July 23, 2012- Letter

Dear Mom and Dad,                        

This week was a very eventful week! I am again, mildly short on time. And, I should say, it is really lame that somehow you always manage to get the short end of the stick when I am running short on time. I just wrote a pretty long email to Presidente Parreño, and it takes me much longer to write in Spanish than it does in English.

Okay, I just read your email, and it is just clicking to me that it is Uncle Matt that passed away! I was thinking it was Dad´s Uncle Mark. Please, please tell the Smith family that I am thinking of them, and praying for them, and that I love them! I know he will be missed, but I also know that he never abandoned his family, and I know that he is not about to do so now.

Main events of this week. On Wednesday we had a zone service project. I was really excited that it happened, because we’ve been talking about it for almost a month now, and it never happened! We went to a school, and painted a couple of the rooms. It was really fun. Unfortunately, not very many supplies like paintbrushes were brought, so we had to keep rotating, and it took a little bit more time than we were hoping, but it still went really well. And I think we did a good job. A couple of us Hermanas got a little crazy, (hna alvarez, hna gonzalez, and I), and pictures will be included at the end. You will be happy to see, that although I am a very serious missionary, I have not completely lost my personality! haha.

We also had a Relief Society activity on Saturday, and that went great! We have been trying to work a little bit more with the menos activos, and it is really starting to show. One of the menos activos came to the activity, and she had a really good time. We are also really noticing a difference with the ward. They are starting to realize that we really are here to help them, and that they are really really important to us.

We had a couple of surprises on Sunday. A surprise investigator came to church. His name is Joel, and he is the boyfriend of a girl that is in another branch. They came together, and we have a lot of hope for him. Please pray for him, that he will be okay, that he will listen to us, and that he will be able to progress. He is getting ready to change his number, and so we gave him our number to get in contact with us. Please pray that he will get a hold of us, the ball is completely in his court, and that makes me really nervous that maybe he just won’t call. But if we are all praying, it will happen! Please help us!

Presidente Parreño and the Hna Parreño came to our Sacrament Meeting on Sunday as well, and Hna Parreño is in love with my singing voice. It is really flattering, but it makes me a little embarrassed. Hahah, but she is about the sweetest person to ever walk the planet. They spoke, and it was fantastic, they are just so full of the spirit, I can really tell that they are going to help me the last few months of my misson.

We also had a menos active come to church. It has been over a year since she has come, and we were SO excited to see her there. And the ward was great! They all talked to her, and tried to help her feel welcome! Her name is Ines Moreno, and we are hoping that she is on her way to being fully active again.

Okay, I seriously don’t have much time, but I do need you to remind me to tell you the story about Gonzalo next week. I’m not telling it for two reasons. One, the time thing. Two, the story isn’t completely over. Lets just say that by the time you get to where I am in the mission, you think you have experienced basically everything that there is, and let me tell you my dear parents, I have yet to experience everything. There are still lots of surprises in store. Transfers are in two weeks, and I am freaking out.

Oh, we also had the Hermanas from White living in our apartment for a while this week. It was really fun, but let me tell you, our apartment is not big enough for four. Haha. Will you also keep Hermana Baker in your prayers? She is going through a bit of a hard time, and she is one of my best friends here. I am really worried for her.

Okay, that is pretty much it. I will write more next week, I PROMISE!

I love you!!!
Corinne

July 9, 2012- Letter

Dear Mom and Dad,

I have not yet met my new mission president, and the site where we write him our weekly email is down, and so I haven´t even been able to write hm yet. It is really weird, even though he is so close, I feel so isolated from him. I assume, that at some point we will meet him, and I would assume that it would be soon. But then again, you know what happens when you assume, right Dad? (Hehe, I´m so funny). 

This week has been really good. There were a couple of exciting things that happened. 

One was on Tuesday. It was just a normal Tusday, except that we had gone to a different church for our district meeting. But really, not that big of a deal. Then we were walking to catch a bus (we being Hna Carson, Hna Pixtn, Hna Baker, and I), and we had to cross a street, which really, when you think about it isn´t that weird, missionaries cross streets all the time, right? Except this time was different. I stepped off the curb, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground. Again, not that weird, I fall all the time. But again, this time was different. I sprained my ankle.  It hurt soooo bad. So we called a Remis (aka taxi) and it took us to Romina and Fernando´s house, where we were having lunch that day.While we were there, we called Elder Galan (aka district leader) and told him what happened, and we figured out a way to do emergency divisions. Hna Baker (since she knows sports med stuff) stayed with me, and Hna Pixton went with Hna Carson. I was just glad that we were able to figure it out, because if not, I would have gone to work anyways, we had way to much going on for me to waste a day sitting at home. As it was, I wsn´t super exciting about doing nothing that day, but sometimes it is better to rest for a day, and then be able to work the rest of the week. (For all my ex leaders who happen to be reading this, see how much I´ve learned? I wouldn´t have said that when you were here. Sorry it takes me so long to learn my lessons.). Don´t worry, I was completely fine the next day, and I was able to work. Okay fine, it still hurt a little, but not too bad. And it only hurts everyonce in while now. Yay!

