very tight budget, apparently.
She does her laundry at a laundromat, but because it is expensive and they must stretch their limited funds, they only do laundry once a month. Which means wearing their clothes (she has outfits to last about two weeks) twice as long as normal, or doing some handwashing in between. There are no dryers, and she says nothing dries completely. (It has been raining a lot and humidity must be high.) The weather is changing to the fall season and they are essentially on the coast, so temperatures have been cooler.
As far as her apartment, she says their "pension" has hot water, but there is only one temperature available: scalding hot. Or in other words, waaay too hot to tolerate for showering. So they take cold showers.
Catherine is coming up on her one-year mark (in early June). At that point, she will only have six months left on her mission. When asked about upcoming transfers, she feels she will be staying put. She says it cost a lot to get them to their current area and it isn't cost effective to be transferring them around too often. She believes she might be asked to train a new missionary at some point.
And finally, she indicates that the thing she misses most on her mission is frito pie.
The news from Thomas is that he has gained at least some of the weight that Catherine has lost. He has managed to accomplish this feat on only one meal a day (usually). A "mamacita" cooks a large early afternoon meal for some of the missionaries there. Thomas says it is huge but expected to last them all day.
Although he could, he says he does not eat breakfast often. Chilean missionaries "rise and shine" at 7am (instead of 6:30am). He spends time in the morning exercising, in individual scripture study, in companion scripture study and planning for the day, and then heads to the office. After completing office duties, they head out into the "sector" to do missionary work. They get home to their apartment at 9:30pm or 10pm at night. Sometimes he makes "alfredo", which he said was boiled noodles with alfredo powder sprinkled on them, and then parmesan cheese sprinkled on that.
Church members do the missionaries' laundry for them, usually once a week but sometimes every other week.
The weather there has not been rainy lately, but they are heading into the rainy season (it is turning fall there also) and that means it may rain for days at a time.
Thomas' mission president (the Firestone executive) is going home soon. He and his wife have only a few weeks remaining of their three-year assignment as the Osorno mission president in Chile. At that point, the new mission president who is from Mexico will arrive to take over. Because of this change in mission leadership, Thomas feels he will remain assigned to the mission office for one or two more transfers (six-week periods). Until the new mission president learns the ropes, it will be up to the young missionaries to ensure the mission runs smoothly. After that, Thomas thinks he will be assigned to a new area, because he is approaching the limit of a normal assignment to any one place.
The thing Thomas misses most on his mission is his violin. The only violin available in his current area is someone's from church, but it is a three-quarter size violin and therefore smaller than what Thomas is accustomed to playing. He has not played since the conference at which he was asked to perform a musical number with two other missionaries several months ago.
Here are a few interesting tidbits from the conversations:
For Catherine's mission, the infamous bicycle has broken once again, and so when Catherine sent her weekly e-mail update to her mission president recently, she notified him of this. And asked for a horse instead. Her mission president wrote back that he enjoys reading her weekly updates and that she is very funny. (I think that means "no horse.")
Catherine thinks she has lost about 30kg (or about 60lbs). We thought it must be because of all the bicycling and walking that she does, but she says it is more because they only eat one meal a day. They are on a very very tight budget, apparently.
As far as her apartment, she says their "pension" has hot water, but there is only one temperature available: scalding hot. Or in other words, waaay too hot to tolerate for showering. So they take cold showers.
Catherine is coming up on her one-year mark (in early June). At that point, she will only have six months left on her mission. When asked about upcoming transfers, she feels she will be staying put. She says it cost a lot to get them to their current area and it isn't cost effective to be transferring them around too often. She believes she might be asked to train a new missionary at some point.
And finally, she indicates that the thing she misses most on her mission is frito pie.
The news from Thomas is that he has gained at least some of the weight that Catherine has lost. He has managed to accomplish this feat on only one meal a day (usually). A "mamacita" cooks a large early afternoon meal for some of the missionaries there. Thomas says it is huge but expected to last them all day.
Although he could, he says he does not eat breakfast often. Chilean missionaries "rise and shine" at 7am (instead of 6:30am). He spends time in the morning exercising, in individual scripture study, in companion scripture study and planning for the day, and then heads to the office. After completing office duties, they head out into the "sector" to do missionary work. They get home to their apartment at 9:30pm or 10pm at night. Sometimes he makes "alfredo", which he said was boiled noodles with alfredo powder sprinkled on them, and then parmesan cheese sprinkled on that.
Church members do the missionaries' laundry for them, usually once a week but sometimes every other week.
The weather there has not been rainy lately, but they are heading into the rainy season (it is turning fall there also) and that means it may rain for days at a time.
Thomas' mission president (the Firestone executive) is going home soon. He and his wife have only a few weeks remaining of their three-year assignment as the Osorno mission president in Chile. At that point, the new mission president who is from Mexico will arrive to take over. Because of this change in mission leadership, Thomas feels he will remain assigned to the mission office for one or two more transfers (six-week periods). Until the new mission president learns the ropes, it will be up to the young missionaries to ensure the mission runs smoothly. After that, Thomas thinks he will be assigned to a new area, because he is approaching the limit of a normal assignment to any one place.
The thing Thomas misses most on his mission is his violin. The only violin available in his current area is someone's from church, but it is a three-quarter size violin and therefore smaller than what Thomas is accustomed to playing. He has not played since the conference at which he was asked to perform a musical number with two other missionaries several months ago.
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