Holaaaa

I have come to find out that each day here in La Plata, Argentina is literally an adventure. Let me tell you about this week´s adventure.. 

Tuesday- We sent a baptism date with one of our investigators!! It is crazy, I know that we are put in the exact places at the right time becuase this whole week I have been able to share personal experiences about my life or my family´s that I haven´t shared in years or have never shared out loud! Her name is Rumilda and she has the cutest family! Ah I´m a sucker for the little kids. But we just hope that she is already married so she can skip that step and go straight to baptism. That has been our theme for this transfer, getting people to the altar! 

Wednesday- INTERCAMBIOS (exchanges) with the very beautiful Hermana Browning from Utah. aka Yankee-ness round too! I got to go to their area again and probably had too much fun with her in City Bell. 

And on Wednesday I huge miracle happened for me. So before I left I thought I had packed a huge bottle of my favorite lotion (the same lotion I have been using my whole life). Anyway but when I got here I found out that I had brought fash wash instead of the lotion. But when I was in my exchange, in the lunch with a member, I saw the brand of lotion that I loved and had forgotten at home. The sister who we were eating with saw the look on my face and when I told her how much I loved this kind of lotion gave me a whole box full of samples, without hesitation, enough to last me my whole mission! Turns out that her husband works for the same company of the lotion and they get them for free all the time. I know this may sound vain and like a lame miracle, but for me it is huge and just a HUGE testimony builder and eye opener that God cares and understands that smallest of details in our lives and if living right, will answer and provide for the tiniest of things that you may need. Prayers work people! God is so good! 

Friday- Was a blast! We had our Father´s Day activity went so well! So many members, less actives, and investigators showed up! It´s true in any country, if you want people to show up just say free food and games! My game of real life fusball was a hit and all the dads loved it! 

Monday- My favorite and cutest Mexicana made me tacos today! And I baked a cake but there´s no skill in that! Sorry United States but these tacos were WAY better than any of the tacos there. 

My sister training leader, Hermana Small gave me this quote which I love! 

"Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees." -Thomas S. Monson 

This next week is going to be crazy because it is finally crunch time!! By this weekend I will find out my fate, if I´m in the new east mission, or going back to the south. How sad but exciting of a time this is. So stay tuned for next week. So nervous! 

Shoutout to my dad for Father´s Day. I love you dad! 

Have a great week and enjoy for the sunshine and summer for me while I FREEZE in Antarctica! 

Love the Arizona girl who is so not used to the cold,

Hermana Cannon (Colchone) 

Holaaaa from the freezing Argentina! 

This week has seriously flown by and it´s the weirdest thing to be this cold in the middle of June (Summer!!). Just to get a picture of how cold we are here .. me and my comp study in all our winter clothes, jackets, and all, and even our gloves! To sleep, I literally sleep in every piece of clothing that I have, from fuzzy socks to a hoodie over my head. Anything to keep buddled up. 

Besides the freezing cold this week has been a week of miracles and progress for our investigators!! Last Monday was the anniversary of our investigators, Carlos and Angelica, who have a date set for both their marriage and baptism!! They have never had brownies before so I told them I´d bake some and they were so good! I put dulce de leche on top (which everything is better with dulce de leche) and oreos on top. They were de diez!! But most importantly, Carlos and Angelica loved it! 

Wednesday, I had my first intercambio (exchange) again! I was with the Hermana Small from Pennsylvania! It was so great to see new things and meet new people. But I have come to find out that it is bad when two Yankees get together because we end up bringing out the Yankee-ness in each other. Like talking about all things American lol. 

Then the greatest thing ever happened on Saturday! Our other investigator, Erica, in our lesson with her told us that she knew that The Book of Mormon was true. We just barely sat down to start the lesson when she couldn´t help but jumping up and opening up her Book of Mormon to show us what she had read and learned. And when we talk about her baptism, there is no hesitation and it is a serious yes. This is so night and day difference because the very first lesson with her she was very timid and told us many times that she just wasn´t interested. But the Gospel and the Holy Ghost works in wonderous ways! It has been the greatest thing to watch her life, everything change for the better. These are the moments I live for in the mission. 

