Time warp

Well hello everyone!!! 

Hey guess what, great news! DearElder is free for all of you wanting to send letters to me! Whoohoo! I´m in a very choice mission :) So just throwing that out there. (create an account on www.dearelder.com and then you can write a letter to Heidi for free!) 

anyway... so uh ya this week was great...WHAT IN THE WORLD HOW IS IT MONDAY AGAIN???? I swear, I¨m in a time warp or something!!! Whooo!!!! Time flies!

So our schedule changed! We go to bed at eleven now and wake up at 7! Mmmm this is the life! we´re surrounded by orchards yay i love fruit! But everyone says that argentina doesnt import stuff a lot so winter time has like no fruits and vegetables gah! We´ll see what happens when that comes around! 

We´ve been working hard meeting all the less actives here, man its so crazy how people let the most important things in their lives slip away so easily. It´s just like that talk from general conference, when the family took a drive one sunday instead of going to sacrament meeting and from there became less active. All you people out there reading this, don´t let that happen to you! Take the time now to sit down and prioritize your life. Look at what you are doing, and what more you can be doing. Think about what is important to you, and make sure you give that the time that it deserves.

We had an amazing zone conference this week about unity and the faith to find the people waiting for this gospel. We made our own little title of liberty, (a story in the Book of Mormon.. a captain rallies his people to defend their rights and their liberty by writing on his torn shirt " In memory of our god our religion and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children" read about it here) with a zone goal for the next month and signed it. It was so cool! What does your title of liberty say?

Well I hope you all have an amazing week! Love you lots and wish you all a week full of smiles!!!!

Hermana Albright

Well if you are like me you found that letter a little  really... unfulfilling.  Luckily we have a secret spa AKA Heidi's mom who found out more information for us...

Her branch meets in a house, with the living room as the sacrament and gospel principle class and bedrooms as primary and youth meetings and relief society. There are 30 members total, counting children and 4 missionaries, two sisters and two elders. These four missionaries are one district.

She and her companion are currently not teaching anyone and would like us to pray for them to have people to teach.

There are plenty of fruits and veggies now, but she hears in the winter there are none.

She has not seen any penguins (bummer) but mosquitos seem to follow her everywhere (worse bummer). 

I asked about other critters like bedbugs but got no answer. 

She loves her pension, apartment, and has a grandmother type lady who washes their clothes and feeds them desserts. Heidi says she is a tender mercy from the Lord.  She doesn't want the lessons, but will let the sisters  share a scripture with her when they come for dessert.  They love her!

Mostly they cook on their own, but the members do share whatever they have with them, which Heidi says is really sweet as the members do not have much. Heidi gets a monthly card with $120 per month with which to buy food.

I hope you now feel stuffed or at least content with your information on Heidi!! Until next time..

Official Argentinian Missionary

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ARGENTINA!!!!!

OK! I´m officially a missionary here! My companions name is Hermana D and she is from Honduras! She served for six months in her country waiting for a visa, and last transfer was her first full transfer here! So we are learning the ropes of this mission together. She is so great! We have lots of fun together already playing charades everyday. (They play charades because Heidi's companion doesn't speak English) I´m in Huergo! And yes, it took me forever to learn how to say that. We´re starting a new zone here, breaking off from the roca zone! Peace out roca! See you later! It´s lots of fun! This transfer the mission is opening a ton of new districts and new zones, some even brand brand brand new, with no church or members or nothin! So pray for those missionaries to be ok!

We got in our area on Friday.  Before that, we were celebrating the new years and then hanging out with President and his wife! It was so great! we finally got our mission training and we had a blast eating facturas (yummy yummy things...like a very sweet crescent with filling and powdered sugar). And I got to spend the night in a hotel! Whoo! I was a little nervous at first, but it was AMAZING! And it had free breakfast whoohoo!

