Veterinarians

February 12, 2016

Hola Familia!!! 

Haha don't worry, I'm still alive!  We had a mission conference yesterday and so P-day got moved to today!  

First and most important, transfers have come and gone and I am a very happy missionary because I'm still in Villa Floresta with Hermana Baird :) Whew!  In other exciting news, I finished my 12 weeks of training and am officially no longer a newbie in the mission!  Wahoo!  

This week was as great and hot as ever!  I'm so ready for summer to end... just gotta hang in there for a month or so more. So close!!

We went to PARIS ;)  The best helado (ice cream) in all of Argentina!

This week we had a very interesting experience...a young couple in our ward called us while they were in Buenos Aires for the week and asked us to go over to their home and give their sick cat a vaccination.  Normal right? ;)  NO!  We were like what?!  Makes perfect sense right?  The first people I would think to call to give my cat a vaccine would be the two Yankee missionaries that have absolutely no experience giving shots to anyone, let alone a CAT!  Yeah, luckily I have Hermana Baird as my companion who was brave enough to do the dirty work.  I just had to hold the cat down and try not to get bit.  It was quite the experience to say the least.  Normal things we are supposed to learn in the mission right? ;)

Giving vaccines to cats...What?!?

Anyway, like I said, we had a conference yesterday with Elder Resek who is an Area Seventy in the Church.  He's from Buenos Aires and was a mission president in Chile.  It was really great to hear from him and his wife as well as Hermana y Presidente Cifuentes.  We learned a lot about how we can be better missionaries, and it was super fun to see some familiar faces again! 

It is so strange to be in a foreign country with one of your best friends speaking a different language to each other, right? :)  Let's just say that we are happy to no longer be babies in the mission.

Elder Lee!

Another great thing about the mission conference was eating our first food from los estados en mucho tiempo [from the States in a long time].

Big Macs for the Mission Conference?  What?!?! :)

During the conference I learned a very important principle from the experience of Nephi in the Book of Mormon found in 1 Nephi 16.  In this chapter, while Nefi is out hunting, he breaks his bow.  Most likely, Nephi brought this bow with him from his home in Jerusalem, and we can assume it was nice and strong.  But when Nephi and his family got out into the wilderness, the bow wasn't as good as he thought, it ended up breaking, and he had to make a new one.  

We related this story to our testimonies before the mission.  I had what I thought was a nice, strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ before my mission.  However, I have definitely hit my own "breaking points" during my time here in Argentina.  These experiences have forced me to humble myself like Nephi, and be willing to rely upon my Savior to build my testimony into something stronger than it was before.  We have been trying to teach this same principle to our investigators and with the less-active members in our area this week.  All of us will pass through trials that will seem to break us.  We all need to rely on the Lord to help us gain our own, strong testimonies and continue to strengthen them every day.  

Well, I’ve run out of time and have to go.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!! I love and miss you all!

Hermana Bart