8/24/15

First things first, we still can't go to the circus :( and now, even less because... I GOT CHANGED FROM MY AREA!!! Now I'm in Olavarria- about 2 hours in collectivo (3 hours from my first area, I can't seem to get far) and my compa is... HERMANA BINDLEY, from the MTC. I'm stoked!!!!

And about the tracks... in Tandil, we have to cross them 2-3 times a day. It's si o si obligatorio. But it's a wide open space and you can see the train coming from the next city. Don't worry. But now I changed areas, and I don't have to cross the tracks. It was tough saying goodbye to everyone. I made more than one person cry when I shared my testimony, I took pictures with EVERYBODY- almost all the families, the YW the YM the kids of the primary... EVERYONE. 6 months is a long time to be in one area. What was the longest you were in an area? Was it hard to leave? Below is a picture of me with the bishop and his family. 

My other news...

5. We went to Bahia Blanca. This is always an adventure. My compa had to go to a training to be a Sister Training Leader and I had to give a strong talking to to all of the Elders in the office. Everything went well. It was good to get out of Tandil and talk to other Hermanas.

4. We had the last Zone Meeting with this Zona, and I finally got to take pics :) Yep, Zona Tandil. It took like 25 tries to get good ones. Our Zone leader, the bear-football player seated in front of me, almost ate us alive. He's always angry.

3. I bought myself some ribs. They changed my life. I love Argentina.

2. It was the birthday of my conversito, (well, almost convert. I dunno if you're following the story with the Almadas- they moved into our ward in time for their baptism), Samu. It was just about the sweetest thing ever. This is what we brought him. Inside is a game of chess and checkers. He fell in love with our gift. IT WAS AWESOME!!!

1. The big news... the familia Grondona/Mellis had their baptism. It was the sweetest baptism in all my mission- the members did everything. And I mean everything. It was a huge change but a good one. The mom gave the prayer, the "tia" gave the first talk, the dad baptized them (that was the biggest miracle, he finally felt worthy!), the bishop and lider misional gave them the holy ghost, the primary sang one of the hymns about the holy ghost, and the "prima" gave the closing prayer. It. Was. Awesome. I really feel like I was sent to Tandil to help this family. It was the most special, sweet baptism I've ever seen in my mission. It was so much work. and love, and sweat and tears and prayers and fasting, but they got there. Now they're a family with 5 active members, and the other son went to church for the first time in a long time. The Elders are gonna get him on a mission!!!

Well, that's all for this week. I'm gonna send you some more pictures. Love you BUNCHES!!!! I hope everything is ok over there in Canada. I heard you guys went to the Temple.... I hope that's true and right this minute you're writing a note with pictures and spiritual experiences and it's just so full that you can't send it in time. I hope you're going to the Temple a little more than humanly possible. I really miss the Temple! You get to enter, to take pictures of the grounds, go alone, go with the ward, JUST GO!!!!! Send my love to the Temple!!!!

LOVE YOU MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO :)

Hermana Long

Hey, Hey-

What a crazy week you guys had! My week was ridiculously normal in comparison. I dunno if I can even fill the 5 noticias of this week.

5. The circus is still here. It came for winter break, which started a month ago and ended two weeks ago and hasn't left. I WANNA GO!!! But the mission president told us that it wasn't worth our time. And we're flat out broke. Oh well, I hope they have circuses over there in Canada, cause when I get back, you're gonna take me :)

4. We plastered a 25 cent coin with the train. Yep, it was awesome. The timing was just right when we passed by the train tracks the other day, and we put it on the metal, and the train ran it over. Woo-hoo. Then we left a bunch. We haven't been back to see what happened with these coins yet. Oh well. I heard a train last night, so I hope it plastered them and they're still there :)

3. I got sick, again. Stupid cold. It started Friday night with a sore throat. Saturday I woke up worse- more pain in my throat, and full blown sinus infection. We stayed in on Saturday. I hate staying in. Then on Sunday, I woke up even worse. Everything hurt worse, I felt like I got hit by a train and my ears were stopped up. But my compa made me go to church. Good thing, because the Elders and an Abuelo from the ward gave me a blessing, and now I'm almost cured. Just have a runny nose now. I'M NOT GONNA DIE. Yet.

