7/27/2015

Well, a few news items-

5. Our new mission president wrote. Por fin! I still haven't met him, but baby steps, baby steps.

4. Juan- Two Sundays ago, a family of 21 people showed up for church with the Elders. And a grandpa showed up. They told us we could teach him, because they already had 21 investigators. Well, we talked to him, and went to his house. Long story short, HE WAS ALREADY A MEMBER!!!! He acepted a babtism date after the church. Awkward.

3. I made pasta salad. It was awesome. And spanish tortilla- you taught me well. Oh, but the olive oil here is horrible and super expensive. You'd go crazy. You have to mix it with normal vegtable oil so that it dosn't taste like it's gonna kill you. I understand why nobody uses olive oil here. 

2. The Sister Training Leaders showed up to do splits!!!! It was awesome!!! I worked with Hermana Taborda- she's from Colombia and super awesome. She's super chill and knows how to talk to everybody.

1. The Grondona Family- they are a miracle. There isn't time to tell you all of the story. I'll send more next week. They're a family that's been inactive for a long time, and they have 2 sons that were never baptized. But we helped them go to church this Sunday. And the dad is gonna work to be worthy to have the priesthood so he can baptize his sons.

Well, that's all for this week. 

Love you bunches!!

Hermana Long

7/20/2015

This past week was a long, rough week. Around lunch on Thursday, I started feeling sick. My throat hurt, I had a runny nose, and my head was starting to hurt. Friday we stayed in casa, so that I could rest and drink fluids and be ok to work on Saturday. A member came by with his wife to give us lunch and a blessing. Saturday came and I felt a little better, so we left the house to work. Sunday came and I felt super sick- everything was worse, and a migraine was starting. By the end of church I had a full-on migrane. We went home so that I could sleep. By nighttime I felt a lot better. Today my head doesn't hurt- my throat still hurts and my ears a little, but I don't think I'm gonna die!

The good news: we had an investagator in Church yesterday. A member brought his friend, and now he's our investigator. And we hit 102 asistencia yesterday. Woo-hoo! 

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

Hermana Long

Pretty Good Week

6/22/2015

Now, my notes from this week: this was a pretty good week. 

1. We found and worked a lot with a few really promising investigators. A family and a sweet lady. We're working hard with them to help them progress.

2. The big news from the other week that I forgot to tell you guys- an Elder in Mar de Plata, who happens to be a friend of mine, who was in my Zona when I was in Balcarce, got hobo-knifed about a week and a half ago. I've heard a million diferent versions of what happened, but it involved his cell phone. Also, I know him, and he's your typical football player- I think he tried to act- run, fight, say something to the chorro, and that's why he knifed him. They told us that he didn't hit anything and that he was recuperating fine.

3. The stake arrived yesterday- I'm now working in a Barrio. We went to Olavarria, and I got to see Hermana Bindley, one of my friends from the MTC. It was great!

4. One of the Elders in my district, a sweet little Dominicano, told me that I am his best friend in the mission. It was just about the sweetest moment of my life. He's like my baby brother!

5. Rice. My compa is from Peru, and she cooks us rice almost every day. I have never eaten so many different types of rice. She fills it with all types of vegetables and its delicious.

Well, I'm outta time. More next week!

Love ya!

Hermana Long

6/15/2015

Kate: Hi! Oh man, I think i'm gonna die here in Tandil. Everyone says that it just gets colder from here on out!
     Mom: Hi! Please don't die of cold. Please buy whatever you need to stay warm. Hats, gloves, scarves, parka, a second sleeping bag, a down comforter, whatever. Don't freeze! (Dad says he liked using curtains and tablecloths from his apartment as blankets on his mission.)
Kate: Ummm we don't have curtains or tablecloths... I don't remember the last time I was really comfortably warm here... no one has real heating. People have gas powered heaters, but these just heat up one part of the room really really hot! Right now I'm sleeping with 5 blankets and a sleeping bag and more than one pair of pajamas and that seems to be ok. But when we're outside working, I have my jacket and gloves and hat and pants and tights and I'm doing ok except my face!!! All day my face is ice!!!! When are they gonna start selling pants for the face?!?!?!
     Mom: They do. It's called wrap your scarf around your face.
Kate: Yeah, but I cant do that when there are people in the street. I have to contact them. PS... I'm currently writing you and I can't feel my hands... what is happening??? It's not even winter yet and it's colder that any winter I've ever been a part of!!!!!
     Mom: So sorry your hands are cold...KEEP WRITING!
Kate: I'll... brr.. do... brr.. my... brr... best

Ok, top 5 noticias de Tandil...

1. I FOUND  A FOUR LEAF CLOVER... 20 years of searching, and I finally found one. It was small and a little ugly, but I found one. And then it fell out of my book, and I lost it. It's ok because I found another one!!! My life is forever changed.