In the training with president, one thing that he talked about really stood out to me: We are all a son or daughter of God. Nothing can change that. And nothing can take that away. Every decision that we make here on earth either helps reveal this true identity or hides it. Don´t hide who you are! Make a decision every day to bring you closer to your Father, and brings you a greater knowledge of who you were before. I just loved that. So in this New Year, I hope you all have a goal to do things to help reveal your identity as a child of God. I know that as you do so you will find even greater happiness this year. Love you all! 

Hermana Albright

Heidi lives close to an orchard and is loving the large fruit she gets from it!

Their pet turtle that lives in the courtyard of their pensions (apartments)

First Email from Argentina!

Heidi is now serving in Argentina.  Letters will take about 5 weeks to get to her when you mail them, so be patient for your response :) But she loves getting letters! Here is the address where you can send your letters for Heidi from now on:

Hermana Heidi Albright

Mision Argentina Neuqun

Zapla N 24 - Casilla de Correo 321

8300 Neuquen

Neuquen Argentina

Merry Christmas and  A Happy New Year!!!

As they say around here, Feliz Fiestas! I hope you all had an amazing Christmas, and will have a fun and safe New Year! 

So for us, we went to a member´s home to eat dinner Christmas Eve. It was a very good dinner, and I quite enjoyed but oh buddy was I stuffed!!!! We had seven plates of food, six plates full of meat. WHOO! We had to leave because of curfew before we could enjoy dessert, but that was a-ok with my stomach!  We got to stay up till 12:30 because they celebrate Christmas here with fireworks at midnight! So that was fun. And the next day we got to sleep in till 8. Mmmmm sleep :)  As for missionary work, we sang carols to anyone awake! (the people here are ALWAYS sleeping! Stinkin siestas) Lots of fun. And the next day, we got to skype!!! HI FAMILY! LOVE YOU! 

The best part of the week was definitely Saturday though. We had a Christmas Conference as a zone with Presidente and Hermana Lovell!!! It was seriously the BEST! We had a great training from President Lovell, and a wonderful slideshow of Christ and of the mission, and a gift exchange, and then TESTIMONY MEETING! Man I love testimony meetings! This one was so great too. Definitely something that I needed. Because not gonna lie, it´s been a hard transition to leave Virginia. My heart never really arrived in Argentina. But during this meeting, I rededicated myself to the Lord and to this mission, and now I can honestly say that Hermana Albright is serving a mission in Argentina! Look out everyone! <haha

Also, everything shuts down for holidays here. Let´s be honest, everything shuts down every day here because of siestas. Haha but because of this, transfers have been pushed back! Since nothing and no one will be working on new years. So Wednesday now is when I find out where I´m going to serve, and Thursday I go to Presidente´s house for training and intro to the mission and all that jazz. 

Ok final thing! on Sunday, I was asked to bare my testimony to the ward and introduce myself in sacrament meeting. At first, I didn´t really see the point of doing so, since I´m most likely leaving this week anyway, but I cheerfullly did so and testified to the ward of this work.  Later, the final speaker in the meeting pulled out his notebook during his talk to quote me word for word. I´m pretty sure that´s the first and last time anyone´s ever quoted me! But it definitely made me realize 1-the power of a missionary´s calling and 2-the great impact that our little actions have.

Ok So first, being a missionary is amazing!!!! If you are thinking about going on a mission, do it! It´s probably definitely the best thing you could do in your life because it´ll affect you and others forever.  And for those of you preparing, study lots! What you say is taken as truth, so make sure you know what you´re talking about. And for those of you home, take some time to reflect on your mission and what you learned in that time. Always live worthy of the trust of the Lord and of the people you served. You were a beacon of light to them, never forget it and never lose that light. If your light has dimmed, don´t worry! The Atonement is real and you can shine brightly once again.

Second, all of our actions have a ripple effect. Many of your actions may not seem that important, but they really are way more important than you know. You make a difference in every single person´s life that you come in contact with. It is up to you to make sure that the effect you leave is a good one. Never think that you are unimportant. More people treause your words and your love than you know. And never think that what you do doesn´t matter, because it does.

Always remember, you are loved! 

Hermana Albright

Church in Roca