Well Our time as a trio was short lived, my companion Hermana Lopez got her visa and will be leaving for Colombia tomorrow at 5:30AM!! She is so nervous, she was hoping to not get her visa and just get transferred to stay in this mission! She is really sweet, from Argentina, the southern part. She is 25 almost 26, very quiet!! She will be missed when she leaves!!

This has been a pretty exciting week, we found out that we are not to drink the water here, at all!! Not even water we purify, only water we buy, so we have to buy water for everything, even to cook in! The water is really bad here in Tigre, and Hermana Argyle just found out, she thinks that's why I've been so sick. I never drink the water anyway, but whatever! Then we had a sorta investigator pass away this week, We had taught her twice her family are members and she was dying and wanted to be baptized but didn't want to give up smoking and told a member to tell us not to teach her about the Word of Wisdom, also she couldn't come to church, I thought it was a bit of a waste of time, it was in a part of Tigre we never go to, only to see them! and we couldn't teach her Word of Wisdom, so she was never going to be baptized. We had planned to go visit her this week, well now we will be going to visit the family. She passed away this last week! Also the father of our ward mission leader passed away on Mon morning. He has been on the point of dying for 3 months now! It was really sad, we went to the viewing last night! He is really depressed! But thankfully they have the gospel in their life to keep them going! I think that is all the really exciting stuff for this week!

I might have a baptism this Saturday! We are so excited! It is Maxi Mottini, his wife is a member she grew up in the church, and he has been going to church for 10 years off and on with her, but he used to drink and smoke, well he asked for us to come start teaching him again, he has been taught so many times over the years but never wanted to change, well we went to teach him and he had stopped drinking and smoking and he and his wife read the Book of Mormon together and pray together every night! They say they don't fight when they have the gospel in their lives, and he can't wait to be sealed to his wife! So if all goes well with his interview tomorrow, then we will be having a baptism this weekend!! I'm pretty excited about it!

OK that is about all the news I have, The work is still good, I complete 3 months in Argentina on Sat! Crazy!! Oh just a few random things, about Argentina, I never knew motorcycles could be family cars, but they are I have seen up to 5 people on them, little babies and toddlers and everything! It is so scary!! OK i guess that is all about that, oh and I want to thank Brian for playing that balance game with me that I always lost, because I have no balance, but it has helped me when we take the train, which we take at least once a week!! a lot of times it is so full there is nothing to hold on to, so I have to just stand and balance, it is hard sometimes!! Always an adventure here in Argentina!! Well, I think this is all I have, sorry that my letters have gotten so lame!

I think I might be in a rut!! I haven't heard from a lot of people in a while, like Katie, Brian, Paundrea, or Joelle, the only people I really hear from are Mom and Trish! But I assume they are still alive and well!!

Welp I love y'all, keep on keeping on!!

Love,

Hermana Gosnell

I'm a trainer!!! Say What!!!

OK so I bet everyone is really confused by the subject, because you all are thinking it can´t be... Michelle has only been in the field for 3 months, she can barely speak the language! How can she be a trainer!! Ha ha well OK so this is what happened, transfers were this week, and I was praying and praying i would stay in Tigre, and I would get a new comp, well I got both wishes, only I wasn´t specific enough, because instead of Hna Riquelme leaving, we just get a new comp, so now we are a trio, or at least we will be at 5:30, that's when Hermana Lopez gets here! She is straight from the CCM (MTC) and her real mission is in Colombia, but her visa hasn´t come yet so she will be our comp anywhere from 1-3 weeks and we are in charge of training her in that time, really its Hna Riquelme that is the trainer, but the AP that called to tell us what was going on said that I was to be a part of it too... so I go from being trained, to helping train... crazy huh??? We don´t know anything else about her yet! We are praying that she will be awesome!

SO lets see I have put in a real effort in doing contacts everywhere I go, I finally contacted my first new investigator, but when we went back to teach her, her address didn´t exist... that happens a lot!! Also one day I got really downhearted because I contact like 10 people in a row and everyone rejected me, then my comp contacts only 2 people and both stop and listen... but whatever persistence is the key! The other day a lady stopped and asked us if we were Jehovah Witnesses, and she was really excited we were like no, and told her who we are and she got really disappointed and walked away, everyone thinks we are Jehovah Witnesses!! Because in some parts of Argentina they actually wear name tags too!! Crazy huh??

Oh lets see, José was confirmed this week, so I can breathe again!! We have a few baptism dates set, but only 2 are with firm investigators that actually come to church, the others don´t come, so I don´t know what to do, we are really working hard on finding more investigators!!

I don´t think anything else really happened this week, oh wait yeah I have a funny story, so we went to visit this family, they are members and we are teaching their son-in-law because he isn´t a member, he is one of our firm baptism dates. Well something happened serious and so there we were standing talking to Hno Olmedo by their pool, and his wife came in and needed to walk by us to get in the house, well she needed to walk in between me and my comp but my comp didn´t move back or anything, so I go to step back, and there was a hole in the ground right behind me, and I didn´t know that so I lost my balance and started to fall backward, almost into the pool. Luckily I was able to regain my balance because that would have been horrible if I had fallen into the pool, we all laughed about it. Hno Olmedo was like I know its hot, if you wanted to go swimming all you had to do was ask... haha! Welp so there is my funny story for the week! Sorry this letter is so lame, I´m not really feeling well today, so hopefully next week my letter will be a bit more uplifting and inspiring!!

