Heidi and her companions feeling the World Cup Fever!

 

 

June 30, 2014

ISAIH IS THE BEST!

Hello hello hello!

A really funny moment happened in church on Sunday! I normally lead the songs, but the last one was super unfamiliar to me. So I leaned back to quietly ask the Elder behind me if he knew this song, and if so if he could lead it. He readily agreed and when the time went, up he went to the front to lead the song. (side note, he´s a greenie). So the music starts, and he begins to lead...but he´s not singing at all! And NONE of the congregation knows the song. Seriously, no one. It was a struggle to say the least and everyone was fighting of failing to not laugh. There was definitely more laughter than singing. Hahaha and then at the end, all the members came up to me saying Poor Elder Clifford! Why would you do that to him? And later, a member sent us a text of the Isaiah scripture saying that he was like a lamb sent to the slaughter, and he opened not his mouth...    Hahaha whoops. I still claim that none of it was my fault though ;)

This week has been crazy, like always. We had an awesome miracle though, because we brought an investigator, Pamela, to the church to give her a tour. It was so awesome! The Spirit was so strong! She is the one that I talked about last week. We talked a lot about the symbolism of the Atonement in the Sacrament, and it was so great for all of us to take a momnet to really remember what Christ has done for us. A really cool moment for me in the lesson happened near the middle. WE started talking about the Gospel of Christ pamphlet that we had left with her, and I felt like I should open to a scripture in Isaiah 41:10 . I waited about twenty minutes more before knowing why. She started sharing about how she realizes that baptism is necessary and she loves how she has been feeling lately, but she is scared.  Without saying anything, I gave her the scripture to read. ¨Fear not...¨was all she could get out before the tears started flowing. It took a good while for her to be able to read the scripture all the way through. It was so powerful. it´s so incredible to see her growing closer to her Savior everytime we pass by. I love seeing the change in people as they accept the gospel.

I hope you all have an amazing week and can find the time to think a little more about the sacrifice Christ paid for you. Personally.  He loves you and will help you accomplish all things. As you do so, you will be strengthened in your efforts to share the gospel as well! Want some more tips on sharing the gospel? Look up Be a Missionary ALl your life by Elder Quentin L. Cook! Or Preach My Gospel! It´s amazing! Good luck! I would love to hear about the missionary moments you have this week! Vaya con Dios!

Hermana Albright

June 23, 2014

Hello hello hello!

Hope you are all enjoying your time watching the world cup! Woot woot! Luckily Argentina and USA arent playing against each other yet so i can still cheer on the both of them! (dont worry i dont actually watch the games. We go home to study when the game is on and know when it is over by all the cheering and honking horns. After a bit, we go out to work again!)

This week has been super fun adjusting to a trio again. We are all progressing personally and together so much! I am loving it! My new companion, along with Hermana Allen, is Hermana Guerrero. She is from Lima, Peru, has 7 months in the mission, and is AMAZING! I love her already. We are getting along great and using every opportunity that we have to divide and conquer! That leads to lots of adventures! We separated one day and I had to go out on my own with the member! We taught a new less active and his girlfriend and daughter. It was so hard to teach by myself I kept speaking in the WE form! I felt like the queen or something speaking in the royal we hahahaha. But they accepted the invitation to be baptised whoohoo!! We got a little lost finding our way back to my comps but were able to find a little kiosk to buy a treat tto celebrate with! One day I´ll know this crazy area. it is super cool though we have been able to get so much done in so little time as we divide up. Luckily we have great members who are willing to come out and work with us yay!

We had a branch activity, where Erica and her daughter Camila danced different culture dances! It was so much fun! (Erica is the less active that we have been teaching, that is getting married with Eduardo, our investigator who is preparing to be baptized). At the activity, Erica announced their wedding date! She was so excited! It has definitely been craziness up in here!

