May 30, 2011 - Letter

Dear Mom,

I am doing well. I was sick for a little bit this last week, but I am doing much better. I had no idea what was wrong, but I was the most tired I have been in years! I had a headache all the time that was simply blinding. But, as I said, I am doing much better now.

Tuesday: We had district meeting which is always good. But that was when I was starting to not feel very well and so after that we went to lunch with a member family, and then I went straight to bed. I slept for about 4 hours and then the full 8 hours that night.

Wednesday: I still wasn't feeling much better, and H. Freeman was also felling a little sick, so H. Durham and Collette went to a lesson while H Freeman and I slept. Then we went to lunch, and had a lesson (found 2 new investigators!!!) and I went back to bed after that.

Thursday: I was finally feeling better, so we got to go do some work!!! It felt like a bit of a bummer of a day, we didn´t get to have many lessons, but we talked to a lot of people, and I am sure that we planted some seeds that will help other missionaries in the future!!!

Friday: We had a really good lesson with an  investigator named Marcela, but we found out that this week she is going to go out of town for 2 weeks, so we are worried that the progress that we have made with her is going to digress a little. But we will see. Everything will work out. We also had a lesson with Damian, a nine year old boy who is in a menos activo family, but they have all started coming back a little bit, and he is the one who asked to be baptized, so we have high hopes for him.

Saturday: The other hermanas had a baptism, and they asked me to sing, so we went to it. Nahuel is 12 years old, and so amazing. He came by himself to the baptism, no one from his family was there. It was so sad!!! And, only one family and the bishop and the ym leader from his ward came. If you ever hear of a baptism in your ward, especially for a convert GO!!! They need all the support that they can get!!!! Especially if their families aren´t excited about the fact that they are getting baptised!!!

Sunday: Just another day. We found a couple of investigators, but we weren´t able to get them to commit to a date, so we have some work this week. It will be great!!!

Okay, your questions:

Transfers are every 6 weeks, and this is week 5. So at the end of next week, I think around June 12 will be transfers. I am hoping that I get to be with Hermana Durham for her last transfer.

Daily schedule is basically what it says in Preach My Gospel. Wake up at 6:30, get ready, exercise, etc. Study at 7:30-11. We have lunch with members most days, so around 1 ish we have lunch, and then we work the rest of the day. We don´t have dinner here, so when we get home, around 9 I usually eat a piece of fruit. I try not to eat more than that because I don´t want to get fat while I am here. :)

I{ll take some pictures of my neighborhood. It seems pretty normal, so it is hard to describe...

The food is good. But mostly pretty bland. Like seriously bland. We eat a lot of potatoes, chicken, and pasta. Different forms, but that is the bulk of my diet. I try to get more veggies and fruit in there, but we are never home, so it gets hard at times. But their sweets are really good.

Things are iffy with the familia ralero. The mom just doesn´t show much interest which makes it hard for everyone else. We´ll see how this week goes.

District Meeting is every week, and zone conference is every other transfer.

Here are some ideas of what you could potentially send me in a package :)

Contact solution

Chap stick- Kami knows what I like, and I am kinda picky, but it doesn´t exist at all here. And soon I will be needing some more :)

Shampoo and conditioner

deodorant

make up

toothpaste

garments

and cute sticky notes, all the hermanas have them, and I kinda want some. They come in hearts, butterflies, stars, apples, etc. We use them to leave notes with our investigators.

extra razor blades

and as always. Chocolate.

It is just hard to get American like items so these are the things that would either be really hard, or really expensive.

How is dad doing? Are you going for all of trek? I hope the first of summer is going well!!!

I love you so much!!!

Corinne

 Hermana Collette, Freeman, Durham, Orton

 Hermana Durham & Orton & Michele (member that goes teaching with them)

First Zone Conference

May 23, 2011 - Letter

Dear Mom,

 

As always, I don't have much time. Sorry about that. Okay, a quick update of this week.

 

Monday after I emailed you, we went to see the Familia Ralero, a family of nine that we are teaching. The mom is giving us a little but of resistance, but we still have high hopes for them, and we are going to see them after Internet. Yes, I bake the cake in the pot because we don't have a cake pan!!!

