Adventures in Argentina: The Whirlwind We Call...Week 5

Hola everybody!! Buckle your seatbelts because off....we....go!!!!!!

Travel papers have arrived!

Saturday Evening: So after I was done emailing everybody we had dinner. If I've said it once I've said it a million times. Main campus food is ridiculously delicious compared to ours. Loved it!! Then we were able to watch Woman's Conf while the Elders watched Priesthood. Wow! So power packed. Perfect end to an incredibly uplifting day! Dieter F. Uchtdorf made my eyes leak again. Dang things. :P Funny thing. I learned that Hermana Myers gets all sorts of crazy and silly when she is tired. Like Mama Steph kinda crazy after 10 PM! Made me laugh.

Sunday: Suffice it to say that General Conference at the MTC is like Christmas that came two months early. We didn't have to be anywhere until 9. So we had breakfast later...like 7:20 and then went back to our residence hall and read scriptures and catnapped before we were bussed up to main campus. The first session was so incredible. Especially all the talks about prophets. After the third one in a row we were positive President Monson was going to announce something crazy like we all needed to make a mass exodus to China...ok not really that, but something amazing I guess. Instead he talked about truly following and being a better disciple of our Savior. As I have thought about it more what he taught us was profound. In order to bring this work forth and to progress along the strait and narrow path we need to laern of him and become more like him. Anyways at lunch I saw a cute and familiar face. Caree Campbell. I couldn't remember her last name so I just called out "CAREE" We hugged and she cried as per usual. it was so good to see her! She looked beautiful and happy! Hurray for roommates turned missionaries of the sister variety. So the best or almost the best part was our devotional that night. Nothing beats conference of course but having a fireside from Vai Sikahema came pretty darn close. For those of you who don't know who he is....LOOK HIM UP!! Currently he is the sports director at NBC in Philadelphia and was on the BYU team when they were National Champs and had a long NFL career. The best part is he uses all of it to proselyte or share the gospel. During his devotional he made us close our journals and just listen and record our feelings later. A devotional has never been over faster with me wanting more! It was so cool! The three things I took from his devotional were

1. Do NOT be afraid to open your mouth and share!! Even and especially if you are not a missionary!!

2. Learn the simple principles of our gospel better such as the Articles of Faith. These are our foundations we must build upon.

3. As a missionary or as a person sharing the gospel . Not all successful stories will end in baptism, but they will be a success if you feel that you have done your part and your duty.

Monday:

Study time

Two weeks left mark!! Say what?!?! The day went pretty m uch the same as always. During personal study in the morning though I felt like I got so much out of it. The scriptures have come alive for me as a missionary. its incredible some of the insights I have gained. Hna. Ashby taughts us this day and gave us a different perspective of 1 Nephi 11 and how the spirit taught Nephi. Great stuff! The highlight of this day was our visit with maria. She is our new progressing investigator. It started before we even entered the room. The lady coordinating it all told us if after we were concerned and had questions to come talk to her. That never happens. Freaked us out a bit because Hna. Myers had taught a "Maria" with really hard questions too and we weren't sure if it was the same one. so with all this in mind we say a prayer and enter the room. It was rough. Her first 3 questions were about polygamy, the word of wisdom, and keeping the sabbath day holy. Yikes!! Tough answers in English let alone in my broken Spanish. but we made it through alive....barely. So of course we went and talked with the lady who had warned us. She confirmed to us that Maria is in fact a non-member who is investigating the church but has received a lot of anti-mormon material. So she left us with some incredible advice, "Just find out how to love her." I am sure this won't be the last time I'll have tough investigators, in fact I'm positive its the first of many but what perfect advice! Aah! I love the Lord and the tender mercies he sends our ways! Then after our lesson and chat with the inspired lady we had class with Hno. Cuadra. He chastised and urged us to fulfill our true potential here at the MTC in the last 2 weeks. It hit home and so following his remarks Hna. Farrow and I had a detailed comp. inventory and set some personal and companionship goals. It left me buoyed up! Great day!

Tuesday: So this was a momentous day because it started with us actually walking out of our residence hall door at 7AM sharp. Ok. Ok. It might ahve been 7:02 but close enough. Super proud companion moment for me. It only took us until week 5 here at the MTC to actually do it! Class with Hno. Cuadra was amazing as usual but this day he shared with us scriptures that have helped him with the question, "Why bad things happen to good people?" I'll list them at the end of the letter. He ended with the scriptures from D&C during Liberty Jail era and said that this was the one that has kept him afloat most..."the Son descended below all things, art thou grater than He?" The Savior experienced it all so we would not have to ever experience things alone. Amazing and incomprehensible to me! He then played the song "My Kindness Shall not Depart From Thee" It was incredible!! Shout out to Madi-LOOK IT UP! You should sing it in your choir! Really all of you should look it up. it takes that same section of the D&C and puts it to music. Powerful stuff. So one of our comp. goals is to read the D&C in Spanish every day. We read Section 4 and many of you know it really well. My favorite part about it in spanish though is that unlike english where it says, "Serve him with all your heart, MIGHT, mind and strength. In spanish it reads, "Serve him with all your heart, SOUL, mind and strength. I love this!! I will be serving him with my whole soul if I'm doing it right. My whole being. It is amazing to me!! Devotional was awesome!! It was Elder Nielson of the 70 he talked on things he wished he would have known before the mission. So awesome. Funny story of the day. On the bus ride back to West Campus after the devotional there were rubber band falling from the sky. Or so it seemed. They were everywhere. So we get off the bus and find out Elder Smith had bought a pack of 150 of them at the bookstore. Ridiculous!! Great moments though when we realized Hna. Parlogean is deathly afraid of them and yet she is the one that had like 4 hit here bun and fall down the back of her blouse. The ridiculous things that happen here!!