This week I´ve been getting into the war chapters of the book of mormon. Ya buddy! As I read them this week, it really made me realize the importance of defending our religious rights. We should also have the courage to stand for what is right! Also, when Captain Moroni made the Title of Liberty, he put it in every home for all to remember! What can be your Title of Liberty in your home to help you remember to Defend the truth?

Love you lots and hope you all have a great week defending the truth!

Hermana Albright

hahaha oh yaaa!!! Trios are so great!  My new companion is great! I love her shes from peru and we are teaching her english. We  found her a mattress but she doesnt have a real bed yet just the mattress on the floor :(  i´m back!!! my new comp is hna guerrero. and yes the people let us in, but we love grabbing a member and dividing so we can do more things , also...i may or may not have an expired visa. Haha so my dear family no more jokes about the mexicans in the states because thats me now! ;)

no, its always clapping in argentina- sometimes people have a doorbell, but its so uncommon i feel weird or rude using it haha learning how to make noodles by hand!

this is one of the other missionaries in our branch. We look a lot a like and the poor members get us so confused all the time!

June 16, 2014

Hello hello helloo!!!

Hope you all had a great fathers day!!! It was fathers day here as well, first time the holidays coincide! Woot woot! Did you all do anything fun?

Transfer newsssss!!!!! Hermana Allen and I are staying in Centenario! And we are getting a third companion from Peru, Hermana Guerrero (Warrior). So thats exciting!

Lots of drama all throughout this week it has been craziness!!!!! One thing in particular is Eduardo and Erica. Eduardo is an investigator that we have been teaching and he has been progressing a lot recently! He is living with Erica, a menos activo. And this weekend, they said that they are getting married! So stay tuned, this transfer comes with a wedding and a baptism! Sometimes I feel like such a young little girl with huge adult problems and i´m like AHHHHHH But then I remember the Lord and I know that with His help we can do all things! Haha something funny that happened though was we were talking to a different less active, this cute little old lady that is always smiling! We were talking to her about her husband and she was describing him so lovingly but he is so not there anymore, so i asked her if she had gone to the temple to be sealed with him yet and she said no. And i said Well Hermana heres your goal! You should start praying and working towards going to the temple to be sealed to him as soon as you can! And with a huge smile she said: But I dont know if hes living or dead!   We were all like....uhhh what? And then she said he had moved to chile but maybe he had died and she could go be sealed with him. We were like Ah! Hahaha yikes.

This week we have been talking about finding the more excellent way (1 Cor 12:31 and Ether 12:11). We have all chosen between good and bad already. But that doesnt mean that all of our decisions are done. Now we have the opportunity to chose everyday between good and best. This week, choose the best of the paths! Why have a good life when you could have an excellent one? Turn to the Lord and ask for His help in identifying and having the strength to choose the more excellent way. Let me know how it goes!

 Hope you have a great week!

Hermana Albright

June 2 and June 9 letters

On hitting her one year mark:  June 9, 2014

What the year mark? How did that happen? I would like to just ignore that if I could.  Ok So hardest part of this year was adjusting to Argentina. Most rewarding is seeing the light in people grow as they act and come closer to Christ. Biggest surprise was how small the world is and how many people I still have connections with here in Argentina!!! 

Crazy crazy week full of miracles!!! The Lord has been really blessing me lately to see his hand in my life here. We have been focusing on less actives this week, and trying to find more that we could focus on as part of our 15 familias (because we didnt have 15 so we´re working on building our number). The Lord heard our prayers and goals, and showered us with people! There were less actives popping out like daisies in our area! We found so many, and they are all responding well to the message of Christ. We´ve had so many miracles I love it!  One is Patricia. She is a cute spunky girl with blue hair and  with the sweetest little 6 year old. We have been trying to contact her this whole transfer long and when we finally met her this week she let us right in and started crying as she said that she wanted to come back to church. We asked her if she has been praying lately and she said her daughter makes her every night. What a great example that little girl is! In what ways can you be an example to others this week?

We went ice skating last Monday! So much fun. It was definitely a little sketchy looking but we all survived! And by the end I was skating wi

This week we started doing our own family history! Its been so much fun! I got to see pictures of Grandma and Grandpas wedding, and lots of other cool pictures and stories! I loved it! Even so far away i can feel close to my family! Who knew family history was so cool? I invite you all to spend some time on your family history this week! Today! no time like the present! It is soo cool and so rewarding! We talked about it in our zone conference this week, and my zone leader asked me describe what I felt as I worked on my line. As I did so, he said ¨Sounds just like the Spirit. You felt the Spirit as you worked on family history.¨And it was so true! What an easy and fun way to invite the Spirit more into our lives. To start your family history, go to familysearch.org! You will love it!

I hope you all have a wonderful week full of miracles! I love you all and hope the best for you! Enjoy the sun!

Chao!

Hermana Albright

thout touching the walls whoohoo!

Rina got baptized!!! She´s one of the people I taught in Huergo. She was smoking a lot and wanted to be baptized in the river. I got a letter from Hermana Strickler Friday all about her baptism. So exciting!

June 2 2014

This week has been good. We´re finding lots of new investigators and trying to help them progress. That´s the hardest part! We´ve had a lot of great times visiting more of the members and less actives. I love strengthening the members and seeing them progress in their testimony and start to make a difference for their own friends and family! That´s the best! We just started one family with a personal mission plan and we´re super stoked to see the miracles that they will bring about as they share the gospel with their friends! This family has been so fun to work with. They shared a spiritual thought with us on the book of mormon, a video on youtube called The book of mormon--the movie. It was so legit! Man i wish it was true. You should look it up its super cool! As well as the new video of the book of mormon by elder anderson! it is saweet! Anyway, back to the family. Their oldest son is Nephi. So great, right? And he is such a great kid! He was talking about how he was sharing the gospel with his firend the other day, and telling him to pray so he wouldn{t be sacred in the nighttime, and then they said they were going to invite all his friends to his baptism in a couple months! The grandma is less active, so we asked if we could do a noche de hogar with them and her on tuesday, and Nephi said no! thats being disobedient! We´re supposed to do it on monday nights! So they decided to fhe on both nights. I just love this kid! He will do great things. If only we all could have the obedience and trust in the Lord as Nephi (both him and the ones in the Book of Mormon as well).

We also have been having fun exploring the new ghetto part of our area. We met a family that was so great. The dad is addicted completely to alcohol, and he and the family really want help in that. So we arrived, and started teaching! As we talked about the redemptive and abiliting power of the Atonement and the changes that they can bring about in their family with the help of God, the Spirit was so strong. Possibly the most strong that I have felt in my mission so far. It was so cool! The power of the Atonement is real. Christ really can and will help us through whatever trial that we are facing. He loves us and has suffered everything to be able to help us if we accept Him. The Book of Mormon is such a powerful testimony of the truth of Him and His power and love. I hope you all can throw yourselves in the book of mormon this week and really apply the words to you, because it was written just for you! 

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Hermana Albright

New Letters from Heidi

May 26, 2014

Happy Independence Day! For Argentina at least. We had a super fun ward party on Saturday to celebrate! Full of food! And we were blessed enough to steal an amazing member from the activity for a couple hours (because it lasted all day. Argentines love to party!) so that was great! We´re finding lots of new members but they are ALL OVER the area and our area is HUGE! Literally, this area is just a small part of this city and just this little portion is bigger than huergo i think. It´s so crazy! Lots of fun things happened this week! We had zone conference on thursday, I love zone conferences!!!! And Hermana Stanley is in my zone here! Whoohoooo!!!!! Sorry no pics :(

One day we studied language study at a members house because we didnt have time to return to our pension. She had the brilliant idea to bring her granddaughter over to read us her fairytales!! They have all the same fairytales here it was so cool! We learned so many fun words! (cenicienta is cinderella, 7 enanos is the 7 dwarves of blanca nieve, sirenita is the little mermaid, etc). So that was fun. Also, we finally learned how to make ranch here! That was a happy happy day! But it was really garlicy whoops...

