Argentina #8

Hi Everybody! How are you? I am great! So this week I had my first Zone Conference, although it was really with two Zones because President Peterson doesn´t want to come all the way to the end of the earth! Haha so we spent Monday night traveling as a district to Caleta Olivia. We picked up the mail right before we got on the bus, and guess what?! There were a whole bunch of letters and everyone was really excited. Only guess what- they were all for me! haha I felt bad, but I was happy to have an hour long bus ride to read them all! I recieved 2 Dear Elders from Mom and 2 from Dad, and I also recieved dearElders from Lexi, Breanna and Caitlin!!!! I was about the happiest person ever! I also recieved Christmas Cards from the Hatfields and the Jerry Sandorf Family. AND letters from Eliza, Mindy and Paula. Pretty much I was so full of joy to hear from so many people who are so important to me!!!!! I am starting to write letters back, but it´s gonna take some time. Sorry. But last week I mailed a letter to Lexi so hopefully she gets it! Thank you thank you thank you for the letters! Love you all!


Anyway, Zone Conference was great! I learned a lot! we got home late Tuesday night. So we didn´t accomplish as much this week because we had less days in the week, but some really great things happened. We found an awesome family. We recieved a lot of referrals. We are working really really hard to find people to teach who will actually progress. We aren´t giving up on anyone, but there are some people we feel we need to stop devoting so much time to. It´s sad, but that is what we need to do.

I bet you are wondering about the Familia Funes (or, as Hna Arcos calls them, the Fetching Funes Family¨. The Latino missionaries all use fetch and oh my gosh and crap because they learned them from their companions. It´s the greatest thing!). They read the book of mormon and pray as a family daily. They come to church. Sometimes I forget their not members.But they won´t get married until his mom can be there, and she is undergoing chemotherapy for two more months in Buenos Aires. ugh. we try and try to teach them about faith and keeping commandments even when it´s difficult, and everything else we can think of. but they are so stubborn¨. I have no doubt that they will get baptized someday, but probably when I´m like 50 years old. Sheesh. Anyway, that´s me venting and now I feel better. haha

Dad, now I understand about 70% of what I hear. I understand alot, but I still can´t speak too great. Usually the people understand what I am trying to say, but I am so slow at speaking! I want to speak with perfect grammar and everything, and I am pretty impatient with myself, it´s really bad, I know!

Oh! Yesterday I gave a 12 minute talk in Sacrament Meeting about how the members can get more involved in missionary work. I had one hour to prepare. I was freaking out! Talks stress me out in English, let alone Castellano! But I survived, and everyone came up and complimented me after. Hopefully, they weren´t lying to be nice.

So I learned how to make wonderful empanadas yesterday. You should be excited to try them next year! haha They are baked in the oven instead of fried, so they´re much better!

I am pretty sure that my English is getting really bad. I´m sorry if my grammar is horrible. I was talking to and Elder in English last week, and there were words I couldn´t remember how to say. This is good news!!!! I really hope that all of my companions are Latina so that I can have really great castellano. It really makes a huge difference if your companions are native speakers.

I think that that is about all I have to say.

I love you all and I hope your week is wonderful!

Love,

Bretleigh