I only have 8 minutes to write about last week and this week!! I don't think I can do it!! SO let me try to just talk about the most awesome! So last week Elder Bowen of the Seventy said that we need to start doing 50 contacts every day. I thought it was a mission thing. Nope just a my zone thing! And this came to us the day after I did my first real contact in the street, I got yelled at and cried when I took my shower that night, then the next day we are told to do 50 every day. I thought great I will do great at that, well I have gotten better, I don't cry anymore. I actually don't know what was wrong with me that day, but anyway the next day we contacted 36 people, and not a single one wanted to hear, but we did find 4 inactive members, which made me think wow how many members do you pass everyday and don't even know? We have made it to 51 people in one day, and that day we actually found 2 people that said they would be willing to listen in another time!!
So anyway one of the inactive members that we found is awesome, she came to church and brought her youngest daughter who is 12 and not a member to church, she will be baptized this Sunday if all works out. Pray for her!! And so as we were leaving the teaching appt with them we were really hungry, so we stopped by a panadería (bakery) to buy facturas (pastries) and as we were doing that the guy asked us hey what church are you all from so we gave him a folleto (pamphlet) and he seemed really interested, but we didn't really talk to him. We were in a hurry. So then yesterday we were teaching Mara and Alicia again, and so we decided we needed to talk to this guy again (plus we wanted more facturas) We talked to him and he had read the folleto and said he wanted to learn more!! But he works on Sundays, but we have an activity Sunday night an FHE for the ward, so he said he might come, we gave him another folleto, and we will be stopping by to teach the gospel (and maybe eat more facturas :))
So Zone Conference last week was OK but I had to do practices in Spanish in front of elder Zivic of the Seventy, and he is really intimidating, I wanted to die, but I lived! Also I met Elder Aidukitis last week, but didn't realize it because I was looking for the lost child of an investigator so I shook his hand and said "hola hermano" and didn't really look at him then I felt like I should actually look him in the face and I did and I was like um oh "hola elder ¿cómo está?, haha my comp laughed really hard at that. I didn't realize it was him!! Also I met Elder Bowen this last Sunday. He was in our ward but because the speakers before him spoke too long he didn't speak in our ward, I was a little sad. Sometimes I think people think when there is someone from the Seventy they need to make their talks really long and good, but remember, everyone would rather listen to a member of the 70 then you, so let them speak!!!!!!
OK well I guess all the rest will have to wait until next week, maybe I will send home a tape of me talking so I can catch up that way, but thanks everyone for all your love and support!!
Love ya
Hermana Gosnell
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
So first off I would like to start by wishing the best grandma in the WORLD a happy birthday, and in case you all are wondering who that is, I'm talking about the one and only Lucille Hatton!! Everybody who reads this and can, please give her a great big hug from me and wish her a happy birthday next time you see her!!
OK now, lets see, something I forgot to write about last week, is a week before I got to Nuñez Elder Scott spoke to the Belgrano Stake. Nuñez is part of this stake so I wasn't able to be there because I was in Tigre, but my comp went and she told me in the middle of his talk he stopped and said, the sister missionaries are better than the elders, we need more, and he encouraged all the sisters that can serve to serve!! Crazy huh, Elder Scott said I'm better than the elders... haha don't worry my head didn't get too big!! Oh another interesting fact, Elders Bowen and Aidukaitis are in my stake now, they attend the same building as me, we have church at 9:30 and they have church right after that!! If you don't remember Aidukaitis gave the talk this last conference called "Because my father read the Book of Mormon!!"
OK so for the miracles this week... I had an AMAZING Week!!! First we went and taught a 16 year old girl, and every time we teach her about Christ she cries, it's awesome. Well we taught the Plan of Salvation and asked if she wanted to apply this plan in her life and she said yes, and we asked if she would read and pray about it and she said yes then we asked are you willing to follow the example of Christ and be baptized and she said YES, so we put a date, her only problem is getting to church, we tried to pick her up last Sunday and she was asleep, this Sunday we sent a member with a car and she bailed... but don't worry I have faith!!
