Lucia's Incredible Story!

Hey family. 

So today's been a rough one for companionship reasons (I'm still with Hna Tzorin and Hna Jacinto got a new comp who just barely got here from serving in the US, Hna Sorenson) and I also was just about ready to take the computer I was just using and smash it against the wall because it wouldn't work for half an hour... but yeah don't worry about it, I'll be fine in a few hours. 

I loved the emails! The whole dog situation sounds crazy, and it's kind funny that it happened this week because we also had a dog situation where we pretty much adopted a little puppy that kind of looks like Jasper for a day. We named him Pancho and he followed us around for hours in Hna Jacinto's area and we protected him from all the other evil dogs that tried to attack him. I wish we could've taken him home to our pension, but sadly that's against mission rules :/ Haha so I guess I can somewhat identify with what happened with Gus! I hope you guys can figure out what will be best for Jasper and the fam though. 

This week was full of more ups and downs. I'm not depressed or sad or anything, just a little frustrated sometimes, but that's all part of the mission. We had an ok lesson with Luciana on Monday and then she had apparently gone to her mother-in-law's house for the week when we went on friday when we supposedly had our next lesson. So yeah, and we still haven't talked to Marta.. 

There were some pretty amazing things that happened though, the biggest one being Lucia showing up to church. So a week or so ago we got a call from the zone leaders that this lady had talked to them on the street and that she has an amazing story, lives in our area, and wants to go to church on sunday. We got her number and talked to her a little bit and she said she would see us at church and we could talk more. She couldn't make it last Sunday, but yesterday after voting in the morning she was able to make it to Sunday School and Relief Society. Here's her story.. She's a 69 year old lady who lives alone and doesn't really have much family around. She's a writer and has a degree in Psychology and has also been studying Theology for 17 years, and you can definitely tell when she talks that she's very highly educated and sharp. She's been feeling a bit empty and lonely though for a while and was looking for something more. On Oct 16th she went to the library to check out some sort of religious book, but they didn't have the one she was looking for. Next to the place where the one she wanted should have been, she came across one called A Marvelous Work and a Wonder (ok well it was in Spanish but I can't remember the title in Spanish right now..) and she decided that it must not have been a coincidence that she found this book, so she took it home and decided to read it. When she read it she said that the truths it contained brought her a light and a feeling that she had been missing, and she wanted to be able to find missionaries and talk to them more about it, so she prayed and asked Heavenly Father to put missionaries in her path. The next afternoon she was walking around in the city center and the zone leaders literally crossed her path walking the other direction on the street. She pretty much went into shock when she saw them and for like a minute couldn't force herself to move or get any words out, she was just staring at them. They saw her staring though and went up and talked to her of course, and that was when she told them about how she had read the book and prayed to find them. So that's how she could the adress of our chapel and our number, and ended up at church yesterday..! She's awesome and loves reading, studying, learning, and applying what she learns- especially when the subject of study is Jesus Christ. Golden! 

As you can imagine we were all amazed by her story and our testimonies that God really is preparing His children in different incredible ways were recharged. It definitely helped make all of the other challenges that were facing seem a lot more face-able. The other cool thing that happened was that I got a call from our new Sister Traning Leader this Friday night, and you're not gonna believe it, but the voice I heard over the phone was none other than that of Hermana HALES!! Haha she's the new leader for San Rafael and will be doing exchanges with us in the next coming weeks! What the?! It was great to talk to her for a bit over the phone, and were obviously both excited to be able to be comps again for at least 24 hours this transfer. It's a little crazy though because she's not only the new leader, but she's also training a girl from Peru fresh from the MTC and they're washing an area that hermanas have never been in before.... Poor woman. I know she can handle it though! 

So yeah, that was as well as I could explain my week while being a little distracted by certain events this morning. Sorry I don't have a ton of exciting things to tell you, but hopefully the Lucia story is amazing enough to make up for the rest! Thanks so much for sending the Christmas package, I really hope it gets here in time! I know I'll love whatever you were able to send. Today should be getting better because we're going to eat lunch with this investigator lady in Hna Jacinto's area who is about 74 and almost completely deaf, but is the cutest thing ever (I know her because we helped her clean her kitchen last week). We just write things down on a paper or a white board and she answers normally. She's so sweet though and is convinced that Hna Tzorin is going to marry her 30 something year old son who's an inactive member. Haha she even refers to Hna Tzorin as her "nuera" (daughter in law). After that we're going to get our hair cut because my ends are terribly dead and need to be cut immediately- sorry, I know you liked how long it's getting, but it has to be done. And then we also have stake conference this weekend and the choir (which were in of course) is going to perform. We're singing "Cristo el redentor murió", "El fuego del Espíritu", and "Acompañame". Lucia's going to go to, so it'll be good! 

