September 17, 2012

Hey Guys!

I was allowed just a little bit of time to write you a quick email! How great is that? First things first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY!!!! I hope you have a great day. I got the sense in your last email that you were a little concerned about my last week, and how things were going to go. But I hope you all know that my last week of the mission was great! I had a good time, and surprisingly enough, there werent very many tears. They have been few. Im not quite sure what is going on. I dont know how I feel about it. I did cry today when I had to say goodbye to the Hna Baker. That was pretty hard. 

I hope you know how much I love you all, and how grateful I am to have you as my family. For the last 18 months I have been telling people about you. Telling stories, showing pictures, and celebrating all of the things that you have accomplished. I cannot believe that I will finally be seeing you within 72 hours. It still doesnt feel real to me. I keep excpecting the elders here in the office to tell me that it is a joke, I am not going home, and that I will be going to a new area with a new companion, and that I will just keep being a missionary. But, while I still have not emotionally or mentally grasped the fact that I will soon be with you, 18 months has been a long time. I am so excited to see you again, and to be able to spend time with you. I hope you have all pretty much cleared your schedules on Friday night, because you are MINE that night. (Just a joke Hol, I am excited to help you get ready for your dance.) 

I have never been prouder of you. I am so grateful that while I have been on the mission, I have never had to be embarrassed of who we are as a family. I have been able to share what ever it is that comes to mind, or anything that has happened with you without any problems. I cannot wait to see you, and I love you so much. 

I will see you soon!!!

Corinne

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR HOLLY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 10, 2012- Letter

Dear Mom and Dad,

I have also been a little sentimental the last week. It is really odd to me that my time as a missionary has already ended. It would be a lie if I had moments where I felt that I would die here in Argentina, and that I would never finish. And other moments where I would have paid anything to stop time and have just a couple more weeks here. I suppose only someone who has served a mission can understand the complete emotional trauma I am going through. While I am at the happiest I have ever been, I am also almost the saddest I have ever been. I thought that afternoon on March 2nd was going to be the hardest day of my life, when I walked away at the MTC, starting my mission, and looking for any reason to turn back to see you all again, or frankly to go home. I did not want to leave. But I believe that leaving Argentina is going to be even harder. Oh don´t get me wrong, it is greatly eased by the knowledge that I will quickly be with you all again. I have missed you more than words can begin to describe. But when I left, I knew that you were going to be okay, and I can´t help but feel a little bit that I am leaving children behind, who desperately need to be cared for, and I want to make sure they are cared for in the proper way. Like, I said, a striking contrast in my emotions, and I think that it is starting to make life a little hard for Hermana Baker.

All that being said. I did just live the dream this week. On Saturday we were able to see the Cultural Celebration for the re dedication of the Buenos Aires Temple. It was completely overwhelming, in the best sense of the word. I have been praying that I would be here since the day that I arrived in Argentina. It was very surreal everything that happened. I kept thinking in all of the missionaries that I know that have served here, also without a temple,and how I know that they would have loved to be here. I feel very privileged. Elder Christofferon, Elder Ballard, and Presidente Eyring were there, and they all spoke. They all directed their words to the youth, and they all made me cry. The dancing in the celebration was beyond words. It was completely fantastic. I was blown away by how many youth participated in the event, many of whom were unable to attend in person,so the stakes filmed the dances, and sent them in, and they were shown. Some of these youth dancers were just spectacular. I don´t know very much abot the folk dances of Argentina, but if they are all danced like that, I really want to see more.

Miriam came to the cultural celebration, and she was amazed. Everyday she gets closer to picking a date to get baptized, and i am so excited for her. She has fallen in love with temples, and she wants to go some day.

Yesterday was the dedication. It was breathtaking. I was again filled with a sense that I was living the missionary dream. I know so many people who would have loved to be there, or to see it, but who were unable, because of the distance. There was a very special spirit. I was a little concerned that maybe I wouldn´t understand everything, but everything was crystal clear. I really hope that I am given the chance to go through while I am in Buenos Aires. Or at least that we get to go see it.

All I know is that I miss the temple greatly, and I want to go as many times as possible when I get home. A year and a half is a great amount of time to not be in the temple walls.

This week we are going to work as much as possible. Hna Baker is feeling much better, and we are able to get out for more bits of time. It is really nice. We are also getting to know the branch better, which is great, but it makes me really sad that i am not going to have a little bit more time here with them.

I do want to thank you for all that you have done to be so supportive during my mission. I have learned that family bonds are not just physical, from across continents, I have felt your daily support. I AM very very excited to see you again, the next week is going to go very quickly I think.

Mom, I am also going to miss your weekly emails,but I will gladly trade them for the daily contact that we used to have. :)

I love you!!! And I will see you soon!!!

