Vamos Argentina

 HOLA FAM, (Double Post today)

I hope that everyone is doing super well and that you were all able to watch general conference. If you were not able to, repent, and then go to lds.org and you can watch all the talks that you missed. But seriously, you will find answers to your prayers, I am sure of it.

Shout out to two of my favorite people ever who just go their mission calls: my dear friend Hailey Dobbs is going to Tokyo, Japan and my cousin Jacob Ross is heading to New York, New York Spanish speaking. With this news and the wonderful  General Conference, I am just feeling too good. I know that missionary work is so important and inspired and that pure happiness comes as a result of seeing the light of Christ change lives. 

So this week we had our first round of splits and I was able to see my old comp Hermana de Wet!! We had a great laugh about many experiences shared in Arroyito and reflected on how time just flies by. This week we were able to set baptismal dates for a few more investigators...one of which is the daughter of a recent convert. Her name is Susana and she came to a session of general conference with her dad! She is about 40 years old and has cute little kiddos but we are super excited for her. We also set a date with Berna, an older Catholic woman who has been listening to the discussions for some time now. Recently she has been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy, and even though her husband has decided for the time being that he will not get baptized, Berna cannot deny the Spirit and knows that what she must do is be baptized. It rained yesterday for the conference and sadly not too many people showed up, but one of the few was a recent convert as of a month or so who biked in the rain for about an hour to be able to watch the conference! If that's not dedication, I don't know what is! Nora is doing well but she was not able to make it to conference. 

But we are just super happy to be here and to have had an amazing weekend! General conference is like Christmas on the mission, even better than Christmas in the mission we decided haha. I would be writing here for years if I told you all everything that I loved from the conference, but for now I'll touch on a few key things. First of all, the PURE LOVE of Christ is so important. Without it, we are nothing. We cannot change hearts. We cannot change lives, or the nature of someone. With it, we can dismiss all fear, we can feel that God will truly be inclined to lead us, to guide us, and to walk beside us as we are filled with more of this love. Also, we cannot allow ourselves to be persuaded by Satan's tactic of having us dwell upon or exaggerate the wickedness of this world. We live in a pretty remarkable world, one created by an all perfect and all knowing being. Yes, in the world we will have affliction, we will pass through trials that we don't understand, or be saddened by the choices of others. Yet,  Christ has overcome the world and through His divine help, we can too! I love this world, and it is truly a blessing to be able to take part in God's perfect plan, living in this world to learn and grow and to prepare to make changes and sacrifices that help us in our goal to make it back to God. I like the quote shared, "Come as you are, but don't plan to stay as you are." God accepts us all, as we are. When we ask him what we need to attain eternal life, or to have more happiness, He will surely give us the answer. And sometimes it may be hard what he asks of us, but He does it out of love. And we must listen to and act on the first impressions he gives us through the spirit. Also the message about missionary work and the importance of listening to what the missionaries have to share was also a great talk ;) 

Frozen milk in a bag and other electrical issues

We are doing great. We had a tramautic experience this week when our milk froze to the fridge (the milk here comes in bags so that may make more sense). Well we weren't going to give us because when you have oreos and brownies, milk is not optional. So we poured some warm water on the bag until it finally was able to come out, and in the process the brownies burned. The oven turns off every few minutes and we thought we'd give it a try on the stove but lesson learned, it does not quite work the same. Our lights were playing games the other day and we didn't have power, so we bugged our poor neighbor and the answer was a simple flip of the switch, and our hot water didn't work for a few days but we also solved that problem. I think that as of now we are problemless but time will tell. 

Its a great time to be a missionary! Have a great week and apply what you learned in conference and strive to be better today than you were yesterday. Love you all.

                                                                                   Hermana Mathis 

Lunch at the gas station when your plan doesn't work out

Reunions with lots of dear people during General Conference 

Lunch at the gas station when your plan doesn't work out

Reunited with Hermana DeWet and other missionaries

This is Haylie's post from March 28, 2017:

Rosario can be quite lovely

Hello dearest family and friends! Hope you all are doing wonderful and that you are as excited for general conference as I am! Give lds.org a look if you are unaware of what I am talking about. And to add to the greatness of the conferences I get to see everyone from both Parque Field and Arroyito again because I am in the same stake, so that's another wonderful thing about conference weekend! Life is good.

Hermana Schmutz

I am doing great here in Baigorria. Hermana Schmutz is my companion from SLC, Utah and she is amazing! She has just 2 transfers left in her mission and then she'll be back in the mother land. One week into the transfer and we are already having a grand ol time. She is hilarious, has a lot of the same likes that I do and overall we get along really well. 

Baigorria is calm and beautiful. The people are generally very kind and they listen to what we have to say. We are witnessing miracles daily. The ward is working on becoming more unified and finding the "ganas" to work hard! There is always room for improvement! We picked up a handful of new investigators this week and we are excited to see them progress. One of the investigators that we visited various times this week is named Nora. Nora is an investigator as of a few months. She has had a hard past and is finding solace and peace in the gospel and the Book of Mormon. She is in the process of quitting smoking and is progressing very well. The date planned for her baptism is April 15th! This week she has really opened up to us and trusted in us to be 100% real. She even invited us to eat lunch with her Saturday so things are going very well with Nora! And this week her daughter Cintia has started to show interest and began to read the Book of Mormon. 

This week we also had a training for the leaders of the mission and were able to benefit from hearing our mission president. He spoke of the gifts of the Spirit and the importance of having the Holy Ghost with us. There are many people who talk to us who say that we just dont have fun, or we have too many resitrictions, who ask why we cant go to dances, or watch tv, but with all of these distractions it would be very hard to always have the spirit with us. The Spirit is what testifies of the truth to each and every person. Once we receive the Holy Ghost after baptism we have the constant companionship of the one who knows the path to eternal life, the one who can bring us to our celestial home. The Holy Ghost will always lead us in the correct direction and will give us spiritual gifts specialized to us that will help us grow and progress. 

As I was reading 4th Nephi today, I was really touched by the first half and how the Nephites and Lamanites were converted and the blessings that came into their life as a result of righteous living. They were all equal, there was no pride, there was peace in the land, they kept the commandments, fasted, prayed, gathered often, the love of God dwelled in their hearts, and "surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God." God has given us the way to be truly happy. I know that lasting happiness is a result of righteous living and keeping the commandments of God. 

Have a great week! Watch General Conference! Keep the commandments, CTR. 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Mathis