I love everyone of you, oh and I encourage everyone to read sister Allreds talk in
General Conference about missionary work, at the end she lists ways everyone can get involved in the work . . . I really love one of the last ones that says write a missionary you know on a mission... I think that is a great idea :) Thank you so much for all of your love and prayers and support!!

Love

Hermana Gosnell

SO these three pics are of me making empanadas... they are so delicious, and so simple to make!! Anyways the first is of my actually making one and then the next is me posing for the camera, and the last is me with the best one I've made yet!! I hope you enjoy these pics... I hope they don't make Noelle to terribly jealous!!

Love ya,

Hermana Gosnell

Ok first things first... Next week p-day is Tuesday, because it is transfers week, I don´t know yet if I or my comp will be transferred, we find out Monday morning! I'm hoping I don´t get transferred, because I love Tigre, but I am ready for a new comp! Haha don´t worry hna Riquelme and I get along, I´m just ready for a comp that is easier to get along with!
So I had two more baptisms this last Saturday, Silvia and José! It was amazing! I played the piano again, I did better than the last week, and I had less time to practice, I was terrified in the first song, my fingers were shaking so bad I am amazed they found the right notes!! But the Lord blesses his missionaries!! I know it is one of my biggest regrets I didn´t push myself harder in piano because if I had I could play so well!! Maybe by the end of my mission I will be able to at least play hymns!!

Let's see, oh José didn´t make it for his confirmation on Sunday, because he woke up in a lot of pain, and still tried to go to church but couldn´t walk, his family rushed him to the medic and he ended up needing a small surgery!! then later that day he got bit by a dog, and one of his friends tried to get him to help him in robbing a store... which don´t worry José didn't do!! But man the adversary is working so hard on him!! He is still excited for this Sunday and says he will be there si o si!! But man what an excuse, I was expecting him to say oh I just overslept or something!! But no he actually had good excuses!!

I don´t think I have much else to tell, the work here is good, it is still so so so hot, and gets hotter everyday! Oh I don´t know if I´ve mentioned this before, but I love the food here, but every time I eat it seems like I get sick! not too bad, so don´t worry mom, but still enough to be really frustrating, my comp says maybe I have some kind of bug, but I don´t think so... she says if it gets any worse we will have to call hna Argyle, which is something I do not want to do, because well she already thinks I fake all my illnesses! But seriously its nothing to worry about, it hasn´t affected my work, its just annoying! And everyone calls me delicate because I get sick... haha!!
Anyways thanks so much for all of your love and support! I think I will have some extra time to send pics today, so I hope you enjoy!!

Love you all, thanks for all the prayers!!

Hermana Gosnell

Ok the first pic is of José and his family, I think... haha if not that is the second, the other is of Silvia and her whole family, the third is of the Soler family, he is our branch mission leader, she reminds me a lot of Elizabeth, her personality she isn't able to have kids, every time she gets pregnant she miscarries, so their son is adopted! Then the last pic is of Silvia and her family, she is the one that has like no money nothing, she lives very humbly! Welp I hope you enjoy, the pics of the other baptism are on the CD I sent home today!!

love y'all tons

Hermana Gosnell

Let's see, this was the best week so far... we had 2 baptisms last Saturday, it was beautiful, and you might want to make sure your sitting down when I say this... I played the piano for the service... yes the prelude, the opening and closing hymns and the postlude... it wasn't great, but Antuane loved it... my comp and I also sang a song. The only sad thing is Antuane's daughter cried the whole time because she wanted to be baptized too, but she is only 7. She needs to wait 10 more months! We had a ton of non-members at the baptism, and the next day one of them at church, José came up to us and said I've decided I want to be baptized this Saturday, and lucky for him he gave up smoking the week before, so he is being baptized this Saturday, and then Silvia who also had a date for this Saturday said she wanted to be baptized!! So we have 2 more baptisms this Saturday, we are so excited!! Also Silvia's mom wants to be baptized and her youngest son too!! SO wow! Also Antuane brought a friend to her baptism and church the next day, and her friend loved it, she told us she felt something in her heart when Antuane was baptized! We have an appt with her on sat! Also Antuane bore her testimony after being confirmed on Sunday, and it was beautiful, the most powerful part was at the end when she stopped and looked out at us and said "Yo sé que la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Días is verdadera." Wow that was just amazing because we had never heard her say that before... so so powerful!! If you don´t know what that means, it's just "I know that the church is true!"

I must say I´m incredibly blessed to be here in Tigre! Welp, I don´t have much time left, so I guess that is all I will share, I had a great Christmas, I loved talking to everyone, and I wish you all a happy new year!!

Love ya

Hermana Gosnell