 

On Tuesday, we had district meeting, it is always fun to go to Bahia for those. It is a little adventure for us since the buses aren't always regular. It was a little sad, because I still haven't gotten any mail. I highly encourage those of you who are emailing me to dear elder me! I can't respond to emails outside of my family, so that will make life a little easier! I took the cake to district meeting, and it was very well received by the elders. Our district leader is Argentine, and he had never had an American style cake before, but he really liked it! I have been invited to make dessert anytime I please. We also taught Joana, one of our investigators, she is doing well, but is really shy so she doesn't want to go to church. We hope we can get here there this week.

Wednesday was the birthday of Michelle, possibly my favorite member here. She turned 18 and she is great. She loves the missionaries, and she works with us about once a week. She is great, she invited us for lunch at her house, and it was so good! We also met with a less active family, the familia Captivila. They are so nice and we hope that they will start to come to church again. It is really hard to get people to come to church. Really hard.

 

Thursday I had my first zone conference! It was great! And I even understood most of what was said. That was very nice. And H. Durham and  i received some inspiration for our area. We are working on getting a temple here in Bahia, and we are going to start talking with more members about it and get them excited. We are also planning a ward activity all about the temple to help those members, and investigators start planning on going to the Buenos Aires temple when it is rededicated.

 

On Friday we woke up to find that our fuse had blown. We had no electricity. It made studying very difficult. And, we were freezing. But we got someone to come fix it. And, I told a story to H. Durham, all in Spanish!!! It was great!

 

The weekend passed really fast, but I did give my first talk in church. A lot of people told me I did well, but I am still unsure. I was so shaky after it happened. But now that the first one is over, I think that it will help me be more confidant in the future. I am able to speak a little more Spanish, which is nice. and I am understanding almost everything that is being said. H. Durham and I are going to do a couple of days with no English whatsoever, so that will also help.

 

Ricardo is okay. He didn't come to church, but we are meeting with him again in a couple of days and I hope that it goes well.

 

Keep trying to send me the pictures,  I am dying to see them!!!

 

Love you!!!

 

Corinne

May 16th - Letter & Pictures

Dear Mom,

As always, it seems that this ends up being one of the most stressful parts of the week!!! Not a bad stress, there just isn´t much time! But that is okay. I am going to try to send you some pictures. I am doing well!! So no worries about that.

President is awesome, and even though for the time being our communication is lacking, I can tell that he is really funny. I really like him. We have used an interpreter (one of the other elders) but hopefully soon, I won´t need one!!! The mission home is huge! The next time I go, I will try to get some pictures sent after this email. I can´t give out our physical address. Sorry.

Hermana Durham is my companion. She is awesome. She is from Nevada, and she goes home in July! We are praying that she will stay here for her last transfer. She is doing an awesome job at training me and helping me learn Spanish! She is so patient and doesn´t make me feel like an idiot, which really helps me feel confidant.

We did go to Bahia Blanca, but just for district meeting. I have yet to get a sleeping bag,  but I will let you know when that happens. I haven´t needed it yet, but it is starting to get cold, so i will need it soon. We take a bus from Punta Alta, to Bahia, it takes about an hour with all of the stops and everything. But it is kinda fun. I had my first experience on a public bus and in a taxi this week. Ha ha, a lot of firsts on a mission.

Yes, that was my wax, I did a little bit to, but forgot to take pictures. I went first, and I really didn´t want to go again just to take more pictures. Tell Karalynn that I say hi!

It has been a good, but trying week! We are working hard, and we think that we may have found a new investigator! His name is Ricardo and he is 16 years old. We have high hopes for him. We also have a couple of contacts that we are hoping turn out well. We do have a lot of walking and that gets tiring.

We also had a rain storm this week! It worked out perfectly because Hermana Durham got sick that same day, so we didn´t get soaked. She spent all day alternating between being grateful for that and feeling guilty. She was worried she was using the weather as an excuse, but she could hardly speak and she was coughing up a storm, so I told her to stop feeling guilty! It is okay to take care of yourself.

Church is getting better, I know some of the members now, and I am starting to understand more Spanish. Which is great!

Okay, I am going to go and try to get these pictures sent!

I love you!!!

Corinne

Okay, The first two are what I see when i look out my door!!!