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We had lots of surprise lessons with members, which was great. We just showed up at members homes, and they had friends there. None of them where in our area, but thats okay. 

The other really exciting things all happened yesterday. And by exciting, I mean lame. 

There were two. One was during Sunday School. Its called the teacher didn´t show up so I had to give the class without preparing anything. I hate that. I feel so flustered and disorganized. I just feel like I ramble because I am nervous, and I don´t know what is going to happen next, and I feel like I should know because I am the teacher. But really, overall, it turned out alright, and I should grow up and stop complaining. 

The other unpleasant shock came two minutes before Sacrament Meeting started, and I was getting ready to go play the prelude music. Okay fine, like 7 minutes before the meeting started, but still the key is that I had to play the prelude music. One of the Hnos came up and said that one of the Hnas hadn´t showed up, is there anyway that I could give a talk? Again. Not a fan. I ended up saying who knows what about enduring to the end, and keeping the commandments. I felt very scattered, but it turned out okay. People lied and said they couldn´t tell that I hadn´t had time to prepare, so that was generous of them. I did share the scriptures 2 Nefi 31:20, Lucas 5:5, and 2 Kings 6:15-17 (it might be chapter 8, I can´t quite remember.) 

I suppose if I am being mature about the situation, I should be glad that people have that much confidance in my abilities to speak, that would ask me to do that. And I am grateful for the help that I recieved that I was able to pull it off, even if it wasn´t at the level I would prefer.

The other really exciting things that happened are:

1) Jesica Salvo is visiting her family, and she came to church yesterday all on her own! We are on our way to being fast friends, and she is showing more and more interest all the time, which is great!

2) Fernando gave his very first lesson in YM´s today. (he was recently called as the first counselor in the YM Presidency) He, and our cute YM said that he did a great job! Bishop said that we were not allowed to go to YM to listen to the lesson. I didn´t think that he would say yes, but it doesn´t hurt to ask, right?

3) Ezequiel blessed the sacrament for the first time yesterday! He is using his Priesthood! I am so excited!!!!! And guess who taught him how to do it? Fernando! I just love watching people grow!

I have recently really started to be good about using a study journal, and I have noticed a huge difference in my studies. I have always enjoyed my studies, but the more time I have in the mision, the more sacred that time becomes. I am so grateful for the scriptures, and all that they teach us. I am also grateful for the prophets who wrote the scriptures, and all that they went through so that we can have them now, and do the things that the Lord would have us do. 

I am happy to say, that I can still say that I love being a missonary, and I am so grateful for the time that I have had, and still have, to dedicate myself to the Lord, and do the work that He would do if He were here. 

I pray for you all, all the time. I love you so much! Thank you for all that you do for me! Love love love!!!

Corinne

July 2, 2012- Letter

Dear Mom and Dad,                       
I am certainly happy where it is not hot. Although it does make internet a little more tricky since my fingers are cold, and I can’t type with gloves on!!! Haha.

I do think I am with Zac on this one...Sorry Parents, Bingo does make you should a little...advance in age. But I am glad that you enjoyed it!

This week was really good! We certainly didn’t have the success that we were looking for in new investigators. In fact, we didn’t find anyone this week. But Hna Carson and I have done so much better with our contacting, and we have a lot of citas set up for this week, I am really excited.

Hna Carson is doing so much better. She seems to have so much more confidence, and is enjoying being a missionary more. It makes me so happy! I want her to enjoy being a missionary, and to have the hope to stay her whole time. I know she can do it, and she is starting to believe that she can do it too!!!

We have been a lot better about receiving references, and that is making so much of a difference. The ward is getting so much more excited to help us out, and they are thinking of things that they can do on their own. It is so great! My secret goal is to have Pueyrredon be a dream area by the time I leave. Right now, to everyone on the mission Pueyrredon is one of those really hard areas, where it is really possible that you wont´see any success. And I am not okay with that. Our area has so much space, and so many people. There are so many people who are just waiting to hear the gospel. We are well on our way to meeting that goal. People are less suprised when they hear of the things that are happening here, so that is great. It is starting to be normal to see success in Pueyrredon.