Corinne

September 3, 2012- Letter

Dear Mom and Dad,

My email worked!!! Just keep hoping that it will work next week. I am a little nervous. But mostly nervous because I only have to be nervous about one more week! I know, I make myself nervous about silly things, but with everything that a mission does to change a person, isn´t it nice to know that I am still myself? Haha.

I also thought of something interesting, and I forgot to tell Kami this, but yesterday she turned in her papers. Which is super cool. And she turned them in on the same day that I officially completed my 18 missionary months. Kinda cool isn´t it? She´s geting ready to start her service, and I am getting ready to wind my official service down.

This week was really good. It really did just fly by. There was some really sad news however. Miriam didn´t get baptized. It makes me really sad, breaks my heart really. But there is a silver lining to the sad cloud. She still wants to learn, and she came to church yesterday. She is just going through so much with her health. She has just found out that her cancer has returned, and a couple of other things. So she is wanting to wait a little bit of time. We are hoping to help her see that baptism really is going to be the best thing for her, and it will bring her the blessings she so desperatly needs. Please keep her in your prayers.

Hna Baker, unfortunately, also isn´t doing well. The poor girl just isn´t getting much better. Okay, that is a lie. She is getting better, it is just at a pretty slow rate, so she feels like she isnt´getting better, but she is. I am happy to report, that overall, things are much better. She is better with her animo, and she is happier overall. We have a really good companionship. Apart from being friends, which is fantastic, we work really well together. Even though we spend a decent amount of time at home, we are helping each other get a lot of things done. We have done a lot of organizational projects, and things at the house are getting much better. We do get out for a little bit every day, and I am really glad about that. It helps her see that she can still do things. And that she does a lot of them really really well.

It is an interesting rhythm in the house. We are just four people very different. Things have been a little tense. But I am trying to help everyone calm down and realize that nothing that is goin on is the end of the world. The good news is that making jokes about the fact that I go home soon seems to calm all three of them down, so that has been happening a lot lately. They don´t know that those sort of jokes give me a heart attack, and I don´t plan on telling them. Those poor girls need whatever release they can get.

This week should be good. We are going to do divisions on Wednesday, which will be fun. And on Friday we are going to have the cultural activity because on Sunday we are going to have the temple dedication! I am so excited. I have been waiting my whole mission for the dedication, and for a year now they have been so close to finishing! You can really tell that the members are excited and ready to have a temple up and functioning in their country again.

I am super excited that Holly is going to Homecoming. That will be a fun first weekend home. Does she know what she is going to wear? Is Zac going to go? Speaking of Zac what happened with Les Mis? I am so curious, and midly bummed that I have to wait a whole other week! I am very happy that I am going to get home in time for football season. (That was embarrassing. I almost wrote futbol. Oh Spanish. How you mess with my mind. I hope you are all ready for that. I no longer speak one language at a time. Spanish and English come out together.)  Also, super excited for Jayden and Shelley. Will you tell them congrats for me?

Well...I think that is it. I hope that you have a great and safe week! I love love love you!!!

Corinne

August 27, 2012- Pictures

August 27, 2012- Letter

Dear Mom and Dad,

It really seems like you are all having much more interesting days than I am!!! Especially with the first day of school things. I miss the first day of school. It is a wonderful thing. School in January, here I come!!!

This week really wasn´t that exciting from my point of view. Hna Baker has been sick, but we were still able to get some great things done. Lets see. What did happen this week?

Oh, we had divisions. It was really fun. I was with Hna McWhorter, and we had a really good time. It was fun to be teaching with my hijita again. I have missed her! We got to teach couple of lessons toether, and it was fun to have equal teaching time, and have her be as confidant as she was always hoping to be. She really has grown a lot, and I am so excited for her!

We are also really excited for the progress that Miriam is having. She will be getting baptized on Saturday! I am so excited. She really is so great. She is going through so many things, with some family problems, and various health problems, including cancer. But she is just one of the most positive people, and she sees God´s hand everywhere in her life. The branch has been really good at accepting her, and helping her feel comfortable, so even though I won´t be here for much longer after her baptism, I am confidant that she will be okay.

We actually started talking about her baptismal date during one of our lessons, and she randomly started telling a story about a spiritual experience that she had while she was a teenager. We got really worried, because normally when we start talking about baptism, and people start talking about spiritual experiences that they have had in other churches, they are finding a way to tell us no. So we were both internally freaking out and trying to think of a way to help her remember that it is a good thing that she gets baptized. But we didnt´know what to say. So we just sat there for a second, and awkwardly said something about her baptism again, and she said, oh no, I´m doing this! And we had a wave of relief wash over us. So she´s getting baptized!!!

Hna Baker is doing a little bit better. Slowly but surely she is getting her strength back. It is a wonderful thing to see.

Some of the Elders from Bahia came to fix our house up a little bit, and heaven bless them. There were some sad things about the house, and things are much better. For example, most of the sockets in the house didn´t work, and now they do!! It is great! And our washer, (thats right, did I tell you, we have a WASHER) works better now, and we have a new stove, and a new fridge. It is like a whole new house! I´ll have to send you pictures of the house next week.