2. In transfers I lost something very important... our district leader! Elder Scruggs, also known as el Boracho, because of his voice that sounds a little like Jack Sparrow at the end of a bottle of rum, left Tandil to go to the Pama. 

3. Ummm, what else. OH, THE STAKE. This weekend they're forming the Stake here in Tandil and Olavarria. Several Seventies are gonna come. Everyone is stoked!!!!

4. I have a new favorite cd to listen to. Imagine the Carolina Chocolate Drops singing hymns. It's awesome!

5. Oh, there's a menos activa that we've been working with, who wants to come back to church, but she wants to come back with her husband who isn't a member. Well, when we first met him, he was really friendly and talked a lot with us, but then he didn't want anything to do with the church. But everything changed this week- he decided that he's gonna start listening to us, and they watched a bunch of church movies, including Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration, and now he goes about quoting Joseph Smith, and they have plans to go to Stake conference this weekend.

Well, I'm out of time! We'll talk more next week. Love you bunches!!! Send my love to everyone!!!

Hermana Long

6/8/2015

Hi Mom! Ask me questions, I'll answer them... AND I DON'T WANNA WRITE A LETTER OF THIS WEEK, because I have no stories and it was a week of rejection... no one wants to hear about that.

     Mom: It's okay to tell about rejection. It is what it is. Were you rejected knocking doors? Visiting members? Part-member families?

Kate: Everyone rejected us- people in doors, people in the street, our investigador of gold (well, her teenage son... I dunno what she thinks because she's never in her house).

     Mom:  Ok. Can you think of a time this week that you were led by the Spirit?

Kate: Ummmm, that's a good question... when we went to a house of menos activos for a noche de hogar, who live really far away and in a dangerous part of town, and I managed to get us on a bus without dying... what else, oh, we had plans to visit some menos activos who lived in one area, but I felt like we should visit our investigators instead. So we went to visit them and they were home and said they wanted to go to church.

     Mom: Easy question- What is your new companion's name? If you can't spell it, guess. Or look at her placa!

Kate: She is Hermana Fasanando... she's from the jungle of Peru.

     Mom: Do you ever call her Hermana Fascinando? I bet she's fascinating...

     Mom: What do you find yourself praying for? How do you see your prayers being answered?

Kate: Right now, I'm always praying that the hearts of the people of Tandil can be softer, that we can find people who want to listen to us, that we can work better with the members. I think I'm still in the waiting phase of these things. Before I always prayed that I could be stronger and have more self confidence and I dunno what changed but that's not a problem anymore.

     Mom: Maybe what changed is that your prayer was answered, and you were helped to become stronger and more confident? BTW- we pray for many of the same things- that the hearts of the people in Tandil will be softened, that you will find those who are prepared to listen. We also pray for your safety. You know, cuz we're parents and we worry.

     Mom: Tell me more about your golden investigator and her son. How did you find them, who are they, how far have they gotten, etc.

Kate: Her name is Cristina. She got to know a member in the ward who's awesome, super strong, and he always talks about the church, so she wanted to know more about the church. This was way before I got here. She works a lot and when Hna Lopez arrived and then when I got here, we lost contact with Cristina. And then she moved. Then she ran into Hno Ferrando one day, and passed him her new address and her phone number and asked him to ask us to visit her. We finally got in contact with her and started teaching her. She's awesome. Super spiritual reads the bible and prays everyday. She loved the things we were teaching her. She started reading the Book or Mormon everyday, and told us that it was true. And then we passed by her house a few times and she wasn't there. The last time we passed by, the son told us that she wasn't interested in the things we left her and started going to a different church. Yeah, I dunno what's happening with her.

     Mom: Wow! That's amazing about Cristina. I wonder if she has some concern she hasn't told you about- like not wanting to give up smoking, or if someone told her something negative about the church? I really hope you get a chance to talk to her, and find out the deal. This sounds a lot like a story from your dad's mission- I think he also had an investigator that seemed golden, and then quit meeting with the missionaries, and started avoiding them. You'll have to ask him the rest of the story- I don't remember the details.

     Mom: Where did Hermana Lopez get transferred to? Why?

Kate: We were together for two transfers of 6 weeks, and at the end of the second transfer, she got transferred to Necochea. I dunno why she had to go. And what's worse is that they took away our lider de districto who was awesome, and now we have an inexperienced lider de districto.

     Mom: Tell me more about the family that got sealed recently- what's their story? How long have they been members? How did they join? etc

Kate: That is a really great story, but I'm out of time. I always go to cyber at the same time, so next week you can wait for me and we can keep chatting :) Oh, and tell Jacob that if he doesn't get his papers in this month that the same thing that happened to me's gonna happen to him- all the apostles go on vacation and he'll have to wait and he'll get a departure date after school starts and that's the worst!!!!

love you tons :):)

Hermana Long

6/1/2015

HI All,

This weekend... TRASLADOS (TRANSFERS)!!! Hermana Lopez left, and arrived my new compa. I'm not sure how to spell her name- it's really long, complicated, and Peruvian. Hermana Lopez told me that she's from the Jungle- and I believe it. But she's great! She's 23, a convert of 11 years, and super funny. She has a little bit more time that me in the mission. We're going to enjoy Tandil a lot. 