We are so pumped for Father´s Day because the ward and us are planning a huge activity. We are in charge of the games and I am stealing a game I played in singles ward once, human real life fusball! It is actually like how it sounds. Theres long poles that everyone holds one to. But no one can move forward or backward, only side to side. Just like the table game of fusball. I´ll be sure to take tons of pictures!! 

For a boost of spirituall coolness I found a super awesome quote by the super awesome President Monson that has pretty much summed up my life the past 4 months. It says...

"Our Heavenly Father, who gives us to much to delight in, also knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we MUST pass... Such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were- better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before." 

Trials are a blessing! Life is way to short to be miserable. A motto that I have for my mission this time around is to be happy everyday! To find something that makes me happy, every single day. In the midst of trials or not. Smile because God is in control! 

Have a happy week! Love you! 

Hermana Colchone

Hola!!

   I can´t believe I´m almost at my one month mark, again! This transfer is flying by but it also feels like I never left and that I´ve been in this area forever! I first just wanted to say happy birthday to my little trev trev. I can´t believe that you´ll be 7 this week!! Words cannot express how much I want one of your little hugs right now. I love you! oh and Ellie too hahahaa. 

This week has been crazy! And lots of things unexpected and out of the ordinary. And dont worry I have plenty of funny stories (well I think they´re funny). 

1. Baja La Caña 

The first has to do with a family of the ward that we eat lunch with every Wednesday. As missionaries of Romero we were planning a Jeporady activity for the ward game night. And the question of how many continents got brought up. Well in the ward theres me and Elder DeYoung who are from the States, and my companion from Mexico and the companion of DeYoung is from Chile. Me and Elder DeYoung said that there are 7 continents (obviously) BUT the other two, Hermana Ramierz, and Elder Torres both thought that there are only 5 and that South America and North America is just one continent, one big America. So I was curious to see if this was just a latin thing and if they taught the same thing here in Argentina. So I asked this one member who was a returned missionary and long story short he made it into an hour long lecture, which they call it "baja la caña" here. He went on to explain to me why theres only 5 and then went off way into World War 2 and crazy politics stuff. And even longer story made short, I will NEVER bring up continents here again and if someone asks me how many there are I simply will say "I don´t know". 

2. Crazy Domingo 

Yesterday, Sunday we had stake conference at the stake building in La Plata. We were all set and ready to go, a family was going to drive us in their van BUT they called us and told us that their van had just broken down. So we ran to catch the bus and waited forever because buses don´t run too much on Sundays. Anyway so after 30 minutes of waiting we finally got on a bus, and not 10 minutes later our bus broke down!! So we were just going to be 5 minutes late but we ended up arriving almost an hour late!! We snuck into the back and then President Thurgood in his talk, asked for all the missionaries to stand up. It was super embarrassing because we were way in the back away from all the other missionaries! And then after the conference a family in the ward invited us to eat lunch with them. We couldn´t say no to free food so we got in their car and we ended up at a restuarant! More specifically a buffet! It was too late to leave now and it would´ve offended them so there was nothing else to do but stay. So yesterday we messed the sacrament and ate out. Such sinners but what can you do, the life of a missionary. 

For spiritualness.. We are still working hard with the few investigators we do have! We have a couple that has finally agreed, after 6 months of listening to the missionaries, have set a date in August to get married so that they can both be baptized! 

And we have just started teaching this one young girl, Erica. She has a baby and lives with her boyfriend. And the past 3 times we´ve taught her she has told us that it just isn´t clicking for her yet. She loves what our church is about but she doesn´t see the need for it in her life. So this past lesson, after we were done I asked her to say the closing prayer. So we all knelt and she said the sweetest and the most heartfelt prayer. By the time she had finished praying we were all crying. And slowly but surely we are seeing huge changes in Erica. The power of prayer is so awesome! 

The Church is true, the mission is the best, and not gonna lie, this is wayyyy better than being at home. #sorrynotsorry 

love you all! have a great week! 

Hermana Colchone