2. The Great Flood- well, it wasn't really a flood, just a lot of rain. It started when I bought myself rain boots (still not sure if that was a good idea or a bad idea, because I saved my other boots, that are not built for rain, but now I'm out of money.) And it rained, and rained, and rained, and rained. So. Much. Rain. But it didn't really flood here. I had my worries, because Tandil is built like a bowl, and we are like at the bottom, but the rain went away. I don't know where it went. Maybe to the fake lake. Anyway, we didn't drown. Yet. They say the rain only gets worse from here. That 15 days before and 15 days after August 30th there's a lot of rain. Something about a curse. I dunno. They said that in the past, the rain was so bad that the missionaries couldn't leave the house to work. That's saying something, because we always leave.

1. The Famila Grondona just keeps progressing. This week, we had to talk the dad out of copping out of his kids baptism. He felt like he had to be perfect to baptize them, and it wasn't worth trying so hard, and he was just gonna ask someone else to do it. We shared with him that he doesn't have to be perfect, that the bishop already cleared him as worthy, and that it's gonna be an experience super special for his kids if he baptizes them. Well, it's a good thing that we have the spirit on our side, because he felt it, and decided that he would baptize his kids. Then they showed up for church, again, and the other son was ordained a deacon and passed the sacrament. They announced the baptism, and everyone is super excited.

Well, that's the news for this week. This weekend is transfers, so next week's e-mail's gonna be interesting.

Love,

Hermana Long

When Elder Machado left- it was losing a brother.

My favorite missionary selfie so far

Reunited with Hna Brindley in Olivarria for Stake conference

8/10/15 The Great Flood

Hola!!!

I hope everything goes well on your big backpacking excursion. Don't die, if you and mom stop writing me, that's like 50 % of the people who write me. I'm glad you liked my letter :)

Well, the news of the week?

5. The Grand Flood of Tandil 2015- It has been raining for 5 straight days. I don't remember the last time I was properly dry. There's a river (a small one, but still a river) in all of the streets. I keep telling my compa that we need to build a boat.

4. We went to a new cyber today. (That's what they call the place with a bunch of computers where we pay to use internet.) It's got a kind of secret hole-in-the-wall kinda feel. I like it. But I feel like were cheating on the other cyber. Weird.

3. Conferencia de Zona- One week, interviews, the next week Zone Confrence. I like this president. It was awesome. He talked about the Atonement and my brain exploded. Then he talked about leadership and councils and my brain exploded. Then he talked about finances (he was a money guy before he was a mission president. He told us he's gonna teach us how to be "chetos", that is to say, richy rich.) and my brain exploded. Then he did a question and answer sesh, and my brain exploded. It. Was. Awesome.

2. The Familia Grondona just keeps on progressing. They did a Family Home Evening without us, are reading their Book of Mormons and they showed up for church. The kids are super excited for their baptism, the mom is so happy to see her family progressing, the dad is building his excitement little by little. It's great to see things like this.

1. I bought rain boots. They're super comfy and fit great, and clean really easily and don't get wrecked in the rain. Woo-hoo! Success!

Well, that's the news for the week. I hope you enjoyed your trip with the bears and the mountains. Send me pictures!!!!

Love you,

Hermana Long

Hey mom!

I hope you enjoyed your trip and didn't die!!! I'm still hear, in Tandil, freezing cold, and this week, soaking wet (well, that's an exageration), but it's been 5 days of rain. This last week was a long one- a lot of walking in the rain, and lot of knocking doors of members hoping they want to share their hot chocolate, a lot of putting one foot in front of the other and keeping going. It wasn't a bad week- a lot of fun and funny things happened. Yesterday was the birthday of one of my favorite members in Tandil and she made us empanadas and breadsticks and a cake. It was more like our birthday. She was just happy we spent her birthday with her and her family. We went out one day with the President of YW. She's awesome. We laughed and laughed and talked about how we can work together. It was awesome. Then she invited us to teach the mutual about the obra misional. And we did and it was awesome. These were some of the good moments here in Tandil.

