Oh man I´m so excited about how the Hermanas are going to be living with you all, yay, treat them well!! Being a missionary can be hard, even though they have it pretty dang easy what with an air conditioned car and all that fun stuff!! But I can´t complain, the members here feed us so good everyday! All I have to worry about it breakfast, we don´t eat dinner at all... oh and we finally got a microwave!! That was really exciting!! Let's see what else, oh yeah we had a zone conference yesterday so I got 2 packages from you and a big envelope from the cub scouts, lots of letters, a card from grandma, which I am so surprised it made it to me, the Lord knew I needed to hear from her, because all it had was one us stamp on it and the address was really wrong, she wrote Buenos Aires North America missoin or something like that... but whatever I got it and it made me so happy!!

Oh one of the letters I got was from Adrian, which was so good, he wrote me about how he wants to serve a mission, but just isn´t sure!! So every time you see him encourage him to go on a mission, say hi to him or something, he needs support of the members, its prob really hard for him write now because the hermanas that baptized him have left and I'm not there and there aren´t many people his age, oh does Becky know him? Are they friends? Because if no, tell her to get on that... also what is she up to now that she is home from her mission??

So I sent the package last week, it is huge, and I hope you all enjoy it, but I forgot to put a couple things in it so I will be sending another small one today!! And I'm sending one for Paul and Andrea today, and after Christmas and stuff I will be sending one to Trish... so sorry Trish you will have to be patient!! The zone conference yesterday was so good! I got to meet all the sisters that are here in Buenos Aires, I like them all, I can´t wait to see who my next comp will be... I know who I would like it to be... haha, oh and one of the hermanas is from Virginia, and she told me her fam is moving to Louisville KY!! Her mom has a job in Ft Knox, and they are looking around, I told her the best place is Oldham county but that is really far from Ft Knox, I gave her your number mom to give to her mom, and she told me her mom would def call you, so be expecting a call from some random mom whose daughter is in my mission!! I hope they move into our stake, cause that would be awesome, hermana Winters is really sweet, she just got to the north part of the mission this transfer, she started her mission in the south,
lucky her!!

Well this week has been really good, Antuane passed her baptism interview, her son is being interviewed tomorrow, I hope all goes well, I may have 2 baptisms this week!! We did lose a baptism date though, that was sad, Rosa went to church and saw her friend paying tithing, and she got really upset and said all churches are the same all they do is ask for money, because she went to a church that always asked for money and she was sick of it, we explained that it is a commandment of God and it can be found in the old testament, we shared a few scriptures she calmed down, but still said she doesn´t want a baptism date! So oh well, we hope to see her again sometime to keep teaching her but who knows!

So our members here are amazing, we have this one new convert family, the Rodriguez, and they never cease to amaze me, they fed us lunch on Monday, they are feeding us tonight and I´m excited my comp said what they are making is fantastic Argentine asado... I can´t wait! In fact we just saw their 2 daughters in here, they were doing internet the same time as us! Well Hermana Rodriguez invited our investigator Silvia and her 4 kids to lunch tomorrow for Christmas, which is amazing because Silvia doesn´t have hardly any money to feed her kids, last week she asked us for 25 centavos so she could call the father of one of her babies so she could get money so they could eat that day, it was so sad, we did better than that we found her food so she could def eat that day, and 25 centavos so she could call for more. Also the Relief Society sisters are going to teach her how to clean and stuff like that and then find her a job that she can work at for 2-3 hours 3 times a week, because she can´t do much more than that with 4 little kids! But I just have so much love for hermana Rodriguez, because when you look at Silvia and her four kids your first reaction would prob be to not go and give her hug or anything, because her kids are always so dirty with snot running down their faces and dirt everywhere, but hermana Rodriguez always goes up to Silvia and her kids and hugs and kisses them, and holds the little baby and everything, the people here are truly remarkable, I am so blessed that the Lord would chose me to come here to Argentina and teach these people! I love it here, sometimes I get discouraged because it is so hot, I still can´t speak the language, but little things always happen to remind me how blessed I am! Thank you to all of you who love and support me! Every single one of you has blessed my life more than you know, I pray for you everyday, and I´m so grateful for the prayers you send my way, but even more grateful for the prayers you send my investigators way, Brian told me he prays for my investigators every night, that meant more to me than I can even express!! We can´t help them out in their physical needs, but we can certainly help them out in spiritual needs!!

Welp I know there is more I would like to write, but I guess it will just have to wait, I will be talking to you all tomorrow!! I can´t wait!! Oh and read the first 3 articles in the ensign for December, they are awesome, I especially liked the first one, because I have been a little sad that I will miss 2 Christmases because of my mission, but now I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary for 2 Christmases, what a grand blessing it is!! Welp I love you all and have a great Christmas eve, and I will talk to you all tomorrow!!