Thanks for being an awesome family- keep doing what your doing. Can't wait to talk to you guys in a few months! Love you!

<3,

Hna Tess Crawford

a few more pics of San Rafael and how pretty/green it is

 some of the neighborhoods here literally look like they've been taken straight out of California

Our district

More of San Rafael

My companion

El Viento Sonda

What's up family! 

I'm glad everyone sounds like they're doing good over there in the good old U.S. Apparently it's been another football-filled week! That's awesome that everyone at Rustin's game knows that he's gonna serve a mission- now he definitely has to follow through with it because a thousand people heard that he's going haha. Way to go, bro. I loved the pic of the giant map and Chloe making a weirdo face as usual and pointing at San Rafael! That's crazy that it's actually on there! It's also awesome that you and Liv have been using my high-tech recording studio aka the suburban with a laptop to record some songs. Can't wait to hear them when I get back! I'm also proud that you're sticking to the challenge and resisted cheescake. I need some of your will-power please because I definitely don't have mine anymore!

So this week another kind of rough one because Marta has been smoking and hasn't let us teach her at all so we're thinking about dropping her, my comp also got pretty sick, our potential investigators weren't home again, and we've had to go back and forth between areas again because Hna Medrano is leaving and they couldn't find anyone to stay with Hna Jacinto. We also almost died (not really) the other day because the "viento sonda" randomly came. The Sonda is this weird hot wind thing that comes every once in a while and makes the whole city like a giant blender of dust, leaves, pollen, and hot air. It's infamous and the people here are always talking about it. Anyways, it came the other day when we weren't prepared and were stuck outside and got like 8930 things stuck in our eyes and throat while trying to make it all the way over to the hermanas' pension. Oh, and also Nora's kid Emmanuel can't get baptized because the dad is apparently super atheist and she pretty much ran away/escaped from him with her son.. so yeah, those were the not so fun parts of the week.

The good news is that Luciana is doing great! We went over with the Elders last Tuesday to cast out the evil spirits from her house, and she said that it's been a lot better since the blessing! Apparently there's some spirit that keeps opening and closing all the doors and stuff like that- but it's gone now! 

After that we invited her to the mothers' day activity on Saturday and she came with her baby and 9 year old!! Like you saw in the pic we ate some chicken and rice dish that an hermano made and then there was a presenting of gifts by the husband, son, kid, or friend of each mother that was there. They made us (hna Tzorin and I) talk about some hermanas too because they're kids were outside and couldn't do it, so I talked about hna Notaro and my comp talked about Luciana and how great of a person/mom she is. It was slightly awkward but the hermanas loved it so it was worth the embarassment (: After the activity we had to leave to go to an appointment, but when we came back to the chapel for another appointment with Nora and Emmanuel, half the members were still there because they had been drinking mate for hours and they told us that Luiciana had just barely left! It was awesome, because now she's friends with most of the ward and she told them that day that she would go to church the next day. And she did! She and her sons Brian and Sebastian came and stayed for two hours. The gospel principles class was about the millenium, which was kind of an interesting topic for her first sunday school experience, but she liked it I think and participated a lot! We have a lesson with her tonight and we finally got a member to volunteer to come with us to a lesson, so things are looking good. She still definitely has a long way to go to be able to get baptized, but she's making good progress. Her son Brian is super cute too and liked the activity and church meetings! So that was it this week for investigators.

