Monday, May 23, 2016

Important Lessons Learned

May 23, 2016

Hola Fam Bam!! Como están?! 

Autumn in beautiful Olavarria
It's getting cold on the other side of the equator!

Well this week, I learned a couple valuable lessons, 

1. If you have never made homemade peanut butter before, you shouldn't attempt to do it unless you have someone who knows what they’re doing there to help you.  

So last week an Elder in my zone gave me a bunch of his recipes so that Hermana Cardenas and I could continue mastering our master chef skills.  I was super excited when I saw he had a recipe for homemade peanut butter because it’s super expensive here.  We had recently received permission to buy a blender for our house because we didn’t have one; and so we bought all the ingredients and were super excited to actually have a blender.  So yeah, let's just cut the story short and say that basically, I burned out the engine on the blender and the PB didn't work.....:) I seriously spent like an hour trying to make pb and just ended up with some weird thick mush and a brand new, now broken blender.  LUCKILY, the blender came with a warranty so we just have to go and get it fixed now.  Aren't you all glad to know that I haven't changed? ;)  Haha, someone send help!! 

Preparing the mani
We are a bit "nutty" :)
I have no clue what I'm doing, but I think it's working...NOT!
Burning up the new blender's motor.

2. It is best to start filling the baptismal font, AT LEAST 4 hours beforehand.  

Okay so yesterday, Ryan Garcia (the oldest son of Sergio and Mayra) got baptized!!!  It was another beautiful day for this beautiful family and we really enjoyed being there.  

Happy Baptism Day Ryan!!
Familia Garcia
Ryan insisted in putting his arms around us...since he's only 8 it's all good, right? :)

So the bishop had asked Hermana Cardenas and me to be in charge of filling the baptismal font.   We thought we planned it out perfectly to start filling the font about 3 hours before because it didn't need to be as full for a little kid right?  Wrong!  With our luck, the hot water wasn't working super great.  It was trickling out super slow and we could tell that it was going to take a long time to fill up.  So we got creative and found some super big pots and starting heating water on the stove in the church kitchen and then dumping it into the font.  

When the hot water isn't working, you've got to get creative, right?
Good thing the church kitchen had these huge pots, right?

Let’s just say that even our best, heartfelt efforts weren't enough and we ended up having to turn the cold water on full blast at the end to fill the font.  Poor little Ryan had to be baptized in freezing cold water.  But hey, the most important thing is that he got baptized. :) 

3.  If you get sick one week, your companion is bound to get sick the next week. 

Yeah, my poor little Hermana Cardenas has had a pretty rough week, but we've been giving her lots of meds and soup to make her feel better, so don't you worry. ;) 

On the bright side, there was a worldwide food fair in Olavarría this week and it was super fun!!  They had booths from all over and we were able to eat food from France, Germany, Mexico, China, Cuba and of course, Argentina. ;)   

World Food Fair!


Via Mexico!

This week Elvira came home from vacation and we were able to teach her again.  She came to church with us yesterday too.  As we were talking to her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how we need to follow His example and be baptized like Him, she realized and commented that her baptism in the Evangelica church wasn't valid because it wasn't done by someone with the authority of God.  We then invited her to be baptized by someone holding that authority once she has prayed and received an answer that this is the true church and SHE ACCEPTED!!  We are planning her baptism for mid-June and are super excited for her.  Please keep her in your prayers so that she can feel comfortable with her decision and receive a conformation that this is all true.  

To end, I want to share a quick experience that President Cifuentes shared with us last week. Once upon a time (back before he was our mission president), President had to travel to Sierra Leon for work.  As he was getting ready for his trip, he met someone from there that told him that he didn't need a visa to enter their country.  So he went on his merry way, not thinking twice about it.  Then, as he arrived and tried to enter Sierra Leon, he was stopped and asked for his visa.  He responded, "But I was told that I don’t need one."  The officer said, "It doesn't matter what you were told, you need a visa to enter, and without one, we are going to have to put you in jail."  

Poor President Cifuentes tried everything he could think of to solve his problem, including calling the U.S. Embassy, and he even tried to get on a return flight to the U.S. but there wasn't another plane leaving for another week.  So all alone in Sierra Leon, he had to spend a couple days in jail...all for not being prepared to enter the country with a visa.  

President Cifuentes compared this story to our lives.  He taught us that we too need to acquire our own “visa” to be able to enter into heaven again someday.  That visa for us is a temple recommend.  It doesn't matter what the world tries to tell us, we know that we need to be worthy to enter the temple in this life if we want to enter into God's presence again after this life.  My invitation to you all is to qualify for, and always keep your temple recommend current, even if your circumstances don't allow you to assist [attend] very often.  The standards to enter the temple require that we are living a certain way, and it may require a big effort on our part to stay worthy…but it’s so worth it! 

Wishing you all a wonderful week!   

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Bartholomew

More pictures...

Wait...what?
The Argentina version of the Statue of Liberty!


 
I just thought you would enjoy what I did with my hair this week ;)
May the Spirit be with you!

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