Love,

Hermana Gosnell

Oh snow.... i miss snow... and cookies and banana bread, oh geez... I wish you could send me some too! Welp I was a bit surprised about the news about dad, I had no idea he had skin cancer on his face... well I'm glad everything is going well with that, I hope things heal fast for him!!
Now that I hear we are eating at Pondergrossa this year, I'm pretty glad I'm missing the Christmas festivities, next year is the last year you all are allowed to eat there... but when I come home, please no!!

So here is the deal about the phone call, at 4:00pm Buenos Aires time is when you need to call, I think that is 1:00pm Louisville time, so you call then, I will be there and talk to me for 20 min, then you get off the phone call Utah and tell them to call me asap, they call me ASAP I talk to them for 10 min they get off the phone and call Trish and tell her to call me ASAP and she calls me ASAP and I talk to her for 10 min and that should work, everyone just needs to be ready, so maybe before you call me you call Utah and Trish and tell them to be ready, and after you talk to me and Utah call Trish to tell her to be ready when Utah calls her!! I hope it all works out... we are going to be at our branch president's house, their number is: 011-4749-5791. That's all I know, follow the rules of that attachment i sent you last week!! I can't wait to talk to you next week, I'm not sure if I will be able to send email next week, but I hope so!! Welp I gotta go finish reading e-mails and then I will send my weekly e-mail, love ya!!

Hermana Gosnell

Well it is officially Christmas season, December 8th is the day everyone puts up Christmas stuff (December 8th is the day of the virgin) I haven't noticed people here being all crazy about Christmas like they are in the states, but maybe that's because they don´t have Santa Claus as a tradition really.. this is how Christmas is, they stay up all night partying on Christmas eve and then Christmas day is like nothing for them, they get all their presents Christmas eve or something like that, I have no idea!!

OK so nothing really too terribly exciting happened this last week, just work as usual, and while you all are enjoying the beautiful snow please remember me here in the hottest place EVER!! OK well not ever, but hottest place I've ever been too! So Antuane has agreed to be baptized... all she needs is the interview, she has it tonight with President Agryle... she is sorta nervous but she is so ready, we only get to see her on the weekends because of her work schedule so we worry about her all week, because Satan's power can be strong. But you know what, with her we don't really need to worry... this past week she realized she was having a hard time believing Joseph Smith was a prophet, so she spent the whole week studying the Book of Mormon and one of the brochures we gave her to be able to understand more, and she told us now I know he was a prophet, when we asked her about Thomas S. Monson we showed her his picture and when she saw his face her whole face just lit up and she smiled really big and said yup that's our prophet today... wow I can´t even describe it... she is freaking amazing!! She also bore her testimony in Relief Society and it was beautiful... I love being a missionary!! José is still smoking, in fact we went and taught him the other day and he walked up smoking realized he was smoking and felt bad, put the cigarette down shook our hands then picked it up and walked away to finish smoking it!! I´m starting to lose a bit of faith in him, its hard... he doesn't try to give it up... but I still pray for him everyday!!

So church went OK, no drama there, and let's see funny story of the week:
We go to this bank all the time to get change for the bus, and somehow we always get the same bank teller this guy, well I always say please and thank you... mom raised me good :) well my comp, lets just say you can tell she is from Buenos Aires (they don´t have very good manners) well she never says please or thank you, well the last time we went he stopped her and said hey I don´t mind giving you monedas (coins), but at least be polite... haha I thought it was so funny because my comp always says she never says that stuff because its just silly... I'm like oh I always do cause if I don´t I feel weird, she was like really that is so weird... so a bank teller taught my comp manners.. haha

Welp that is all for this week I think, I can´t wait to talk to you all next week, I hope everything works out, I hope you all have a great Christmas!! And I'm hoping to get a box in the mail today to you all!! Love ya!!

Hermana Gosnell

Me at Puerto de Frutos on the river

View from my kitchen balcony

View from my kitchen window

Doing my laundry
A pic that my comp and I are giving to all the members and our investigators for Christmas!

This is me and my tennis shoes, yes I'm still wearing them!!

I'm glad to hear that the sealing went well, I can't wait to get pics... but please don´t send them on a CD, I won´t ever get to see them, just print some out!! That's funny that everyone loves my letters... I don´t feel like I give anything justice... but maybe its the spirit helping me get my message across... or maybe its because its my one time during the week to actually be able to express myself in my language, that it just all comes out... haha who knows?

As far as Christmas goes, I just got more stressed, because apparently we choose a family to go to and use their phone, and so it doesn't cost them any money, you all call me... so we shall see how this will work, we haven't chosen a family yet, so I have no idea how that will work, or what time... it's stressing me out... but hopefully everything will work out!! It will help if you have in mind what you want to talk to me about before we talk, since I have very limited time!!
So I'm very surprised to see that no one wrote me about Elder Wirthlin, I heard last week at district meeting that he had passed away, how sad... but no one has said anything, so I have no idea if that's true!!

