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...