 

The third is at the Mission Home, we had a meeting with the new missionaries and their trainers.

 

The next two we took today. We went to the Darwin museum for P day!!! Ha ha, it was super fun. So it goes Hermana Collette, Hermana Freeman, me, and Hermana Durham

Good news!!! I can still bake in another country! My cake last week turned out well, so this week we decided to try cookies and cream! It turned out really good, but really really rich! The cocoa here is a little different. But I liked it!

SHE'S THERE! Letter - May 9, 2011

Dear Mom,

So a quick overview of my travels. We left the MTC on Monday at 10 am. We went to the airport, got all checked in, through security, and got to call home!!! Which was awesome, and I may or may not have cried like a baby. After hanging up and going back to the gate to get ready to board, we heard an announcement that said our flight had been delayed about half an hour. About ten minutes later, we heard another announcement saying that the techs had found a problem with the plane and that they were fixing it, and we had been further delayed. About half an hour after that, they said that our flight wouldn't be leaving until 3:30. We realized that this would put us in Atlanta after our connecting flight had left. So they sent us back to the MTC, and we made it back at about 5:30. We were exhausted and we hadn't even left the state yet!!! So we woke up the next morning at 4, so we could leave at 5. We drove to the airport, had a 8:30 flight, and were in Atlanta by 2:30. We then had a six hour layover. During said layover, we at a chili's, which was awesome by the way, had some pretty long, and pretty awesome phone calls!!! We then got on our flight!!! We then flew for 10 hours to Buenos Aires. We there met Alfonso, who got us loaded onto a van, which took us to another airport. We then chilled at said airport for another 6 hours while we waited for our next flight to Bahia Blanca. We then had a 1 hour flight to Bahia Blanca where we met President Detlefsen. He is pretty awesome, and he speaks fairly slow so I understand most of what he says.

We then went to the mission office, had empanadas for dinner, and filled out some paper works. Then the elders went to the office home, and I went to President's home for the night. Then next day (Thursday) we went back to the office, had interview's with President, went back to President's house for an amazing lunch, had a meeting there where we found out where we would be serving, and who our companions would be. We then went back to the mission office, got our luggage, and went to our areas!

I am serving in Punta Alta, about 20 miles south of Bahia. I got here around 7 pm on Thursday. There are two wards here in Punta, and my ward is the Atlandia Barrio (ward). They are a great little ward, but they are struggling quite a bit. There are a lot of in actives, and it is really hard to get people to commit to coming to church. As a whole people are fairly relaxed, and don't like to feel obligated to do things.

But we have a wonderful goal as a mission. The Church wants to build a temple here in Bahia!!! We need to up the members before they can buy the land and start construction though. Please pray that the work goes well here, the whole county could use a temple in the southern part of the country. The closest temple to us is 12 hours away!!!

The weather isn't too bad. It is typical fall weather, but it is windy all the time, and it is a pretty chilly wind. You can certainly tell that winter is on its way! It hasn't rained yet, but I hear that in this part of the country I can expect a lot of rain during the winter. It's a good thing that I have my rain boots!!!

I live in a little house. We have a little kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. Hermana Durham and I live with two other Hermanas, Hermana Collette, and Hermana Freeman. They are all awesome. I will for sure try to get some pictures sent next week, I may or may not have forgotten my camera at the house...sorry about that...I will be better.

It is a little overwhelming, as I still don't know Spanish, but I know as I do my best that the language will come.

Alot of our area doesn't have paved streets or sidewalks, so we are walking in a lot of sand. It isn't too bad though and (knock on wood) I don't have any blisters yet. 

Oh!!! And last night after we hung up the phone, Hermana Durham was talking to her mom, and our cell phone went off. I had to be the one to answer it because she was already talking. I. Was. Terrified. But I answered it, and I understood most of what was being said!!! I was so excited. I couldn't respond very well, but that's okay! I am just excited that I understood!!!

Alot of the sidewalks here are made from tiles. Almost like kitchen tiles. And they can get really slippery. A couple of times I have almost fallen. It's pretty funny.

Well. I think that is about it for this week. Hopefully I answered all of your questions. I will keep trying to take good notes as the weeks go on, so I can let you know what is going on with as much detail as possible!!!

I love you and I am praying for you!!!

Corinne