OK I have a lot to write about this week... I think this letter will be very entertaining!! So my top three things to talk about this week are first, as always Antuane... She really wants to be baptized but is just worried about her mom, because she is all her mom has here in Argentina, but I think she is basically decided to be baptized anyways... also she told us she has started paying off her debts because she heard that in a talk a few weeks ago at church, also she has started being more frugal in what she buys, she says she is trying to do everything she hears in church... I was so excited about that... she is truly like a preach my gospel story!! Her son is preparing for his first communion, and she wants to take him out, but she wants to give him the choice, so she asked him which church he would choose, and he said both because I like the catholic church because I get to play the whole time, and I like the other one too... so she is trying to figure what to do with him, because she said she went to mass, and she just doesn't like it because it is the exact same every week, she doesn't learn anything new!!

OK the second thing, I have learned a lot about being in the right place at the right time this week... there are so many times, when I think we are so late, why are we out here, no one is out here, and other bad thoughts, then someone who really needs us walks by and we are there to help them... it has really humbled me... here are a few situations: We went out to visit a new investigator, and she wasn't there, so we went to our backup, a new member who is a 14 year old boy, he has pneumonia, well he wasn't home, he was at school because if he misses any more days he has to repeat that year, but his grandma was there, and she really needed us, her husband of who knows how many years left her earlier that week, and she told us all about it and just cried, we were able to share a message of peace and comfort, and lift her up in her time of need, also Christian, her grandson had run out of medicine and they didn't have money to buy more, so we were able to get the prescription and call the branch president to ask his help about that! Then we were at the train station waiting for someone, when we saw one of our investigators we had been trying to visit that week... we ran over to say hi and see how she was doing and she said she had left town for the week because she was having problems with her husband he apparently drinks a lot, but it was good to see her, because we were able to make an appt and hopefully we´ll get to see her soon! Then another one was we went to our appt with Silvia, and she had just been in a big fight with her mom, her mom is always yelling at her and trying to make her look bad in front of us, which only makes her look bad... anytime Silvia asks us a question her mom mocks her... its so sad, Silvia wants to move, but she has no where to go, and no money! But we were able to help her feel better in her time of need! And my last example, is one night we were walking home after buying groceries, and we were stopped by a guy, which of course made us a little nervous, but he is a less active member, and wants to come back to church, and stopped to talk to us... so all I have to remember is the Lord knows all, even if I don't know whats going on!!

OK and my last major thing to share, and this will prob take the rest of the time, is, there is a huge war breaking out in our branch between two families, and we are about to be involved... so we have the family Pechor, they are less active, and get offended really easily, but I love them, we visit them every Sat and they are really good people, then we have Marcela, who is our branch missionary, she is from Peru, she has been a member for like 13 years, but she has been inactive for 13 years as well, she is now active, but she gets offended super easy, and is always acting better than everyone else... well she needed a place to live. The Pechors let her live in a part of their house, well she only lived there for 5 days, apparently there was a problem everyday, so hermano Pechor just said I think it would be best if you leave, well she left and found another place to live, and started telling everyone that hermana Pechor stole all her stuff, well last week she went to the police and led them to believe there were drugs at the house of the Pechors, so the police sent a whole swat team, broke down the door of the Pechors and all this stuff, made all them stand outside and held them at gun point, even the kids who are 18, 15, 11, 9, and 1 yes even the baby, and hermana Pechor couldn't hold her baby... and Marcela was there went in their house and pointed to a bunch of stuff that wasn't hers and said that's mine, and so the police bagged it all up and once they found out there were no drugs they calmed down... but in the process of looking for drugs they had thrown hermana Pechors garments and temple clothes all over the floor, and Marcela, knowing what they were walked all over them in front of hermana Pechor, when she told us this she started crying, which is understandable!! So after hearing all this we decided not to call Marcela to come out with us, well we went to eat at Gina Luz house yesterday as always, and Marcela was there waiting for us... asking why we hadn't invited her out yet... we were like well we haven't got set appointments, which is true... she is really upset with us, well while we were there she told us all about how one of the Pechor kids put a pic of her on the internet with her phone number saying free sex, which is really bad, and now she is looking for a lawyer and is going to send police over there again, if the kid hadn't done that then they would have been innocent, because the Pechors didnt steal anything... but now it is really bad, and they have both sworn to be at church on Sunday, and its testimony meeting... my comp and I are really worried about what's going to happen!! And about our investigators!! it should be really interesting!!