Now for the best experience of the week... There is a building here in Nuñez that they hadn't finished building so we are able to just go in, because most other buildings you have to press a button and the person talks to you, so its hard to do missionary work, well we went inside the building, it doesn't have an elevator and has like 9 floors! You all know how much I love stairs, well when we first started going there we started from the top down, now we hardly get to the top because most of our good investigators live in the middle, so one day none of them were home, and there was a lady we hadn't contacted yet, we talked to her in the stairs and had never been to her apt. Well come to find out, she lives on the last floor in the very last door! No exaggeration there, I promise!! So I said well let's go see if Gladys is home, so we started up the stairs, and the second to last door we have an investigator, well she was home so we talked to her for a little bit, and it was almost time to leave for lunch, so we started to turn to head down the stairs when I said hey we are here why not go see if Gladys is home or not, so we climbed up the last flight of stairs and knocked... to our surprise she was home but didn't have much time to talk so we talked a little bit outside her door, as we were talking a guy walked up and started to go into the apt when my comp said hey Alexis what are you doing here, and they started to talk, I had no idea who he was, but then my comp said hey wait are you living here? Is Carmen here? Now let me back up a little, Carmen is an investigator but she lost her apartment the week before I got here because her mom and brother died in a sudden accident in Peru and she needed to send money to help with that so she didn't have money for rent, so during this time we wanted to visit her but had no idea where she could be. So Alexis's husband said yeah we are living here, she is inside I'll go get her. She came out and we were all so very surprised, and she said I need to talk to you all alone, so we said goodbye to Gladys and Carmen said really seriously I need to talk to you, I was freaking out like oh no what is she going to say, and then her next question just blew my mind... she said I want and need to know what more I need to do to get baptized!!!!!!!!!! I'm not joking, and she was like I want to be baptized so bad, do I need more preparation, whatever it is I will do it!! I couldn't believe it, she was practically pleading with us to be baptized! So we talked to her and said she needs to be married first and she said OK tomorrow I will go start the paperwork! Wow I'm not exaggerating one part of that story, I still have a hard time believing it!! But now we are having problems because her boyfriend has a lot of legal problems, so we don't know if they will be able to get married, pray for them!! OK so Hermana Guerra is still amazing, we have so much fun together, and she is an amazing missionary, when she teaches I feel like Im listening to my Mission President, its really spiritual! I'm so blessed to be her comp!!
Welp that's all I have time for, I hope you enjoyed this letter, tomorrow is Zone
Conference, I can't wait to get the letters you all have written me!!
Love you all!!
Hermana Gosnell
OK here are a few fotos,
The first is of me and my comp, our first day together!!
The second is of when we made cookies, and she got flour all over me, its OK though, I'll get her back somehow . . . ;)
The last is of the brownies my comp tried to make, they didn't turn out so good, not bad but she said they were a disaster, so if Paul could send me his recipe so I can teach her how to make brownies, she would love that... and any other recipe because she wants to learn how to make different things!!
Love ya
OK now, lets see, something I forgot to write about last week, is a week before I got to Nuñez Elder Scott spoke to the Belgrano Stake. Nuñez is part of this stake so I wasn't able to be there because I was in Tigre, but my comp went and she told me in the middle of his talk he stopped and said, the sister missionaries are better than the elders, we need more, and he encouraged all the sisters that can serve to serve!! Crazy huh, Elder Scott said I'm better than the elders... haha don't worry my head didn't get too big!! Oh another interesting fact, Elders Bowen and Aidukaitis are in my stake now, they attend the same building as me, we have church at 9:30 and they have church right after that!! If you don't remember Aidukaitis gave the talk this last conference called "Because my father read the Book of Mormon!!"
OK so for the miracles this week... I had an AMAZING Week!!! First we went and taught a 16 year old girl, and every time we teach her about Christ she cries, it's awesome. Well we taught the Plan of Salvation and asked if she wanted to apply this plan in her life and she said yes, and we asked if she would read and pray about it and she said yes then we asked are you willing to follow the example of Christ and be baptized and she said YES, so we put a date, her only problem is getting to church, we tried to pick her up last Sunday and she was asleep, this Sunday we sent a member with a car and she bailed... but don't worry I have faith!!
Now for the best experience of the week... There is a building here in Nuñez that they hadn't finished building so we are able to just go in, because most other buildings you have to press a button and the person talks to you, so its hard to do missionary work, well we went inside the building, it doesn't have an elevator and has like 9 floors! You all know how much I love stairs, well when we first started going there we started from the top down, now we hardly get to the top because most of our good investigators live in the middle, so one day none of them were home, and there was a lady we hadn't contacted yet, we talked to her in the stairs and had never been to her apt. Well come to find out, she lives on the last floor in the very last door! No exaggeration there, I promise!! So I said well let's go see if Gladys is home, so we started up the stairs, and the second to last door we have an investigator, well she was home so we talked to her for a little bit, and it was almost time to leave for lunch, so we started to turn to head down the stairs when I said hey we are here why not go see if Gladys is home or not, so we climbed up the last flight of stairs and knocked... to our surprise she was home but didn't have much time to talk so we talked a little bit outside her door, as we were talking a guy walked up and started to go into the apt when my comp said hey Alexis what are you doing here, and they started to talk, I had no idea who he was, but then my comp said hey wait are you living here? Is Carmen here? Now let me back up a little, Carmen is an investigator but she lost her apartment the week before I got here because her mom and brother died in a sudden accident in Peru and she needed to send money to help with that so she didn't have money for rent, so during this time we wanted to visit her but had no idea where she could be. So Alexis's husband said yeah we are living here, she is inside I'll go get her. She came out and we were all so very surprised, and she said I need to talk to you all alone, so we said goodbye to Gladys and Carmen said really seriously I need to talk to you, I was freaking out like oh no what is she going to say, and then her next question just blew my mind... she said I want and need to know what more I need to do to get baptized!!!!!!!!!! I'm not joking, and she was like I want to be baptized so bad, do I need more preparation, whatever it is I will do it!! I couldn't believe it, she was practically pleading with us to be baptized! So we talked to her and said she needs to be married first and she said OK tomorrow I will go start the paperwork! Wow I'm not exaggerating one part of that story, I still have a hard time believing it!! But now we are having problems because her boyfriend has a lot of legal problems, so we don't know if they will be able to get married, pray for them!! OK so Hermana Guerra is still amazing, we have so much fun together, and she is an amazing missionary, when she teaches I feel like Im listening to my Mission President, its really spiritual! I'm so blessed to be her comp!!
