First Letter:
Well well well!!! I'm off to Argentina!!!!! Who knew? Well
Hermana M knew haha but not me!!! So crazy! I have now learned my
lesson to never believe rumors. A lesson that we should all learn... Everything I had heard about visa news was
wrong! Hi my name is Hermana Albright, and I am gullible. First step right?
Anyway, I got this text from my mission president, "Please call when possible - thanks" and three missed calls
from him (whoops! we forgot to turn the sound on again!) So I called him right
back without actually reading the texts, so he tells me to read the texts and
call him back! Well as you can see his text is very cryptic, so i call him back
to decipher it, and he tells me I'm a leaving! AHHHH!!!! It's been craziness. A
couple days later, he calls back and asks hermana r what she's doing to her
companions to make them all leave her....because another hermana got her visa
too! She's leaving January 1! Happy new year!
So I've had an amazing last week in Virginia!!! Lots of fun
Christmas presents from friends and family thank you so much to each and every
one of you!!! I loved it all :D And most of it is already in my tummy. YUM!
:D
In the midst of all these fun packages was lots of work!
Preparing N for her baptism on Sunday, visiting members and less actives
to spread Christmas cheer and encourage them to do the same, finding new
investigators, learning lots of Spanish (yikes! haha), playing the chimes with
the youth, and planning a caroling event for everyone and anyone that wants to
come join with us! It's been lots of fun! The best thing ever happened Saturday
night:
We went over to an investigators house, and finally met her
husband and kid! YAY! So we were teaching her whole family, plus her cousin who
had sat in on the last lesson this week because of a work injury (he shot a
four inch nail into his nail. Not fun.) So we were having a great lesson
on receiving answers to prayers and right when we were really getting to the
good part, her husband's brother came into the room. So we asked him if he
wanted to join us, and he did! After a little introduction about us and the
church and what we're doing here, another brother walked in! And he joined with
us! So then come the questions. Question after question after question and I am
sweating!!! But we were able to testify with the Spirit and the whole family
wants to learn more and go to church! It was seriously amazing.
And then we finished off the week with an amazing Sunday! I just
love Sundays, don't you? What a great blessing we have to have the Lord bless
us with His Spirit for all the day long as we dedicate our time to Him.
I've had such a great time serving here in Virginia. I'm so
grateful that I had the chance to learn and grow and serve and meet the people
here! I have been truly blessed. No way would I ever trade my experiences
here for anything in the world. It is wonderful to be able to dedicate my time
to my Savior. I have come so much closer to Him already in these past six
months and am so excited to learn even more! I am so grateful for this
opportunity to be an instrument in His hands and help His children feel His
love and show their love for Him in return. I know that this church is true. I
know that Christ lives and is the head of His church today. I know that there
is a great power in prayer. I know that the scriptures are the words of God,
written for us specifically to give us the strength and guidance we need. I
know that the cleansing power of baptism, and the sacrament is real and that as
we take of the bread and water each week, we are made clean. How blessed we
are! For the sacrifice of Christ is real and because of Him, we can find true
peace and joy. I hope you all take the time out of the busyness of this season
to dedicate to the One who gave us the greatest gift of all. I love you all and
miss you lots!
Off to another adventure!
Hermana
Albright
Then, Heidi got to fly to Argentina. Her flight was REALLY long! But she made it safe and sound. She was able to call and talk to the family during her layover and we all loved chatting with her!! There were 12 sisters who arrived with Heidi to join the Argentina South mission.
Second Letter
Hello friends and family!!!
Well here I am in Argentina!!! Can you believe it? I sure can´t!
I´m in a whole new world here, it´s so weird. SO ya....so much to put in, so
little time haha. I´m in a threesome again! Woot Woot!!! Always the best :) My
two companions are both from Peru!
But luckily, they´ve both taken English in school so we can talk with each
other just fine.there´s this full week with them though, and then we have
transfers!!! So it´s just craziness everywhere. With the next transfer, we´ll
have as many hermanas here as there were missionaries before the mission split.
How crazy is that???
It was a long trip to get here, we travelled for more than
36 hours! So needless to say, I was very happy to find a bed waiting for me.
When we arrived, we went to the mission house for an hour for a quick dinner,
then off to our new areas! We´ll get all the training and intro to the mission
in a week for transfers. Oh I forgot to mention that my companions are both
still in training. So I´m kind of training them on missionary work while
they´re training me on Argentina it´s a party!
It´s a whole new world here. And it´s summer time! School´s out,
people are playing in the water all day long and it´s hot hot hot! It´s so
weird that it´s still Christmastime, it doesn´t really seem that way to me, not
much is decorated around here. But we were able to go caroling yesterday with
the youth, so that was great!
The Castellano (is that how you spell it? I don´t even know!) is
difficult to understand. Everyone speaks so much faster here than they do in
the states! And I´m difficult for them to understand because I use Mexican
phrases and haven´t picked up their accent yet. Haha one day I´ll be able to
sound like a true Argentine! Also, I don´t stand out as much as I thought I
would, there´s a lot of white Argentinians so thats good.
Well I hope you have a very Merry Christmas! We´ll be partying
down here with fireworks outside and a bowl of helado. Smile at lots of people
and make their day, eh? Hasta luego!
Hermana
Albright
We were able to talk to Heidi the day after Christmas. She sounded like she is loving her missionary experience so far! In her apartment she has a washing machine, a stove, oven, AND a microwave (she really wanted one of those) and a fridge and freezer. Heidi said people think that she is shy because she isn't comfortable with the language enough to participate in conversations very often... they'll learn soon enough that's not true! Christmas is celebrated differently in Argentina. It sounded like it looks a lot like our New Years.. they have a party and then fireworks at midnight. We loved talking to Heidi, she looked and sounded great! She is ready for her new adventure in Argentina!
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