Joseph Smith, Jr.

Wednesday: BEST DAY EBERRRT!! Seriously though it was the best day in the MTC for me by far. There was no real specific reason why though. We had 3 lessons this day which was pretty crazy. Our first in the morning with Eric we focused on the Gospel of Christ and were able to challenge him to be baptized and he accepted. Hurray! Then en la tarde we taught Benjamin. Now preface real quick. After every lesson previous to this I get done and feel like DIRT!! Seriously. Teaching him is rough for me. This day we went after preparing really hard for two days and striving to be obedient and keep our goals we had set. The difference was stark and amazing. He finally opened up to us after a lot of loving prying. His esposa y sus hijas died in a car accident and he doesn't feel like a loving or merciful God would do that. Hna. Farrow was able to share a very personal experience that was completely prompted by the spirth that seemed to reach him. We also tried to connect the Restoration to this and eternal families because everything ties back to the Restoration. As we were teaching about Joseph Smith, Hna. Farrow turned to me and asked if I would recite the first vision. I've had the first vision memorized for about 2 1/2 weeks and have used it during lessons before, but its not always if ever very smooth. During this lesson it just flowed right out of my mouth. No hesitation. No pauses. Powerfully. It was incredible to have such a firm witness of the spirits presence. It was amazing!! then that night we taught Maria again. Our "tough" real investigator. We shared our stories and showed her pictures and asked about her life. We then showed her "Gracias A El" our new lesson trademark we are currently in the process of having patented. :) She seemed much more open and receptive and I believe we helped her to realize we are real people. She knows I'm a nurse and Hna. Farrow gave up a serious boyfriend to serve. She sees this wa
sn't an easy decision for either of us but it was worth it. After that I received a BIG package in the mail with awesome notes on outside written by my family. They made me SOOO happy!! Overall this was just a perfect day!! It was beautiful outside, and the perfect climate but it was also filled with the spirit that comes from obedience and striving to be better! Muy increíble!

Thursday: Another day in the neighborhood called West Campus. My entire journal entry about his day is in regards to Maria. She means a lot to me! We were a bit stuck after our last lesson with where to go in our teaching. We still didn't feel like we knew what she wanted from us and how we could truly hlepp her. So Heavenly Father blessed us with Hna. Ashby for class that day. The Lord set the stage. She asked about my nursing and needed advice for her life and we just got talking and learned so much about her. It was amazing. We didn't share a gospel message but left feeling so full of the spirit and happy she had opened up and we had found how to love her. Such a testament and witness that the Lord knows his servants and knows where they are needed. My being an nurse opened a VERY closed door into her life. So awesome!!

Hooray!

They're all heading to Argentina!

Elder checking the mail for travel plans

Friday: Oh my goodness!! Today was the day! The day of all days!! Flight plans baby!! But first...we taught Eric this day about Castidad aka Chastity. I was really worried about this lesson and not just because it is a little awkward to teach it to your 22 year old teacher. For a lot of different reasons but as we ended the lessons and I bore my testimony of the atonement and how it can always make you clean again. I had a very strong personal witness that it was true and that it had worked for me. Heavenly Father is good and his plan is perfecto!!! Then we had class with Hna. Ashby again b/c Hno. Cuadra is out of town for a funeral. Fun fact. his wife is a softball coach at MV with Teresa Barney. her name is Brindy. Small world right?!? Anywho...Hna. Ashby was our teacher and helped us again with organizing our thoughts about Maria. She also taught us about the importance of the Spirit in your lesson and said something profound I had never thought of before. She said that as you teach, each companion should have equal time talking but that we also should always have a THIRD companion in our lessons. It is the spirit and he needs just as much of our equal time. During this time we suddenly heard shouts and pounding footsteps up the stairs to our classroom Hna. Myers came bursting in mid Hna. Ashby's spiritual thought. She realized what was up and quickly left but she was holding some awesome green flight plan paper in her hand. We were freaking out!! Hna. Ashby was understanding and finished up and we went running down to find our our future! Drum roll please....... I'm going to Posadas, Argentina!! I leave Oct 20th at 6AM from the MTC. Our flight doesn't leave until 11 AM, then a 5 hour layover in Atlanta and then we arrive in Buenos Aires at 8:20AM on Tuesday. The best part is our entire district is on the same flight!! So I don't have to say goodbye to all my friends until Buenos Aires!! The excitement was unreal and I feel so blessed to have received them. I cannot believe I only have 9 days left in the MTC. The time has flown by!! It is insane! So we had our last lesson with Maria this night and we focused on prayer and that she was a daughter of God. It went well! I'm going to miss teaching her but I was so grateful for the opportunity we had to have her. It was amazing and so real!!

"Miniature column"

Fun fact of today. We completed our MTC bucket list by jumping over a miniature column par core status. SO FUN. I felt amazing. Overall the week was incredible. My testimony grew, my love for my Savior increased, and my desire to serve and love others is greater!! I'd call that a success.

Another fun fact. If you want to read some super sweet undercover agent/FBI status scriptures. Read Helaman 2. It is awesome!!!

Love you all so very much and thank you for your support and love for me. Now go out and share your love for God by sharing his message in whatever what you can!!

Te Amo,

Hermana Albach

Scriptures I Said I'd Put Here: