¡Finally in Argentina! (Tess's first letter from the field)

¿Como anda? 

The whole Rustin wisdom tooth video situation is hilarious! I wish I could see it! Chloe's pictures are incredible too, Olivia looks so pretty in the one of her! 

Well, I finally made it to Argie-Land. The flights were so long and exhausting, but eventually I made it to Mendoza! We met President and his wife and they're the perfect combo of having good senses of humor, but being strict with missionaries at the same time. I love them already. After dinner the four of us new hermanas slept in the mission office and then the next morning we had some orientation stuff and then met our companions! My comp, Hermana Keller, is a native from Buenos Aires. She's super cute & sweet, and she speaks English almost perfectly which has been really helpful. It's kind of funny because I'm technically "older" than she is (mission-wise) even though she's my mother/trainer. She's been in Mendoza for about 3 months. She´s really an amazing missionary though and we get along really well already. H. Hales and I have finally been separated, and she's opening an area with a Chilean who doesn't speak any English.. She'll be alright though!

My comp and I are serving in an area called Maipu (yes, it´s pronounced like "my poo"....I know..). But we have the largest area in the mission! It's full of fields and vineyards, the houses are pretty spread-out, stray dogs roam the streets, and the people aren't super well-off. I like it a lot though even though we have to walk a ton and it can be a little dangerous at night so the President told us we have to go back to the house a little bit early at night. It's been surprisingly difficult to adjust to being in a different country, mostly just because I was used to how it was in Utah and the accent/vocabulary here is so different and hard for me to understand. I should be fine in a little while though, and my companion helps me a ton with my Castellano. 

The food is delicious, as expected. I haven't had a ton of chances to eat it though because my comp can't eat at members' houses because she has ulcers from the stress that her last companion caused her. Her old comp was a little difficult, apparently. Anyways we have to make our own food usually but we´ve had a couple chances to eat with some members- we had fried pasteles (empanadas) and homemade yogurt at the house of our ward mission leader, and then last night we had Malta (a drink), Raviolis, and torta at another member's house who live at a vineyard. We've also gotten some mini alfajores from a kiosco which were really good. We're not allowed to drink Mate or go to restaurants though :/ My comp says that it's been extremely hard for her to not drink it because she used to drink like 6 liters a day! 

But yeah we´ve just been getting to know the area and figuring out how the heck we're going to cover such a huge area. I think we decided that we'll have to take the bus in the mornings 4 days a week to work in the far places before it's night time and is too dangerous, and then the other 3 days when we have less time to work (aka P-Day, Sunday, etc.) we'll just work "close" (I added quotes because it´s still way far) by our house. We haven't had a ton of lessons yet but we'll get there. Apparently we have some investigators who are a little loco. One of them is this lady who claims that God has given her the gift to find & exorcise evil spirits.. Her husband is apparently on a "mission" right now going around and casting out spirits. Yeah. I don't know, I haven't met her yet because H. Gimenez (our neighbor) took my comp on splits to go meet her so I was visiting less actives with H. Ruiz. It should be an adventure here to say the least! 

We met our ward yesterday and they seem nice enough. It was a little different because I guess there's this guy in the ward who is a little of his rocker and tried to punch one of the sister missionaries who was serving in the ward, and she tried to punch him back.. So we're not allowed to talk to him or be in the same classroom as him. The bishop is also a little difficult to work with apparently but I guess we'll find out. Like I said- adventure. The other sisters that live by us are hilarious though and I've had a lot of fun even though it's been hard. Last night I did get the chance to watch that leadership meeting thing- it was so good (even though it got a little too cheesy for me at times)! I love how they focused on the importance of members helping missionaries because it really does make all the difference when members are willing to help and find people for us to teach. You guys better be helping the missionaries in our ward! 

Anyways sorry I couldn´t write more, I was trying to figure out this dumb computer and the pictures take forever to send. I think we're going to this really beautiful and old wine museum after this and then we'll go buy some groceries! Should be fun. I hope you guys have an awesome week and aren't worried about me or anything because I'm doing just fine! Love you!

Ciao (I have no idea how to spell that, but you get the idea), 

Hermana Crawford

PS- I may or may not have lost my camera.. these pics were from H. Keller´s camera. I know I had it at president's house and then I put it in my bag, but I can't remember seeing it after that and it's not in my bag anymore.. I really hope it shows up soon :/

This one is of my beautiful new "pension". 

Inside of our house. It was even sketchier looking and dirtier when we first got there.. But it's liveable! We don't have central heating so we have to use little gas ones and then turn on the oven burners to keep warm. It works pretty well for the kitchen but our bedroom is still usually pretty cold. I feel like a true missionary now!

Another pic of our place- the other sisters' pension is on the right, right next to ours.

My new mom & my next door neighbors in front of our casa. My comp is the little one in the white jacket and the hermana to my left is H. Ruiz from Mexico. The one on the far right is H. Gimenez from Paraguay.

The super cute and sweet Hermana Keller

one last one of a stray dog chillin' on the street. poor guy

Here´s just a glimpse of what our city looks like. Haha not really, most of it is not quite that ghetto but I'm definitely not in Utah anymore..

One of the less-sketchy buildings in Maipu

 Maipu is on the bottom right of this map of Mendoza
(I added these maps)

Tess Arrives in Mendoza, Argentina!!

Dear Crawford Family,       

             We are happy to inform you that your Missionary has arrived here in Mendoza alive and well!

              Following a short orientation and a dinner with President and Sister Avila, the new missionaries were then brought to the mission home to process several arrival documents, receive a few instructions and rest and recuperate from the flight here.

            Yesterday they met their trainers, received more instructions from the assistants to the president, and had their first individual interview (in Spanish!) with President Avila. Also, Sister Crawford has already arrived in her first area. I am putting with this email a few pictures we took the first day in Argentina and you can even follow the blog of the mission at http://argentinamendozamission.blogspot.com.ar/

              May the Lord continue to bless you and your family for all that you do in order to support you missionary here to serve the Lord in the Mission Mendoza Argentina.

                                                                                           

Zone Blitz & Missionary Caroling!

Como les va?

It looks like you guys had a blast at Girls Camp! I loved hearing all about it and seeing the pictures. You all look so brown! I'm glad Olivia had a good time even though her first day was a little rough and the pranks didn't go over too well. Way to dominate the water-fight though and bring honor to the Crawford name! Haha I know it wasn't as fun as usual without me there, but it sounds like it wasn't too bad. 

This past week has been pretty fun. This Saturday we had what's called a zone blitz in our area, which means that all of the Elders in our zone (9 companionships in total) came into our area and visited whoever we wanted them to visit and knocked doors to find more people to teach in the Roy area. It was pretty successful and I think they got at least 25 new investigators and 2 with a baptismal date just in 4-5 hours! I was impressed. In mine & H. Hales' area they had a lesson with a lady that we had only talked to once before and they found out that she has cancer and gave her a Priesthood Blessing. She & her mom were already members but I don't think they were active, so I think the Elders helped her reignite her desire to go to church and receive all the blessings that the Gospel can offer her throughout this trial she's going through. That was awesome to hear, and I think we have a few other names of people to go visit too.

We were able to have another lesson with Michelle this week and we taught the Plan of Salvation, which went pretty well. And she & her husband came to Sacrament meeting on Sunday too! It's still hard for her to understand why God gives trials to good people and let's thieves and murderers off the hook, but we explained to her that everything will be made right in the end through the Atonement. She loved hearing about what happens after death & where her son is right now, and she did agree to a baptism date because she really wants to make it to the Celestial Kingdom with her family, but she's still got a long way to go because her faith & hope need to do a lot of growing. Also, we found out some other hard things that she's going through with her husband, which further complicates the whole thing and makes it extremely challenging to know what to say to her, but we're doing our best. 
A lot of our lessons fell through again, but we did come across some new people that could potentially become investigators, so that's been exciting. 

We did a TON of singing this week. On Saturday night we had the idea to go around and sing hymns to our investigators and some members as well to invite them to church the next day. They loved it! Well, a few of them thought it was a little awkward but we didn't care because we had a ton of fun doing it! We probably ended up singing to 8 different households. Then on Sunday we randomly decided to do Be Still My Soul as a musical number in Sacrament Meeting. H. Hales & I started it out as a duet (I was on alto, obvi) and then on the 2nd & 3rd verses the rest of the Hermanas joined in. It went pretty well! And then on Monday the Branch presidency randomly decided to have a musical Noche de Hogar that was centered on service and asked us to prepare as many songs as we could for it in only a day. Hermana Hales and I did a duet to Siembra Gozo (Scatter Sunshine) using the uke, Hermana Kreutzer & Hales did one to This Little Light of Mine, and then we all did one to We Are All Enlisted (in Spanish though). It was quite stressful to try to put them together in one day. Especially since a good hour of our practice time was lost because Hermana Vergara crashed on her bike and caught herself with her face & we had to go pick her up and take her to the clinic. She's ok and she just had to get a few stitches on her bottom lip, but it was still scary! But yeah so we couldn't really practice much and we were panicking a little bit but we just did it anyways and they all turned out pretty well! Our branch is awesome! 

Oh yeah, and I got asked if I was Brazilian during the NDH last night by this Hispanic girl who's about to enter the MTC this week going to Montana or something. That's the 4th time! Anyways yeah so that's the jist of what happened last week! We made Cinnamon Rolls this morning with this cool lady in the branch named Hna. Fuertes, and then we played kickball with the zone, so it's been a good P-Day so far. 

H. Hales is starting to get nervous/excited to go to Argentina, and I'm still cool with staying here longer. I was telling H. Hales that maybe God knows that I need some more summer here in Utah before I head out to the freezing Mendoza winter. I am freaking out a little bit though right now because the H. Hales was talking to a lady that works in the mission office who was saying that it's possible that a new visa-waiter who'll be coming in on the same day that H. Hales leaves will be put as my companion... I seriously don't know how I would handle working with a brand new missionary seeing as how I'm still not great at Spanish and I haven't really been trained- especially if she doesn't know Spanish too....... but we'll see what happens. Ahhh. 

I hope you're all having a relaxing summer! Relax a little bit extra for me, because I won't be able to for about another 14 months, but it's all good. I'm happy & I love you!

<3, HermCrawf

H. Hales and I bought decorated our room with Christmas lights from DI a couple weeks ago

H. Hales cutting H. Gaines' hair... sketchy.

Hales & I parked the other Hermanas' car in the middle of the driveway one night so that the other companionship couldn't park- we were pretty impressed with ourselves

Juan and his family/some branch members & misioneras at his baptism the other week

H. Hales tocando mi uke

 our favorite Branch member, Roman Staggs, at our ward Noche de Hogar last night (he's the son of the lady from Argentina who's married to a white guy)

No Visa, but Great Attitude!

Hey guys! 

How's girls camp going? I hope your service project went smoothly, and I'm glad that you didn't end up having to cook for the 4th years all by yourself haha! That's sweet that Chloe and Olivia each have an awesome leader in their cabins, I bet they're having a blast. It looks like you guys had a ton of fun with tubing, the Colorado river trip, and winning the dive meet too! Was it a Wilson kid who taped the Nintendo to the cabinet? I can't believe that Tiffany's going to Oregon and Sadie's going to Texas!! They'll have so much fun and they'll probably get iPads/iPhones too! Tell them I said congratulations (: 

I don't know if you've hear this already but Alli Rawlin's twin sister Amanda got called to Argentina/Paraguay and she's going to the Provo MTC in October!! I guess it's one of the new missions called Posadas or something and it covers half of Paraguay as well as Argentina. I'm so excited for her & that I'll have someone besides H. Hales to speak Castellano with when I get back! 

So I did actually get some more news about my visa. When we were in the office last Wednesday for our district meeting I talked to one of the office ladies and she informed me that if I didn't get my visa by that Friday, that I'd be staying here in Ogden for at least another six weeks. Well I didn't get it before Friday so it looks like I'll be here for a while longer! I'm fine with it because I love the other hermanas here, our branch, and our investigators, so I'm cool with hanging out with them for another month or so. It was kind of frustrating at first that my companion gets to leave soon and all that, but obviously the Lord needs her over there for whatever reason and He needs me here for something. Patience is also a Christlike attribute that I'm trying to develop more as a missionary, so I'm just accepting that everything's on the Lord's time and it's for the best. I'll be alright, and I'll get to Argentina when I need to. 

It was kind of funny because H. Hales and I were talking the other day about our missionary "childhoods" and how messed up they are- especially mine: 

I was born in the U.S. even though in the pre-mortal life I was supposed to get sent to Argentina. I only lived with my mother for 3 weeks before the government took me away and stuck me with another foster-child and had us go to work even though we still didn't know how to talk (speak Spanish) very well or just do the work in general. And then my mom (who was already near to death) skipped town a transfer later, giving the same fate to her daughter Hermana Gaines (and the same thing happened to Hermana Vergara too). So all of us foster kids are living with our adopted mom, Herm. Kreutzer, and her biological daughter Herm. Conrad. But in a few weeks, my sister- who I've never lived without- is going to get shipped off to the country that she was also chosen to go to in the pre-earth life. When that happens I have no idea what crazy fate is in store for me next- I could just be traveling back and forth between working with my adopted mom & her daughter and working with my sister & half-sister, or they could send a stranger to replace my sister H. Hales, or they could ship me off into another part of the Ogden mission before I get shipped off again to a foreign country. 

Hahah it's pretty funny when you think about it. Anyways yeah so this week wasn't too bad. We worked a lot and knocked a lot of doors because we're starting to run out of people to teach and we need to find more. We actually did find 3 or four new people who are willing to let us share a message with them, so hopefully we'll have some more lessons this week! It's been kind of a crazy week too because since H. Hales will be leaving soon, we need to start acquainting our investigators with the other hermanas who will (most likely) be covering their areas when Hales goes. So we've been doing exchanges for pretty much every single lesson and it gets a little complicated some days, but it's been fun. Herm. Hales and Herm. Conrad were actually able to set a baptismal date for Hermana Toledo and for one of our investigators named Jasmin who used to be a Jehova's Witness! As far as Jenna and Michelle go, we've had some interesting developments. Apparently (according to her mom), Jenna is no longer interested because she doesn't feel like she's ready at this point. It was kind of weird to hear that because we thought the lesson went really well and we both felt the Spirit, but I guess it's just not her time right now. 

And then with Michelle we had sort of a sticky situation with the elders in our area. Before this transfer we had gotten it all figured out that we, the sisters, were going to be teaching her because the Elders had been trying to teach her for months and just hadn't been able too because her husband works so much that he's hardly ever home and they had a hard time getting members to come with them to lessons so that they could go in and teach her. Since we all just wanted her to be able to be taught, the Elders and the ward mission leader both decided that we should do it because we'll be able to go a lot more frequently. Anyways, so when transfers came along last week we got a new elder in our district who's probably one the most notorious elders in the mission. He decided that he was going to take Michelle back despite of the decision that we all had already made because it's his area and we shouldn't be doing his work for him. Even though we disagreed we just let him have her back because we didn't want to fight or anything, but we let the mission leader know what had happened and he was kind of upset because he had worked with this elder in past transfers and they had had some difficulties with him in their ward and in other wards in the stake as well. So we went to stake correlation this Sunday for the stake that he covers as well, and we talked about what happened and that the Elders would be teaching Michelle now. Then the Elder starting saying some crazy stuff about how apparently one of the solutions that had been come up with for problems like the one we had was that they would just have the Relief Society presidency go over alone and teach investigators the lessons and then just have the missionaries interview them and then they can get baptized... Yeah that's not a thing. 

Anyways so we left the correlation early because we had our dinner appointment, and we got a call from the ward mission leader that night that apparently after we left, the other leaders in the meeting corrected the Elder and put him in his place saying that they had requested that we teach Michelle and they didn't want him teaching her and stuff like that. So the Elder texted us that evening and said "Apparently there was a miscommunication. Ya'll go teach Michelle. Have fun". He's just a really difficult elder to work with and he's said to people on multiple occasions that he hates sister missionaries and doesn't trust them with anything. So yeah, it's going to be interesting to have him in our area for this transfer to say the least, but we do get to teach Michelle now and we have a lesson with her tonight which we're extremely excited about! Hopefully she's there and she feels up to it! 

Other than that there's not really a ton that's happened. It's been SO FUN having H. Vergara in the house because we all get along super well, and since she's Mexican she's been able to help us a lot with our Spanish. So yeah, hopefully we'll get a lot of work done this week and we'll have some new investigators and be able to help the ones we already have to progress. I'm still loving it out here and I learn more and more every day! Have fun at Girls Camp and don't forget to pull some good pranks in my honor! You're the best.

<3, HermCrawfish

PS- Thanks for the no-bake recipe and don't worry at all about being late with it! I don't think we have a ton to do today so we'll probs be able to have our bake-off  (: