December 30, 2013 Familia!

Pretty sunset.

This is the real us.  We are not super cute all the time :)  HNA Standly is the Amarican.  HNA Matamoros is the Latino.

Me and my comps at our Christmas shindig. I did my hair, put on make up and took of my glasses. Everyone was stunned. Some of my old comps didn't recognize me.

HNA Sanchez, Me, HNA Fernandez, don't know, HNA White.

 Sanchez y Fernandez were my comps in Caballito

Familia!

All the elders at our luncheon

Wow this past week has been really different, but really good! First of all Christmas, obviously is different here. They really celebrate the 24th more than the 25th. On the 24th we had a lunch with the whole mission. It was really cool to be with that many missionaries again! Then we went to a bunch of member houses and ate tons of really good food! It was also the hottest Christmas Eve ever, for me. I think the members said it was around 40 degrees celsius. Which is about 105, and the humidity was brutal. I have never felt so disgusting in all my life.

Another different thing has been working in the office. We have had tons of phones transferred between areas, so I had to call every area and confirm that the number we had listed was with the area that we had listed. For most of them I was totally good, I would ask my question, say thanks, and Hang up. However, sometimes people would start asking me questions like I actually know things and can understand them. We all got a kick out of it. Then for the rest of the week I was helping work on the Mission History. One really cool part of it is the Spiritual Experiences from the departing missionaries. They all write a spiritual experience before they leave, and I get to type them all up. It has been really cool to read what the most impressionable spiritual experience was for each of the missionaries. What an amazing thing the mission is! ( this also has helped me make a resolution to have good handwriting... I should probably improve my spelling too...) (note from Mom:  yes, readers, MANY words get fixed before blog is posted!)

I think that I mentioned last week that we are living in the pension where the AP`s used to live and they are living with the office Elders for now.  Well one of the reasons that they chose to go there was because the pension for the Office elders is bigger, and better for 5 people. That was all fine and dandy until we got a call that two of the Tigre sisters were coming to live with us because their pension was a literal oven. SOOO now there are 5 of us in a one bedroom apartment. It´s cozy. However, what a huge blessing that the elders were able to find us another fan so that we don´t all have to sleep in the same room! (it is impossible to sleep without a fan it is so hot)

The Best Ice cream sandwich you will ever eat in your entire life

I feel like I have officially served a foreign mission, because I have now taken a shower using only a bucket. Yep. I am not lying. Saturday morning we woke up and the first Sister showered, and comes out saying that we only have hot water in the bathroom. And the water is hot. It burned me our first day here. So that would not work. However, oddly we still had cold water in the kitchen so the rest of us got a bucket, filled it with cold water, and used it to shower. It wasn't as bad as you would think, but  we didn't feel completely clean. By the last sister, we had NO water (don't worry she did get to shower.. sorta). Yeah seriously we had no water. Because of the heat everyone is using their AC non stop or a million fans and too much energy is being sucked so some places have not had light, and when the energy goes, usually so does the water. Dad, I have so much more respect for your water storage. It became quickly apparent how necessary water is. We had to go to a member's house to fill up our water bottles, because we would have died in this heat without any water to drink. I have never been so happy as I was when the water came back around 10 that night. We had heard it might be a couple days and we would have to buy water or carry it in jugs... I can't even fathom that.

Daily Milagros
23-We had a great first lesson with a man named Leonardo. The spirit was so strong! Ti originally started with him not being interested and just wanting English Lessons, but it turned into a lesson (missionaries are real good at that). At the end, I said a simple, yet fervent prayer asking that Leo could be blessed in his life and be able to know the truth of what we taught. Then after I finished he asked us if he could try it too! So, he said a prayer, and it was so great! He also asked us to write down the steps so that he could practice on his own. It was so cool!
24-We went to this Peruvian family´s house and they totally just enveloped us into their huge family. We didn't feel awkward like we were totally crashing their Christmas, but rather a total feeling of love. It was really great especially because we have only been here for a week ( Well the other sisters have, I've  been here 3 days.) and we felt so loved.
25-Skyping my family! I am so glad that we have the technology to do that now!!
26- I talked on the phone. Up to this point I have avoided it like the plague...
27- Usually I can´t spell or type to save my life. (is that a surprise to any of you??) However, today I had about a 90% accuracy rate in both English AND Spanish as I typed up spiritual Experiences. I felt pretty good about myself.
28-Today we had no water.  We went to our lunch appointment and they were not there. Soo seeing as we had no real food in our apartment, we went and bought pizza. Turns out a member works there. We asked her if she had water and told her we did not, and then ordered our pizza. The way this place works is they deliver, so we left and went to wait at our apartment. At this point we had drunk the water in our bottles and were sorta dying. When the pizza guy delivered, we paid for our pizza and then he said, "Oh! I have something else for you," and then gave us a 2 liter bottle of juice, and said "no charge". We wanted to cry we were so happy to have liquid!
29-Today I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish!    I was so happy. I love that book. I know with all my heart that it is true! I started it in the MTC, so this took me a little longer than the English version, but it is so amazing. It´s interesting, even when I couldn't understand what I was reading, I could feel the spirit and know that it was true.

Overall this has been great. I am so grateful for the blessing of the last six months. Even though it is really hard sometimes, I would not trade this experience for the world. Overall I know that I have grown so much! Its really interesting to look back at what I have done and where I have been and see where I am now. I am so excited for this next year and to see where I will be a year from now. I know that this gospel is so true. I am so grateful for it. I am grateful for the knowledge that I can be with my family forever. I am so grateful for the Savior and his atonement.

I love you all and Hope that you are all well and Happy!
Love, Hermana Sirrine

Christmas Tree made out of Garbage. NO kidding.