OK so I was right that story took most of my time, I don't really have much else to write, Rosa accepted her baptism date, she said I am decided I want to be baptized, now all we have to do is just get her to church on Sundays!! Oh my comps sister is pregnant, and when she told our investigator Silvia, her reaction was oh no how sad... hermana Riquleme was like no she wants to have a baby... yeah where I'm at the people I teach, pregnant is a bad thing... how sad huh? Oh we have been having fun, there was a concert and model show in the plaza right outside our balcony on Friday night, and another concert Monday night... haha yeah party!! I tried to sleep, but the concert was of someone my comp really likes so she stayed up to listen...

Welp, I gotta run, I hope you enjoyed my letter this week... I tell you all how Sunday is next week... hopefully our investigators wont be scared off!!

Love ya,

Hermana Gosnell

A full week, Antuane, and weather

editor's note
Last weeks letter got cut off at the end. Michelle resent the letter and the the end of her letter from Nov. 26th has been attached to the bottom of the last post.

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So after p-day was over we went and visited Rosa as usual, and she was crazy funny as usual. And at the end of the lesson she said, "I want to be baptized, I need to be baptized where can I do that at??" Haha, I was like, "Um, what?" We didn't set a date, because we were going to wait to see her at church, which she didn't come, so maybe tomorrow!

Then Thursday it was a freaking HOT 40 degrees centagrade... I'm not sure what that is in Fahrenheit, all I know is it's hot!!

Also we saw Jose and hoped to get him baptized last weekend. Well no such luck, he had smoked the day before. He said he felt so bad. When he realized he was smoking he threw it on the ground and just felt bad. But we set his date for the 20th to give him some more time to give up smoking!

Friday it rained in the morning, I got so soaked... but at least it was cold, I loved it!! Then Saturday it was hot in the morning, but rained at night... and I mean rained... and it floods really quickly here, so we were practically swimming in the streets. I didn't mind, I prefer wind and rain, to extreme heat!! Then Sunday we didn't have very many people at church because of the rain. We only had about 20 people, which I guess was normal before I came, but now it is normal to have like 50-60 people!!

So the mission has this farewell thing at the end of every transfer for missionaries going home, and we are allowed to go to it as long as we bring investigators. It's really nice because the missionaries going home bare their testimonies. So we took Antuane and she really enjoyed it. Afterwards, we introduced her to President Argyle, and he talked to her for a long time about why she wasn't baptized. I didn't hear the whole thing because another hermana came up to me and started talking to me and Hermana Riquelme was talking to someone else. Afterwards, Antuane came up to Hna. Riquelme and gave her a hug. But she had to go, so we said we would stop by later that night.

I got to meet a lot of other hermanas in the mission on Sunday, it was awesome. I met an Hermana Ladd she is from Vermont and she went to BYUI before her mission and went on a Europe tour. Afterwards she wants to go to BYU and work at the MTC... haha sound familiar?? I really liked her, she really helped me feel good about my language ability and really helped me feel like I will learn how to speak it one day!

So after that we went to visit Antuane, she said on her way home she felt so good about being baptized, she wanted it so bad. She talked to her mom when she got home and her mom got really upset and was like that's all they want from you. Antuane got upset and just changed the subject. She said she doesn't know what to do. She loves the church and wants to join, but she is the only family her mom has in Argentina and doesn't want to make her upset. She said she would pray and fast about it. Also she said this last week was really hard for her and she didn't think we would come to our appointment Sat. night because of the rain. And she decided that if we didn't show up she would just stop going to church and stop seeing us and everything. And then we showed up... half an hour late, but we made it... She said when we showed up at her house that night she felt so good, and she knew she didn't want to stop everything! It made me feel glad we didn't cancel our appointment that night because of the rain!!

So then Monday nothing too big happened, it was transfer day, but neither of us got transferred, so we worked as usual!! There are a ton of mosquitoes here, and I think I'm the only one they like to eat... I have a ton of bug bites! But good news is, I'm not sure what happened, but I think my comp. is finally starting to like me... it feels good to not feel disliked everyday!!

Oh could you please send me the address for Ashley Day. I wrote her a letter and I thought I had her address, but I can't find it anywhere! And if you can find the address for Texas Houston South Mission, I would love that too!! Tell me what the plans are for Christmas... because I get to call home, but I only get 40 min to talk... so I'm kinda stressed as to how that will work!!

Welp I gotta run, I'm gonna try to send pics though! If I do there will be one in the mtc, with me and Hermana Harper, then one with Hermana Riquelme, and then one with Hermana Riquelme, and me and her other hija, and then one with me here and her hija, and her other old comp. Then one with me and Antuane and her two kids Christopher and Nicole. Enjoy!!

Love ya,

Hermana Gosnell

Editor Jeff's note: The family picture of Antuane and Michelle was really dark. Here's a new and improved (using the GIMP picture. Also, clicking on the pictures will give you a bigger (but not huge like the originals) picture.