Well, that's all for this week. Talk to ya later.

Love ya,

Hermana Long

8/3/15 I love love love Tandil

Well, the news of the week.

5. Afro- there's a street artist here who writes his tag, or his name, Afro, everywhere. And all of my time here I've wanted to find out who he is, is it a group of people, the question has always been WHO IS AFRO???? And 5 months later, I almost have an answer. We went to dinner at the house of a less active family, and the mom started telling us that her son likes to do art. We asked him what kind of art, and he said graffiti, street art. And I asked him straight up- Are you afro? He looked shiftily at his asado and said no. And I asked him again- I see afro everywhere and I want to know who he is. Are you afro? I really thought I'd found him. He said again no. Then his mom said- no, but he is- and the kid cut her off and told us that he knows afro, but that he writes another tag- PIGS. He says that it's a group of about ten kids, but that he started it. And that he knows who Afro is, but it's a secret. I told him that I wanted to meet afro, but if he can't arrange that, that I would pay him to get me a t-shirt from the hand of afro that says afro and he said he would do it. WOO-HOO!!!!

4. The Familia Almada- This week the familia Almada- I think I've talked about them before, they are a family of 5- the mom, who's a member, the dad, who's more active than a lot of the members here, but can't get baptized until they get married, and it's really complicated for them to get married, two kids who got baptized in Rama 2, but the Elders of Rama 4 taught and baptized them, and a little baby. Well, the baby, who has 2 months and was a premie, got sick. We didn't know anything until we passed by and the two kids, 8 and 9 years old, were home alone and told us that the parents took the baby to the hospital and he was hospitalized. Well, we started making calls- first, the RS president, then we passed by the Elders Quorum leader and the bishop (they're brother-in-laws and neighbors). Well, they started moving like ants. The visiting teacher passed by to take the kids to her house, the bishop went to hospital to give the baby a blessing, everyone started calling, the ward really ralled to take care of this family. And let me tell you, this isn't something that usally happens here, for a long time this branch and then ward, didn't know what to do or how to act, we were a chicken with his head cut off. It's been amazing to see the change in this ward.

3. The LLUVIA DE HIELO- The other day, it hailed. A lot. And fast. But it's ok, because we were in a bus the whole time.

2. Presidente- the new mission president and his wife came to do intervistas. IT. WAS. AWESOME. He's changing everything. I'll send more details about him another week. But now we can write for 2 hours. YES!

1. The Familia Grondona- This is the part member family weve been working with and we're really seeing changes with them. The dad has decided that he's gonna baptize the kids. And they showed up to church, earlier than we did, and they want to keep going, get the kids baptized, and go to the temple. Its awesome to be a part of these kind of changes.

We really are enjoying Tandil now- the people still are hard, but we're finding soft people that are ready for change. The members are awesome- this week was fast sunday, and we were tired of forgetting, all the members tell us that they're tired of forgetting, so we started on Monday passing by the members and giving them a little card with a scripture about fasting. It. Was. Awesome. Now that we're sharing the building with Barrio 1, we talk a lot more with the members from over there and they all tell us the same thing- that they're tired of the Elders, that they want Hermanas. And one of the members told a friend from the other ward that we'd passed by to give her the scripture and was really happy. Woo-hoo, victory.

I love, love, love Tandil. I love the members, I love the streets I love the people, even when the reject us. I love being here and serving the Lord. My compa says that this means that they're gonna switch me this transfer. I sure hope not. I want to keep helping this area, keep helping the members do their missionary work. I don't think I'm gonna go until Christmas- I got work to do!!!!

Well, that's all for this week. Love you bunches.

Hermana Long