July 7 and July 14

July 14, 2014

MUNDIAL! so the people here all leave after the games to party in the streets together it is absoulutely crazy! But super fun.

Argentina Independence otra vez? Another patriotic holiday! I don´t know what the difference between this and the other one is but this activity was so great! We had sooooo many less actives and investigators come!!!! No lie, there was more less actives and investigators than there were active members. It was so cool! We are seeing a lot of miracles.

We also had interviews this week! So fun! We asked Presidente Lovell about the rules in a trio just to be sure that we are ok. He said that we are like the queens in chess....we can do whatever we want! (this is a dangerous thing to tell someone like Heidi!) Whoohoo!

We have also started putting in practice inviting multiple families to noches de hogar! President suggested that we incorporate this to create more love and friendship in the ward. On Friday we were visting a member who is a single abuelita and asked her if she could hold a noche de hogar in her house and she said yes!!! And then gave us a list of people that would be great to invite, one of them being a family of less actives! So we invited them the next day and they were so excited about it. It was so great I was not expecting them to react so happily! Tonight is going to be so fun!

Have you had any great experiences with family history? We have been visiting another single abuelita and working with her on her family history. When we started, she decided she wanted to go to the temple this year. She has a special needs son that comes with her, so she would need another family to come with her and help out and said their trip would be mostly free! So we got the word out, and now a family that used to be borderline active is preparing to go to the temple with her to be sealed together! They have changed so much and are now reading their scriptures, praying, and having noche de hogar constantly! It is so amazing to see the miracles in these members lives.

Hope you all have a fantastic week this week! Look for the little miracles in life and you will be surprised by how much you find!

Hermana Albright

July 7, 2014

Happy fourth of july!!! Hope you all had a great week and lots of fun with fireworks! We celebrated down here and even got our peruvian companion to dress up with

us! Super fun. And we had zone meeting that day, so i got to spend another fourth of july with the great Hermana Stanley! That was super fun! Good times. The next day, Argentina showed us how you really celebrate country pride. Argentina won their game to go to the semifinals in the mundial and they were all partying it up! It was so cool! When Argentina wins, everyone leaves their house decked out in Argentine gear and with flags or blankets to wave and they make a huge impromptu parade down the street Honduras! Everyone young and old cheers and honks their horn and waves their flags and celebrates for a couple hours. Its acutally pretty impressive. We have to to avoid some streets for a good while, but otherwise its fun! But dont worry we{re super safe! One of our favorite primary kids and a young adult have been teaching us selfdefense moves every opportunity they get! Haha so we are ready to protect ourselves if ever needed!

 This week we moved apartments!!! Our new apartment is sooo nice! Its clean, with running warm water, the drains work, and its closer to all the members and stores! So great! We had a great time moving and met a ton of nice taxi drivers! So that was our main adventure for the week.

One day we went out with a new member, Fabian. We never used him much before because he{s a guy, and Hermana Allen is a little scared of him hee hee. But I asked him to come out with us to an investigator that I thought was a little creepy to protect us, and the investigator wasn{t there. So Fabian says Hey I have some people here you can visit! It was so great! He gave us three referals and went with us to one of them, a cute little old less active lady! He was so nice and bore such a strong testimony. And the next day, told us that he talked to one of the other referals (also less active) and they want us to come and teach their daughter and baptize her! Now that is member missionary work!!!

How have you shared the gospel this week? I{d love to hear about your experiences with testifying through your words or actions!

I know that this church is true and that Christ is at the head of it. With Him as our guide, we have nothing to fear! I hope you all have an amazing week!

Hermana Albright

Exerpts from online chatting:  luckily i{m in an area where it doesnt snow a lot yaaaay but yes in other areas it is definitely snowing a ton. this week it hailed and rained here but mostly the wind is the most frigid.

and the office is helping with the visas theres just oa ton of procedures and missionaries to do  ya we maxed out a couple months ago and they stopped sending missionaries here but now everyones going home so they have been closing areas

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