As for transfers, we still don't know ANYTHING because Pres Avila is gone at some conference in Neuqen I guess so this week has been a mess for the Elders in the mission offices who are trying to get everything figured out. Supposedly we're having transfers on Friday instead and who knows when we'll find out what's happening.. Ahhh. I guess I should be used to this craziness by now though. As you saw in the pics too, Hna Medrano went home today, and her twin sister came yesterday to pick her up so we got to meet her. Hna Medrano was the sister training leader for this area so now were all anxious to see who it's going to be now..! I already miss her a ton, she's the coolest. But anyways, this week will be crazy because we've got Hna Jacinto with us again until Friday I guess, so we'll have to figure out how to work in both areas. Wish us luck! I hope you guys have a great week and enjoy the cold! Love you!!

<3,

Hna Crawford

 zone meeting..yeah, this is the best one I could get.

playing "voleibol" with the hermanitas de Barrio 1

last pic of the four of us 

se va a su casa :(

My comp

Feliz día Hna Tzorin! She hit the big 22 this week, and I did the best I could with what I had to make it not too terrible of a day. The poster was given to me by that one lady that gave me peanut butter in Maipu and Hna Tzorin likes it a lot more than I do (:

To celebrate we went out to eat at La Gringa.. yep.. haha people were very intrigued to see two real live gringas there (well, one I guess- my comp doesn't consider herself a gringa because she's Hispanic)

blackberries in trees...? A cool surprise that's come with the spring is these supposed blackberries that grow in normal looking trees. I've been eating them, of course, and they're not as flavorful or sour as the normal ones, but they're pretty addicting

the only pic I got of la actividad para el día de la madre- hno Rodriguez cooking chicken and rice over a fire outside our chapel. No one else was taking pictures at all so I felt awkward and didn't take any more haha. Sorry!

An old pic from a couple weeks ago when we did what missionaries do best- having fun doing things that would never be considered fun outside of the mission. This P-day we put on clothes that some Hermana had given hna Medrano for when she leaves the mission... 

Tess's week in Argentina

Querida familia,

Sorry if I freaked you out by not emailing earlier. Today is a feriado aka holiday (one of the 39502 that they have here) so the cibers weren't open until now. Don't worry about sending pics at all, it doesn't make me homesick or anything (no offense haha) they're just entertaining! It's sounds like it was a fun fall break though and you enjoyed Conference almost as much as I did. I definitely remember Schnef Farms, it was the best! The pic of all the girls is super cute- it's crazy how much they've grown up in just 8 months. And the shoes that Olivia dyed look awesome! I don't envy the fact that it's getting colder up there, though, but I'm sure you guys are happy to have a break from the heat. It's FINALLY been getting warm here the past 2 days even though supposedly spring started Sep 21st, so pretty soon here I'll start getting brown again and I'll start to stick out a little less (hopefully). Actually a bunch of people this past week have thought I was Argentine though even after I said a few sentences in Castellano, which normally gives it away that I'm a gringa! That's been kinda cool. Hey I definitely know Rustin's "friend" Hanna though- we were in the same seminary class senior year (I think). She's so cute, I approve of their "friendship" haha. And the Tiger thing turned out awesome! Nice work. 

So last week down here in San Rafael was a pretty normal one. We had a zone meeting on tuesday which wasn't terribly exciting or eventful. Then on Wednesday we had exchanges and I went to the other hermanas' area in Barrio 1 with Hna Jacinto which was kinda fun but all of our appointments fell through.. We did find a few new investigators though and I did a harvest blessing which went relatively well. We also visited a less active family and the teenagers really like English so they brought out an English hymn book and when we sang the closing hymn I sang the last verse of Lord I Would Follow Thee in English and the mom started crying.. Haha I had no idea our language was that pretty or exciting, but apparently it is! Not a crazy successful day, but the hermanas did have some success in our area. They finally got our investigator Marta to do a recorrido and she LOVED it. She felt the spirit strongly and decided to try to quit smoking that night. She liked it so much that she wants to have every lesson in the chapel from now on. They also found some other great new investigators, but they weren't home a few days later when they had scheduled appointments with them.. That's been one of the toughest things about the mission (besides the siesta), that finding the investigators or potentials at home is super inconsistent and it's so tiring having to walk all over trying to find people to teach, but it's all good! We still see a lot of little miracles all of the time (like somehow finding an investigator's house after forgetting to write down the address) and have enough funny experiences that it's still definitely fulfilling and fun. 