Then on friday we had intercambios with the hermanas lideres! They are so fun. I went to their area with one of them. It was so cool! We had a lot of lessons in the church, which was awesome because the spirit is so strong there! And because i got to meet some great people! One guy walked in for his baptismal interview and he was just shouting ¨¨THe day everyone has been waiting for!!!! The most exciting day of all! Don Jose is getting married and baptized!¨¨ And he just¨had this huge smile on his face it was so fun! He´s the zone leaders investigator. New member now! And then one of our lessons was super cool. It wsa a recent convert, and he couldn´t really talk because of an accident he had. He could basically say sí or no, or try to grunt. But he was so happy! We talked about how our weaknesses can be turned to strengths and then we gave him an assignment of doing family history and performing the saving ordinances for his family and he was just so excited to begin!!! It was so touching to see this man who had so many hardships in his life, and he was still able to find so much joy in life! He was definitely a great example to me to never let your situation get you down.

I hope you all have a great week and remember dory´s advice! When life gets you down, you know what you got to do? Just keep smiling! ;) or something like that.

SHOUTOUT to my wonderful grandpa Vern!!!! Happy birthday Grandpa! I love you!

pics: the other hermanas in the ward at the independence celebration

landscape shot from part of our area! I´m getting lots of muscles climbing this hill everyone got together to play monopoly but we´ve just been chilling and writing letters  My new area is good. No chacras though so thats sad :(

May 10 2014

May 19, 2014

Yet another beautiful week in freezing Argentina! Have I said I´m SO GLAD to have wool tights? Cuz I am!

So this week was really cool! We went to pick up lunch from a member and as we shared our spiritual message with her, we asked her if she had any friends or neighbors that she thought would be willing to listen. She took us over to meet her friend, we set up a lesson and things were great! So we met with this lady two times this week, and she is so amazing. She gave the prayer in the first lesson and it was so sweet and she just started crying! So then the next lesson we talked about the importance of baptism. Well right before we invited her to be baptized, another member walked in and joined us Just in time to hear her response--she´s terrified of water. Well that member also is terrified of water, and was able to bear testimony of how the Lord helped her in her baptism not be scared at all, and how she just felt like she was flying in the clouds the entire time. It was such a cool experience! Everything worked out perfectly for this lady to feel the Spirit and receive the help that she needed.

 So we had a fun activity at zone training. where we were playing soccer (righteous vs satan) and the righteous only won when finally President reminded us that with faith, we can bind Satan in our hearts and lives. (1 nephi 22:26). SO Elder Hanson (aka faith and righteousness) bound satan and we won! YAY

How can you bind Satan in your lives? The primary knows the way! Read your scriptures, go to church, and pray! Can I also add bearing your testimony, thats a great way too! But seriously though, we need all three things to keep us watchful and avoid temptation. There’s so many people that think they don{t need church in their lives but it is so not true! It is a commandment of the Lord! And so it is very important. As we attend church, we receive strength by the word of God, we worship our Lord and Redeemer, we renew our covenants, and we can serve our fellow man and our God. If I could, I would live in the church, I love it so much! There is such a special Spirit in the chapel. How can you prepare yourself to partake in the blessings of church this week?

 Hope you all have a great day! Keep smiling!

Hermana TodoBrillante

pics: companion unity! And my coat finally came in yay!!! and this is our capilla. isnt it so beautiful?  also, forgot to explain one of last weeks pictures: the ticket for me to come here said that I was Argentine. Woot woot! Made me feel legit.  Heidi also said that they had about sixty coming to church, no bishop, great priesthood leaders who step up and eight willing missionaries!