Know what- while you're starting to die of heat, I'm starting to die of coooooollllllddd. I'm pretty much an icicle all the time. And it's a humid cold. And the mountans trap it in. 

About rodents, houses and Tandil

5/25/2015- 

[Last week Kate asked her Dad to identify an animal. This is the rest of the conversation:]
Dad: Off the top of my head, I'd say you ran into a Capybara - an animal that looks like it was born in Chernobyl as the love child of a Beaver and a Rabbit... You're on the southern end of it's range in South America. Here's a photo:

From the internet

Kate: Yes, yes, yes you IDed my new best friend!!! Woo-hooo!!!! I'm gonna try to find him again and take a picture. Capybara... I thought those were the stuff of legends. Speaking of stuff of legends, I learned something new here in Argentina- parrots really can talk! I though that was myth, but i've run into a few that talk for real. MY WHOLE LIFE IS A LIE!!!!!

[After hearing that our family is moving to Calgary, and I'm spending time house-hunting:]  As for houses, one thing I've learned is that we as people really don't need big houses. The people's houses here are so humble and people are so ok with that. My compa saw a picture inside our house on facebook the other day in the house of a member, and she couldn't believe it was our house. She thought it was a hotel or something. What's more important is that we have time with dad. I've seen a lot of families destroyed because they don't have enough time with their fathers. Please, please, please do not let us move into a nice big house at the cost of more time for dad out of the house. It's not worth it!!! Focus on the people of the family- close to dad's work, a good school and por favor CLOSE TO THE CHURCH!!! Another thing I've seen in the mission is that people who move to a house far away from the church are really, really susceptible to the natural man, and go inactive!! PLEASE DON'T LET US GIVE IN TO THE NATURAL MAN!!!!!! 

[After hearing that her siblings are applying to private schools with names like "Strathcona-Tweedsmuir:]  I love the picture of the schools!! Who names these things?!?! Stuffy British men! Tell Ben and CC that everyone in Argentina has to use uniforms- and a lot of the uniforms are labcoats! Anything is better than labcoats!

I can't send pictures this week, because i'm struggling with my camera, but i promise i'll send some stories this week, and stories with pictures next week!

[In response to the following by her father:

I want you to introduce ten codes into your mission. You know - 10-4, 10-20, etc. I challenge you start with these: (A) 10-10 (meaning: that guy is so cute (hence the "10", as in "perfect 10) he has to get baptized, (B) 10-666 (meaning: this discussion is going to a dark place. Investigator may be possessed).

I miss you so much "I've had all I can stands. I can't stands no more!" To quote one of my childhood comic heroes - Popeye the Sailor. I'm 99% sure that I'll be coming to visit you next week - incognito, of course (ie as an investigator named "Mauricio Fidele"). I imagined in my mind's eye what you and your companion might say to each other as you walked away from our discussion:

You: "Something seemed really, really odd about that guy."
Your compa: "Was it his video-game style plumber's pants, fake mustache, and goofy painter's hat?"
You: "No..."
Your compa: "Was it the way he teared-up when he saw you and wanted to hug you before we left?"
You: "No... That happens all the time."
Your compa: "Was it when he blurted 'Kate - your mother and I miss you desperately! For the love of all that is sacred, please come home now!!!'?"
You: "No... Not a big deal. I know what it was! It was his sketchy Iberian-Spanish accent! - I've heard that somewhere before. The case is closed!"]

Oh, you always crack me up!!! It's a little dangerous, because i'm in a public cyber- that's where people go to use computers from the 80s with internet.

Tandil is.. well, it's Tandil. It's not a pueblo, it's a city, but a small city. And half of the city is ridiculously rich and the other half really poor. Everyone is always working. Always. The people are kinda closed off. It's hard to get to know people. But when people do let us in, they are our new best friends. We're really struggling to find people. Talking to people in the calle and knocking doors is basically worthless. We have to talk to 20 personas to find 1 trucha investigador. We've started working more with the members. There's a kid, Santiago, who is 16 who's already prepping for his mission. He gave us a reference the other day, and he's one of the best investigators we've had in my whole time here. We're trying to work with the menos activos too, and this is actually a gold mine. The Elderes in Rama 2 already had 2 baptisms of kids of menos activos and the other Elderes had 1 but now he lives in our rama. The rama is struggling a little bit because we're on the edge of becoming a barrio and everyone is waiting to act, and I don't know if we're going to become a barrio if people don't start acting. We're doing all we can to help the rama, but it's not easy. I hope the estaca comes quickly!!!

Well, that's the news for this week. Thanks for your tips! I'll keep you posted on the progress of Tandil 2!!

Love,
Hermana Long