We had exchanges again on Saturday too and I was with Hna Jacinto again but in my area. We had a "tormenta blanca" in the elders of our wards' area, which means that all the missionaries in the district go work and knock doors in one area for like 3 hours, so that was fun and we met a really sweet little old lady named Elsa who was really receptive but was about to leave to Mendoza for like a month.. haha so the best possible new investigator we found for them isn't going to be home for a while, but it's better than nothing! On Sunday we had my first fast and testimony meeting in this ward. About 13 people showed up to church, but the testimonies were amazing and even though there aren't a ton of us in this ward, the people we do have are awesome. We had a surprise investigator attendance when the kid of a recent convert lady named Nora came. He's 9 years olds and so cute, and he wants to get baptized. We got to teach him a bit about the plan of salvation because the primary pres didn't show up and so they put Hna Tzorin (pronounced without the T sound like "soreen") and I in charge of the whole primary for the 2nd two hours of church. There are only 2 primary kids in the ward and zero Young Men or Young Women, so it wasn't as crazy as it sounds. The other kid was Gabriela Notaro (8 yrs), who's so adorable and spiritual it makes me sad that she doesn't get to have the same primary experience that I had growing up, but she's already got just as strong (if not stronger) of a testimony about prayer and scripture study as just about any other church member, so I know she's going to be an amazing future missionary and mother in spite of the lack of other kids to hang out with. But anyways it was a good Sunday and we finally caught Luciana at home and had a quick lesson about the importance of reading the pamphlets and Book of Mormon because she hasn't been doing it. We're going back tomorrow to teach another lesson and also to have her house blessed because apparently there are unfriendly spirits there that have been scaring them for a while..... and we've taught in that house at night a few times... Haha but yeah, she's doing pretty well and still feels the spirit strongly every time we come over (our goal is to get her to feel it when were gone though too by reading the Book of Mormon)!

This week is the last week of the transfers and also my comp's 22nd birthday is on the 16th, so it should be exciting! I think that we'll both be staying in this area for another transfer but she feels like one of us is gonna leave.. vamos a ver quien tiene la razón! This has been quite the backwards P-Day, but it was fun to celebrate Hna Medrano's last one playing volleyball with some of the Young Women of barrio 1 at the stake center. It's time to go now though, we're going to go see what's up with the people that weren't home when we had our appointments with them. As far as the Christmas/birthday packages go I'm not sure at the moment- the only thing that comes to mind is more music! I love what I have but I've been missing a lot lately listening to this group called The Lower Lights, which one of the hermanas in Utah had and we always had playing in the car. So that would be sweet. I'll let you know next week if I think of anything else! Thanks so much for everything and for all of the support. Love you guys!

Con cariño,

Hna Crawford

PS- I'll send pictures of volleyball and our zone next week because I didn't have time today once again :/

Harvest Blessings!

Hey mamá. 

Dang it, well I kind of had a feeling before I got to the cyber that I was going to get some sort of bad news, so I was somewhat prepared for hearing about Jakey. Also ever since I saw that picture of him I had the feeling too that he wasn't going to make it too much longer, and so luckily I'm not terribly surprised by what happened. It still sucks though and I hope you're feeling better, but at least we've still got Jaspy! And I have like 3956023.4 dogs here to keep me company, so don't worry too much, I'll be alright. I'm glad you had a fun week though! The John Mayer concert sounds like it was awesome even though Philip Philips wasn't that impressive. That's too bad that you missed the choir concert but she'll have plenty more that you'll be able to go to! It sounds like it's been an interesting football season too- hopefully Rustin's last lax season in high school will be a little more exciting though. It's great to see the pic of our traditional General Conference breakfast though- this was the third time in a row that I've missed out (once in college and twice on the mission)! Dang it. But it is pretty cool to think about how we were all watching it at the same time- not only you guys and I but also all of my missionary friends that are in different parts of the world. Que locura!