May 5, 2014

May 5, 2014

Well its transfer time again. It always comes so fast! I´m leaving Huergo and going to Centenario. (looks kinda like Centennial no?) And my new companion is Hermana Allen! She´s from Idaho and has two more transfers here than me. So I am so stoked we are just going to hit the ground running here and work hard every day!

I had a fantastic last week in Huergo! I am so sad to leave but I am so happy for the time that I had there. I have grown so much and have definitely grown closer to the Lord. It was such a great experience serving there. I´m definitely going to miss all the people there so much! But I know that they are all on their way to great things, like a capilla woot woot! And then a temple! It has been so great serving there. All of our investigators are seriously so close to being baptized! And there are a ton of less actives returning! And they are returning with such a fire and desire to serve the Lord! It has seriously been amazing to witness the changes in them.  It has been such a blessing to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands here. Every change and good thing that happened here was purely from the Lord, and I was just lucky here to be a conduit and a witness for Him. It was so sad saying goodbye! Everyone wanted us to come visit them, but we were leaving that night after church and I had to pack! It was funny though, one of our investigators called and would NOT let me leave without giving us dinner. So we ran over there, and and then did a rush pack afterwards haha but it was great.

Well I hope you have a great week. And Happy Mothers Day!!! Whoohoooooo!!!!!! SO excited to talk to you soon!!! :D

Sorry dad i dont have my agenda so i dont remember stories from this week. But I love you :D

Hermana Albright

pic: our little church/ house

April 28 2014

April 28, 2014

This week was so great! Man so many things going on! I learned quite a bit, one thing being to have patience with myself We had a great moment later this week too. We went to visit an investigator, and she has cancer. THis day was a really hard day for her, we arrived right after she got back from the hospital. So we just read some of our favorite chapters from the Book of Mormon to her and sang our favorite hymns and the Spirit was just so strong. I remembered what I had forgotten amidst all the craziness here: the reason why I came on the mission. To help people feel the love of God in their lives. It felt so good to sing to her and help her feel a little better.And now I have so much more motivation to give my all here! every day is a struggle but just like the kelly clarkson song What doesn´t kill you makes you stronger!!! STAND A LITTLE TALLER!

We had so many less actives in church yesterday whoohoo!!!! And a baptism of one of the Elder´s investigators! And a stake youth activity! We had people from Roca, my first area, come! SO I got to see some familiar faces! That was fun! The youth came to help us teach the less actives! Even though it ended up being twenty minutes instead of the three hours that it was planned to be, it was still great and I think the less actives that we were able to visit were really touched.. I gave one of the talks for the baptism...not going to lie I was a little stressed for that! But everything turned out good in the end.

Some more news of the week...we got new dirt on our roads!!! Hahaha the rain had kinda destroyed our roads here, and one day hermana strickler and i were walking and we came to a new, smooth, dirt road and we were like WOAH. (picture the scene in Cars as they drove down their new road). It was amazing! So nice to walk on. After a couple minutes we realized that we were so excited over a little dirt road and just started dying. Man it´s going to be such a culture shock when we return! Not that I´m thinking about that. But still.

Anyways! I hope you all have a fantastical week! And are able to do the little things every day in order to feel God´s love for you! Because He loves you a LOT and wants to bless you in so many ways. We just have to open ourselves to Him. How can you come closer to God this week?

CHAO!

Hermana Albright

Two New Letters for Easter!

April 21, 2014

HOLA!!!!

Wow we had a fantabulous week! Started off with an awesome noche de hogar with menos activos and investigators yes yes yes!!!! And a great day doing divisions with the hermanas lideres! They came and helped us with our area, which was perfect because we had soooo many citas! So we got to visit all the people that we wanted to, Hermana Strickler didn´t get too lost without me whoohoo and we had a great time learning from Hermana Garcia and Hermana Ashcroft. They are such great leaders examples I´m so grateful that we got to learn from them.  Then Easter Sunday Whoohoo! We had attendance of 43! Second time in one transfer YAY! A high councilman from the stake came and told us that if we get attendance up to 60 for 6 months, we can get the funds for our own capilla here!!!! WHOOOOO!!!!! It´s totally do-able and it´s totally going to happen! We are seeing so many changes of hearts here in little Huergo. The Lord really is hastening His work. It is such an incredible opportunity to be a part of this work and be a witness to all the miracles of the Lord.