Welp that's all I have time for, I hope you enjoyed this letter, tomorrow is Zone
Conference, I can't wait to get the letters you all have written me!!
Love you all!!
Hermana Gosnell
OK here are a few fotos,
The first is of me and my comp, our first day together!!
The second is of when we made cookies, and she got flour all over me, its OK though, I'll get her back somehow . . . ;)
The last is of the brownies my comp tried to make, they didn't turn out so good, not bad but she said they were a disaster, so if Paul could send me his recipe so I can teach her how to make brownies, she would love that... and any other recipe because she wants to learn how to make different things!!
Love ya
Thursday, March 5, 2009
OK so I am here in Nuñez, I have survived my first week, and you know what I'm starting to love it!! I was trying to be excited about a new area, but as all missionaries know your first area is always the best! And well I'm now in capital which is a lot harder than provencia. I was very excited about my new companion, and I still am, she is amazing! Seriously better than I could have guessed, but maybe anyone would be like that after my first! We get along so good, she seriously doesn't know any English but wants to learn! I speak Spanish all the time, and it isn't that hard! Actually I have a hard time speaking English now! And I'm pretty sure I love the members here, almost everyone asked me if I was from here Argentina, even after I had talked to them! One lady kept asking me a million times, how do you speak without an accent??? I was like um I don't know, I thought I had an accent! But I'm not sure if she is a good reference because she can't hear very well!! But seriously, almost everyone is saying that!! It makes me feel good! I'm sure once I start talking more they will realize how bad my accent is, because I haven't mentioned this but I have a bit of a cold, don't worry I'm fine, but I almost completely lost my voice last week, so it was interesting trying to talk!
My area is city, I've never been to New York, but this is how I would imagine it, but I know I'm not in the biggest part of the city, but everyone lives in apartments here, there are no houses, the only green is in parks! We walk everywhere, I think I will be losing a lot more weight here in Nuñez! It is hard to do contacts here, nobody wants to listen, after my first day I was feeling really discouraged because in Tigre when you contact people will stop to listen out of respect, but here if you mention God or anything related to religion they practically run away!! I just don't understand, we are offering salvation here!! The apartment is nice, really really small, but so far no cockroaches!!
My first planning session with Hermana Guerra went like this, she showed me her planner and it had no appointments in it, and she told me we have one investigator, I was like um WHAT!!!!! Because in Tigre we had like a million good investigators and 7 baptism dates and stuff like that. Well the comp I am replacing, she was the problem missionary of the mission, so I'm guessing that is why it was like that, but Hermana Guerra asked me, are you ready to work, and I said of course, we need investigators! So we went out all ready to work the next day and everything fell through, we didn't find a single investigator and I don't know about her but I was feeling pretty sad, but we went out the next day feeling good and ready to work and we found 4 new investigators that day, and it just kept getting better after that, all in all last week we found 21 new people to teach!! and Elder Bowen said that 1 out of every 3 people are ready to hear the gospel, that means we have at least 7 people ready to listen! We still have a hard time getting people to keep their appointments, we have to have a plan A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, all the way to z, because almost everything falls through!! But at least we get along and keep each other upbeat during the day!
There is a member here that doesn't speak any Spanish, her husband is from here and he speaks English, and she is from Finland and sort of speaks English, haha so we went by to see her, and it was so hard to speak to her in English, I kept speaking in Spanish and and to stop and translate from Spanish to English in my head!! It was crazy!! They are a very sweet couple they have a 4 month old daughter, she really loves having the missionaries over so we stop by from time to time!!
We have an investigator that just moved here from Peru, her whole family lives here and they are all members, she has been feeding the missionaries for a very long time but never was baptized, she told us, none of the elders were able to baptize her. So we taught the first lesson which is about the Restoration and the spirit was so strong, we invited her to be baptized on the 21st of march and.... SHE ACCEPTED!!!! I cant believe it, so pray that everything works out with her!!