So since were already on the subject of Conference I guess I'll start off by telling you how my first conference out of the country was. Over here in San Rafael since not a ton of people have internet most of the members came to the Stake Center to watch it. We were pretty much in the church building for two days straight because we had the Relief Society session at 11am on Saturday, followed by the Saturday morning session at 1pm and then the later session at 5. We couldn't really leave and go work in between the sessions because it's a half an hour both ways from the Stake Center to our area! The Sunday sessions were also at 1 and 5, and we ate hamburgers at the other hermanas' pension because it's close by. I watched the Relief Society session in Castellano, and I understood most of it, but it wasn't quite as powerful for me as it is in English. I did really like the talk about the sacrament though and about how important it is to keep our covenants. That was a pretty big theme throughout all the sessions. After the RS session though we watched the rest in English in the "gringo room" with all the elders from the US. As the tradition goes, we all brought snacks and drinks to eat during the conference haha (crepes would've been a lot better though). It was kind of fun to be able to hear and speak English for a few hours and feel almost like I was back home in my country for a little while. 

The best part wasn't that though, it was the talks of course. I don't know about you guys, but I had been dying for the conference. As missionaries we need to be recharged every once in a while and Conference is perfect for that. Even though we don't have a ton of investigators right now and the ones we do have are hard to get a hold of, what the prophet and apostles said helped me refocus on what's most important and on what I can do better to be able to be a better instrument in the Lord's hands. Uchtdorf is pretty much always my fave, and he didn't disappoint me this time. I loved his story about the guy who was asking questions to the Mormon couple and trying to understand why anyone would join a church that requires so much of it's members. It is so true that the gospel sounds crazy until you think about the millions of blessings and true happiness that it brings to those that put in the work and faith necessary. I also loved that so many people mentioned missionary work and how the time for members and missionaries to work together is NOW. They gave some awesome ideas about how to find people to share the Gospel with and how to know what to say or do. Basically just like us full time missionaries it's the same basic principle of praying sincerely and following the Spirit without fear. My other favorite was the one about spiritual endurance and the example about getting our testimonies into shape just like we get physically in shape for sports. I'm gonna have to use that one in a lesson some time (: So yeah, I got a lot of questions answered and learned a ton this Conference and I wish we had it every week! 

The rest of the week we were doing our best to try and find new people to teach. Hna Tzorin has this really cool thing that she learned in the Cali mission that they use to find new people which is called a "harvest blessing". We pretty much just knock doors or talk to people on the street and offer to give a special prayer as representatives of Jesus Christ and we include whatever things they're in need of at the moment like better health and more peace. Afterwards we talk about how they felt and then invite them to feel more of those feelings by listening to our message. Simple, but it's worked pretty well and we've gotten some new investigators out of it. Some of which were reluctant to even talk to us at first, but then after the prayer they're hearts were softened and they told us we could come back and talk with them another day. It's been awesome and even though it's frustrating sometimes and doesn't always turn out great, we're happy with the little miracles we've seen so far. I also had exchanges again with Hna Medrano this week. She's only got 2 weeks left on the mission, but she's still working super hard and trying to help us and her comp out as much as she can before she goes. You can definitely tell though that her body is ready to be done with all of the running around and stuff. Her back is killing her, her feet are dying, and it's so hard for her to drag herself out of bed in the morning. The poor hermana needs a looooong siesta. She's a great example though to all of us, and I actually hope that I'm that worn out by the end of my mission because I'll know that I'd been working hard just like Hna Medrano did. It wasn't a super eventful exchange, but we did meet a lady named Celeste who is SO frustrating because she has a ton of the right ideas and beliefs about families, taking care of our bodies, personal responsability, self improvement, etc. but a few core things are missing like believing that Christ was the Son of God and not just a great teacher.. Ahhh. So frustrating because she's so close yet so far and isn't very open to doing what it takes to ask God and find out for herself what the truth is.. She is going to read the Book of Mormon though and she possibly watched part of conference on the internet, so you never know. We'll see what happens!

It's still a little crazy thinking about the fact that I live in a foreign country 5000+ miles away and that I'm speaking a different language.. sometimes it feels like a dream, but it's a fun, crazy, amazing dream filled with adventures, miracles, and a ton of new friends. I'm so happy to be here and to be doing what I'm doing even though every once in a while I miss watching tv with the fam, eating Chipotle, hanging out with roomies, and the beach. It really is rare that I think about those things because most of the time I'm so wrapped up in everything going on over here that I forget about my"past life" as my comp calls it. It's hard to explain but I think you get what I mean. Anyways I love you all and I hope you enjoy your week and start putting into practice what you learned this weekend! Ciao!

<3,

Hna Crawford

Chillin with my fellow gringos during General Conference

Las hermanas de San Rafael