Oh, speaking of next weeks email. On Sunday I officially complete my 18 month mark. Which, hypothetically speaking is when they are going to cut off my email access. Which is really lame, as I will still have two weeks of emailing left. I am going to talk to the mission secratay about that, to see if there is anything he can do so that doesn´t happen. It has happened to half of the sister missionaries that I know, and the other half have been fine. I have no idea what is going to happen. Please still write me just in case that I will be able to have internet access. But if you don´t hear from me, don´t worry.

Also, I pulled out part of the money, but it isn´t letting me pull out any more. I think I just may have hit the limit for the day, so I am going to wait until tomorrow.

Okay, Pictures.

1. Hna Baker and I. We´re so pretty.
2 & 3 Pictures of a little bit of what is Pigue.
4. Pigue and I together.
5. The four of us Hnas with Pigue.
6. Hna Baker and I yesterday after cleaning the church.

All of the pictures of Pigue have been taken from our roof. We live on the tenth floor and have access to the roof. It is fantastic. I love it!

I hope you all have a great week! I am praying for you and I love you!!!

August 20, 2012- Letter

Dear Mom and Dad,

It seems like you all had a really good week! That is fantastic! It is really odd to me that you are already to the point of starting school! I really can´t believe that time has gone so fast. We are starting week 3 of the transfer, and I feel like time really is just starting to fly away and there is nothing I can do to get it back.

I apologize for the delay in the email, we had some serious Internet problems, and so we had to leave for a little bit and then come back. As such, I don´t have a ton of time to write, nor do I have time to send you any pictures, but I promise that I will send some next week.

In regards to the whole debit card thing. I think that I did use it in March, but I know that I have used it since then. So that is super weird. I will pull that money out tomorrow then, just so you can know what it going on.

The week was really good. There was however, nothing normal about it. I feel like I write that alot, and you think I´d just be used to not having anything normal, but it would appear that I never learn. Haha.

Hna Baker has had some health issues in the past, and together we have figured out what a couple of them are. I feel like we are getting closer and closer to figuring out the last couple of things so that she will be able to finish her mission healthy. I am very very excited about that. We realized that we think it is a very high possibility that she needs glasses. And Pigue is teeny tiny and so we had to arrange a trip to Bahia to see an eye doctor. It worked out perfectly because we had a zone conference that Saturday in Bahia.

So on Wednesday evening we took a bus and headed to Bahia. We stayed the next couple of nights with one of my favorite Hnas, Hna Gonzalez. I just love that girl. She is fantastic.

Thursday morning we went to the doctor and it turns out that we were right, Hna Baker does indeed need glasses, and the doctor said that straining your eyesight can be a cause for headaches. One more piece of the puzzle put into place. We went to go pick out her glasses, and we were told that we had to come pick them up Friday afternoon  because by the time the conference got out on Saturday, they would be closed. So once we got that whole situation under control, we headed back to the house because Hna Baker wasn´t feeling well.

We were running all over on Friday. We had so much to do. There is way to much complicated details for me to give you right now, but Hna Parreño had told us that she wanted us to go visit some people out in our old areas, and give them a bit of help. There were a couple of people that she talked about in particular, in White, but she said that we could go figure out what we wanted to do that day. So we spent all day running around trying to see as many people as possible. It was actually really fun. It was like missionary vacation. Go see all the people you taught and see how they are doing. It was a very singular experience, and I am grateful for it.

On Saturday we had potentially the best zone conference I have had. Elder Viñas, the new second counselor of the area presidency came, and he is fantastic. Every workshop we had was just wonderful. Many things were said that were just the thing that I needed to hear, and they helped me feel good about the things that I have done on my mission, and the goals that I have for the time that I have left. Sometimes when the authorities come to talk to the missionaries, they are a little hard on us, and help us see exactly what it is that we need to do to improve and what it is that we need to fix, so it can be a little intimidating to know that they are going to be there. However, Elder Viñas was all about helping us feel good, and knowing that if there are changes that need to be made, we should make them, and that we are capable of making them. It was really nice.

In terms of other great things that are going on. Miriam came to church again yesterday! She is still on track for her baptismal date. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. This woman is amazing. She is going through so many trials. She has cancer, is having some difficulties with her oldest daughter (who is 33) among a couple of other things. But she is so great. She is reading, she is praying, she comes to church, and she has so many desires to learn and grow and do. Please pray for her. If all goes according to plan, I will be sending pictures of her baptism in two weeks!!!!!

Well, that is about all I have in terms of time today. Again, I am so sorry that you had to wait so long to get this. I hope that you are all doing great, and I hope to hear from you all next week! I love you!!!!!

Corinne
PS Someone has to give Steven a hug for me!!!

August 13, 2012- Pictures