Something that really helped her is there was a devotional just for the women at the church... and who spoke at this devotional you might ask... well Elder Richard G Scott in Argentina!! So of course we went and listened, oh it was fantastic, he doesn't have a translator because he speaks Spanish, I was asked to translate for the sister from Finland, but luckily I only had to do that for a few minutes and her husband took over, because I missed a lot when I was translating! But oh man it was fantastic, he talked a lot to the single sisters, and he said live worthy and wait until a worthy priesthood holder comes along, one that is a hard worker and is worthy and goes to the temple, he said if that man doesn't come don't worry, you will be rewarded in the end... I loved it!!
Well I'm sure there is so much more to write about but I just cant think of it all!! I love you all and don't worry about me, I have a great companion, and we are going to work hard to have baptisms here in Nuñez!! I'm pretty happy, although I will warn you, it is harder for me to think in English now, its funny because when I think in English sometimes I say something to Hermana Guerra in English and she just looks at me like I'm speaking Chinese, then we both laugh really hard and I realize oh yeah I was speaking English oops!!
Welp I'm gonna end this now, I have 3 min so maybe I can send a few pics!!
Love yall!!
Hermana Gosnell
My area is city, I've never been to New York, but this is how I would imagine it, but I know I'm not in the biggest part of the city, but everyone lives in apartments here, there are no houses, the only green is in parks! We walk everywhere, I think I will be losing a lot more weight here in Nuñez! It is hard to do contacts here, nobody wants to listen, after my first day I was feeling really discouraged because in Tigre when you contact people will stop to listen out of respect, but here if you mention God or anything related to religion they practically run away!! I just don't understand, we are offering salvation here!! The apartment is nice, really really small, but so far no cockroaches!!
My first planning session with Hermana Guerra went like this, she showed me her planner and it had no appointments in it, and she told me we have one investigator, I was like um WHAT!!!!! Because in Tigre we had like a million good investigators and 7 baptism dates and stuff like that. Well the comp I am replacing, she was the problem missionary of the mission, so I'm guessing that is why it was like that, but Hermana Guerra asked me, are you ready to work, and I said of course, we need investigators! So we went out all ready to work the next day and everything fell through, we didn't find a single investigator and I don't know about her but I was feeling pretty sad, but we went out the next day feeling good and ready to work and we found 4 new investigators that day, and it just kept getting better after that, all in all last week we found 21 new people to teach!! and Elder Bowen said that 1 out of every 3 people are ready to hear the gospel, that means we have at least 7 people ready to listen! We still have a hard time getting people to keep their appointments, we have to have a plan A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, all the way to z, because almost everything falls through!! But at least we get along and keep each other upbeat during the day!
There is a member here that doesn't speak any Spanish, her husband is from here and he speaks English, and she is from Finland and sort of speaks English, haha so we went by to see her, and it was so hard to speak to her in English, I kept speaking in Spanish and and to stop and translate from Spanish to English in my head!! It was crazy!! They are a very sweet couple they have a 4 month old daughter, she really loves having the missionaries over so we stop by from time to time!!
We have an investigator that just moved here from Peru, her whole family lives here and they are all members, she has been feeding the missionaries for a very long time but never was baptized, she told us, none of the elders were able to baptize her. So we taught the first lesson which is about the Restoration and the spirit was so strong, we invited her to be baptized on the 21st of march and.... SHE ACCEPTED!!!! I cant believe it, so pray that everything works out with her!!
Something that really helped her is there was a devotional just for the women at the church... and who spoke at this devotional you might ask... well Elder Richard G Scott in Argentina!! So of course we went and listened, oh it was fantastic, he doesn't have a translator because he speaks Spanish, I was asked to translate for the sister from Finland, but luckily I only had to do that for a few minutes and her husband took over, because I missed a lot when I was translating! But oh man it was fantastic, he talked a lot to the single sisters, and he said live worthy and wait until a worthy priesthood holder comes along, one that is a hard worker and is worthy and goes to the temple, he said if that man doesn't come don't worry, you will be rewarded in the end... I loved it!!
Well I'm sure there is so much more to write about but I just cant think of it all!! I love you all and don't worry about me, I have a great companion, and we are going to work hard to have baptisms here in Nuñez!! I'm pretty happy, although I will warn you, it is harder for me to think in English now, its funny because when I think in English sometimes I say something to Hermana Guerra in English and she just looks at me like I'm speaking Chinese, then we both laugh really hard and I realize oh yeah I was speaking English oops!!
Welp I'm gonna end this now, I have 3 min so maybe I can send a few pics!!
Love yall!!
Hermana Gosnell
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