We do have a new mission President now. I still don’t remember his name...kinda embarrassing....but I still haven’t met him, so we´ll blame that. I think that we will be meeting him this week. That is the rumor. But who knows. I sure don’t .

I also haven’t gotten the packages yet, but the Elder who was in charge of all that was really sick, and he ended up having to have to go home because he was having some pretty serious heart problems. So there is a new Elder in there now who is getting everything all figured out. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it showed up soon.

Hna Bingham says hi! You want to know how I know that? She is here! She had to come to Bahía to do some paper work, and she is staying with us! It is so great! She got here last night, and we spent the majority of the time together. It has been fantastic. It has been really fun. I want to trade her places, so that I can go back to SAO. I miss everyone there!!!

Umm...this may "date me"  but what the heck is a Tablet, and why would that have been a good win from your Bingo?

Will you tell everyone that at the Family Reunion that I say hi?! I don’t think I realized that you were going to have one, and now I am immensely jealous!  Give everyone lots of hugs for me! How old is the youngest one in the family now from our first cousins? It is really weird to think that we are all getting so old!

The good news is this. I feel as if I am really starting to see some of the improvements that I have been hoping to see. It is a little sad that they have taken so long to kick in, but better late than never! It has been very gratifying to see some of the results of long, long work, with seemingly little progress, but I am now able to check off some of the goals that I had set at the beginning of my mission, and to review some of the things that I was doing, and what I am doing now, and it is really nice to see the difference.

Thank you thank you thank you for the awesome long email. I am going to print it off, and read it a little bit better when I get home tonight. I am so glad that you are all doing well, and I hope you all remember that I am praying for you every night. I miss you like crazy, and I love you even more!

Corinne

June 18, 2012- Letter

Dear Mom and Dad,                       

Happy Fathers Day Dad! I sure love you! I hope that you had a great day!
Mom, I enjoy all of your emails! In a year and a little bit more, I have never had a boring email! I don’t have a ton of time this week, we are going to the doctor, since Hna Carson is having some problems with her foot, and I wrote Presidente a really really long email, so my time is going to be a little shorter this week.

This week was really good. A couple of interesting things happened.

One. Last Monday Elder Howard, my district leader got his toenail removed because it was ingrown. He had decided it was a good idea to take it out on his own, and it got infected, so after a couple of weeks of Hna Baker and I bothering him, he went to the doctor. And, long story short, the toenail got removed. However, the infection did not get completely removed. So on Tuesday morning before district meeting, Hna Baker and I cleaned his infection out of his toe. We did it as completely sanitary as possible. We got there really early to clean the room up really well, and to start boiling water, so we could have sanitary water to work with. Elder Howard had exaggerated a little bit, the night before he made it sound like his toe was the fountain of blood that no one had ever seen, and in reality, with us it hardly bled at all. But, we got it all cleaned up with hydrogen peroxide. (Mom, I hope that you are doing a spelling check before you send this to anyone.) I think we almost made the poor boy cry, but at least his infection isn’t going to spread and he isn’t going to loose his toe or his foot during his mission. That was the goal. Given our circumstances, I think we did a pretty decent job.

Two. This last week we also did divisions! And I left again. I went to Pringles! My companion of two days was Hna Leguizamon. (Good luck saying that one.) We had a really good time. Pringles is a little city about two hours away from Bahía Blanca. We started divisions on Tuesday, and ended them on Thursday. There was a little bit of drama getting out of Bahía since most of the bus services had been suspended, but we finally made it out at about 8pm.

Before that, we were working in our area, and it was really nice to have a couple of extra hands on deck. We split up into three companionships, and my companion of a couple hours was the lovely Hna Squire. She is from HIghland, Ut, and I love that girl. We worked together for a couple of hours in Puerrydon, and sat together on the bus, and we have become BFF´s. I really hope I get to see her again.

Pringles is really weird. Everyone let us in. Okay, not everyone, but a lot of people. And everyone made it sound super small like SAO, but it really wasn’t that tiny. I really enjoyed my time there. And I had met Hna Leguizamon in Mar del, so it was really fun to work with her again.