Hermana Strickler and I are just as good as ever! We love being companions and we´re always pushing one another to try a little harder to be a little better. We have been saying positive affirmations this week and trying to stop any negative thoughts and it´s really helped us be happier and more faith-full as we say faith promoting sentences about all of our investigators.

Story time! Hermana Strickler and I learned that we both talk in our sleep now. We just have full on conversations until one of wakes up and tells the other to go back to sleep. We are very tired in the morning. Argentina is making me crazy! But it´s all good.

We had a great fireside last night about the work of salvation! It was awesome, investigators and menos activos and activos came! We talked about how this is the work of the Lord, but He needs OUR help! This church is true, but we need to be true to Him.  As we friendship the new people in our wards, we are friendshipping the Lord. And when we meet Him in the end, ¨¨we will be surprised by how familiar His face is¨  I just love that. Hope you all had a happy happy easter and took the time to remember the resurrected Savior. With the second witness of the Book of Mormon along with the Bible, we cannot doubt of the truth that He lives! And He loves us.

Hope you all have a great week! Hasta la proxima semana!

Hermana Albright

Excerpts

 

 

from Heidi's chatting online:  Thats cute! my easter was great! We got huge chocolate eggs from one of the members, she MADE them!!! So cool. And so goood!

Yeah my hair is long! But its starting to fall out a lot. yikes i may cut it this week. who knows? i´m so excited to skype with you!!!!!!!!!!

and the fechas are definitely falling...but that is going to change! They always fall, but that doesnt mean that that person won´t get baptized one day! We just gotta keep helping them along the way  hahahha thanks my comp has been helping me eat healthier haha and less bread! and yes i will definitely get a jacket soon

April 14, 2014

Well this would have been quite an exiciting week. We were just starting to plan the details of our baptism for this Saturday when our investigator told us that she doesn´t feel ready and wants to wait till summer time so she can get baptized in the river. Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!! It was a very sad day for us. But we are working hard to help her continue learning about the gospel and quit smoking. And we just started teaching her daughter too so hopefully they can get baptized together later! And maybe that´s why she had to wait. She didn´t come to church this week, but one of our less actives that I love so much finally did! There´s always a tender mercy to help with the pains in life. Ah it was so great to see her and when I talked to her she was saying that she wants her whole family to come back! We´re going to visit them this week I´m so excited! We are working hard to help our other investigators be prepared for their upcoming dates as well. It´s a lot of craziness but every high moment with the spirit tan fuerte is worth all of the lows moments.

Hermana Strickler and I continue to learn and grow lots together! I feel that our strengths really complement each other. We are consciously trying to improve ourselves every day and draw closer to the Lord, and we have lots of fun as we do it too!

And I am great! Just doing my best to not let anyone fall through the cracks! We lost a lot of lessons with the rain last week but we are pumped and ready to go this week!

here´s some pics for you to enjoy: our branch bus going to general conference, one of the streets as they tried to drain the water. It took about three days to drain the streets! and an empty soccer field that is now a mini lake haha

Hope you all have a great Easter week!!!! We´ve eaten lots of fish this week (aren´t you so proud momma?) but its been surprisingly good.   I love this time of year where we can celebrate the resurrection of Christ. It´s just like Christmas!!!!! We may or may not be singing Christmas songs to celebrate haha but i love it! I know that Christ is our Savior and I am so grateful that He lived and died for us. In all the fun of this joyous holiday, please don´t forget the true meaning behind it. How can you show Christ gratitude this week?

Don´t forget to look for those tender mercies this week! The Lord´s hand is revealed every day in our lives.

Hermana Albright