Rafaela

At the end of April I was transferred to Rafaela. I was told that the area had not had any baptisms in over 18 months. I was determined to break that trend. When we arrived, I told the district leader that we would find someone. Just a week later, the elders were knocking doors and found a woman who wanted to listen to their message. Since her husband wasn't interested, they asked us to teach her. Her name was Mari.

When I got to Rafaela I was feeling pretty good about the work. The new apartment was much nicer than our last one and the ward seemed great. My new companion was Hermana Allen. She had been in the mission 7 months but was still really struggling with the language. I had been there 9 months. She seemed cool, but wasn't a hard worker. I found that it was very difficult to do the work when we weren't on the same page. Soon after I got there I started coughing a lot. I would cough all night long and was hardly sleeping. I was exhausted constantly and we started slacking in the work. After about a month of constant coughing, I talked to the mission president about it. He told me to go see a doctor who diagnosed me pneumonia and gave me an penicillin injection and cough syrup. He told me to stay out of the cold and rest, so I did.

Making tortas fritas while resting

The good news was that we had Mari Cabrera to teach. Her situation was tough. She was 24 and married to a 42 year old, Miguel, that she didn't love. She started reading the Book of Mormon, but he would beat her when he caught her reading. She kept reading and wanted to go to church with us, but he threatened her. She went anyways When we walked her home from church one time, he was waiting outside and very angry. I felt strongly that I needed to say something to him. I told him that his Heavenly Father loved him, but that he was not happy when he hit his wife and that it wasn't appropriate behavior. I couldn't really believe that came out of my mouth, but it did. Things changed after that. He invited us to come for dinner so he could get to know us better. At dinner he told us about a time when his truck was stolen. He hunted the man down and shot and killed him. We didn't let that effect us. We kept praying for him and Mari and eventually his heart softened. When she got baptized, he came to the baptism. She was a brave, strong woman, I loved her.

As it started to get cold again, our apartment just didn't cut it. The bathroom was outside and it was too cold to shower out there. We found a new place to live. The bathroom was inside, but the shower system was worthless. We would light a flame and as the water dropped through the flame it warmed up, slightly. I started showering in two parts. I would wash my hair in the water and then put it in a towel. Then I would quickly wash the rest of my body. When the mission president found out, he bought us a calefón and installed it for us. We were so happy. The lady that lived in the house was happy for the upgrade too.

We had to cook outside

but at least our bathroom was in the house

Winter in Argentina was rough for me. We were not allowed to have heaters inside because they were gas. Two sister missionaries had died of gas poisoning because they left their heater on one night and the flame went out but the gas continued to pour into the room. The nights and early mornings were so cold. I would put all my dresses on top of my blanket on my bed to stay warm.

One day we clapped at a door and a woman crutched out to where we were at the gate. We told her that we represented Jesus Christ and had a message we wanted to share with her. She said she wasn't interested so we started to walk away, but I felt like I should go back. I called out to her to tell her that someday she would be able to walk. She stopped and turned around and invited us to go in and talk. We taught her that the atonement of Jesus Christ overcame spiritual and physical death and that because he lives, we will live again after we die. We taught her that when she receives her resurrected body it will be perfect and she will have her leg. She said that she had dreams that she could dance and really wanted to believe that what we were teaching was true. We testified that it was and the spirit was really strong. Unfortunately, she didn't invite us back, but I know that we gave her hope of a better world some day.

In the ward I was asked to speak in church twice. Once the first week I was there and again on Father's day. Another time we were at a special pioneer fireside. The missionaries had been asked to sing "Faith in Every Footstep," and it went well. At the end of the program there was supposed to be a piano solo, but to my surprise they announced that I would be singing a solo of "I Believe in Christ." I reluctantly made my way to the pulpit and sang the song. It turned out beautifully. They loved putting missionaries on the spot.

After two months, I found out that I was getting a new companion to train. Her name was Hermana Gonzalez from Chile. That day I was alone for awhile and had a chance to write in my journal I wrote, "I've been thinking about this past year and all the miracles I've seen. It's hard to believe that in just one week I will have been in Argentina for one year. It's been hard, but good. Fun, but sad. I've felt like a million bucks, and I've felt like the dust of the earth. I've been an awesome missionary, giving it my all, but I've also been a tired, sad, I can't and won't do it anymore missionary. It's been a struggle of ups and downs all the way through." That pretty much summed it up well.

Later that night we went to the terminal to pick up my new companion. She was supposed to arrive at 1:00 a.m. but at 3:00 a.m. she still hadn't arrived and we didn't know what to do, so we went home. I stayed with 2 other sisters that night. We went back to the terminal that morning and were told that she had arrived two hours earlier. We ran to my apartment and she was there unpacking her things. I felt so bad and she was not happy. It was not the best start to our companionship

Later that day we had lunch with a member family and then went to visit Mari and talked with Miguel too. I shared my testimony of the atonement and the spirit was strong. Miguel had really changed. He liked it when we visited and actually smiled and laughed sometimes. My new companion felt a lot better after that. She said she hoped she would be able to teach with power like that some day.

One day we were knocking doors and met a police officer, Oscar. He said he was going through some hard things (marital). We talked to him for awhile and then sang, "Count Your Blessings" then left. Later that night we walked past again and he called us over to thank us for talking to him. He said all day he was wondering who had sent us to him. We told him that it was his Father in Heaven. He invited us to come back and said he would like to listen to what we had to say. Unfortunately, he did not progress, but he and his wife decided to work on their marriage and try to save their family. We started working with 2 other families around that time. I really thought they would both get baptized, but they didn't.

My time with Hermana Gonzalez was good. We worked hard and did our best. We spent 2 months together but then I got transferred to Rosario.