I think the biggest surprise of the week was coming home, and hearing that Ivan has a baptisimal fecha. And yes, this is the same Ivan that confessed his feelings of amor. He, and his little brother Francis, will be getting baptized on Sunday. Yes. In six days. If all goes according to plan. I have no idea what happened in the lesson while I was gone, but I am really grateful. Tomorrow we will have our first lesson with them this week, and I am really anxious to see how it goes. Please, please pretty please pray for them. I know that Ivan already knows that everything is true. They would be such great members of the church! I will let you know next Monday how everything goes, but for now, please pray!

Okay, I am now going to add some pictures, and then I gotta go! Sorry my letter is so short this week!!!

Well, in a couple of days we will get transfers! I will let you know what happens! I hope you have a good week! Girls camp is going to be awesome! And so will bachelor week for the boys! Tell Zac that if he is going to be a bachelor for a week, he should certainly have time to write me an email! Haha.
I love you!!!
Corinne

June 11, 2012- Letter

Dear Mom and Dad,                      

Which of the girls from the ward are in Cheer? Holly, and Anna I assume, but who else?

This week was good. There were three main events from this week.

1) Zone Conference! It was really weird to have my last zone conference with Presidente Detlefsen and the Hermana, but to the surprise of all that I know, I did not cry my eyes out the whole time. It was a great conference, and Presidente and Hna said goodbye to us all, which was very depressing. But, as always, Presidente knew just what to say to help me get myself back on course!

I also got to see Hna McWhorter at the conference! It was great! I was so excited! We talked every spare second we had, and I am very happy to report that she is doing great! She is working in an area called Pigue, and it is a hard area, but she is doing so great! I just love her, and I was so excited to be able to see her again before I go home!!! We had 9 Hermanas at the conference, and it has been more than 6 months since I have been with that large a gathering of Hermanas, it was great! Although, I realized how old in the mission I am! Super weird!

2) Ezequiel got baptized! It was so great! We had a really good program. Since he is a YSA, we had the program completely full of YSA. It was really great, some of the YSA from the Stake ended up coming since they knew him. We were a little worried at first since he had had some mildly negative experiences with some of the YSA before, but everything turned out just great! He even enjoyed himself.

It has taken him a while to get comfortable with us, but we learned on Friday (the day of his interview) that he is indeed comfortable with us. This is how we learned, when he came out of his interview (at the church), he sat down on a bench, and put his head in his hands, and Elder Howard came in, and looked a little distressed. After a minute, Elder Howard told us that they had put a new date for the next week for another interview. I thought I was going to die. I tried super hard to be supportive, and to say okay, that’s fine, what do we need to do? When Ezequiel looked up, at Elder Howard, and Elder Howard told us that it was a joke, and that Ezequiel passed the interview. I wanted to hit the both! And turns out it was Ezequiel´s idea!

So he got baptized! And it was great! And yesterday, he came to church in a dress shirt and tie to get confirmed! It was so great! He looked so good, and like a professional member of the church! I was so happy!

3) I got sick. Don’t worry! I am already doing better, but Friday night, I started to not feel so great. It was very unpleasant. So I went to bed early, and when I woke up on Saturday, I felt a little bit like I had strep throat. But I focused on baptism things instead of sick feelings. And I was fine. But then at the end, when we were getting ready to leave, like 5 members told me I should sleep since I look really sick. How flattering. So I went to bed early on Saturday and I got up a little late on Sunday, but not so late that we were late for church. At church about half the members there told me that I was looking a little dead, (and yes, more than one person used that description, again, how flattering), and so after eating lunch (with Gaby and his family Yay!), we went home and I slept more. I feel much better today, and the strep feeling, which faded yesterday is completely gone today. Yay! So don’t worry, its just a cold.

oh there is a 4) I got a haircut today! It doesn’t look much different as you will see in the pictures, but I am very very happy!

Funny story with bishop. Okay, it won’t be as good since I am out of time, but I will do my best.

Last Sunday, as we were arriving at the church, we saw bishop get in his car, and start to back up a little bit. So me, being the bright thing that I am decided to run behind it, since he had already seen us, and stand behind it like I do with Dad. Originally, not such a bad idea, as I have done this hundreds of times before. Except, then it turned into a really dumb idea, when Bishop didn’t see me, and accidentally ran into me. Not too hard, I didn’t even get a cool bruise out of it, but Bishop fully hit me with his car. I don’t think I have ever seen him so concerned. He wasn’t going so fast that it was that big of a deal, but it just goes to show that your parents are always right. When they tell you not to run behind cars that are backing up and might not see you, they have a point. Potentially even a good one. But now I can say I got hit by a car in Argentina. One more thing I can check off the list.

Okay, I got to go, but I love love love LOVE you!!!
 
Corinne