Adios La Punta

Hey guys! 

How's it going up there in AZ? That picture of all the youth at the dance practice in the bright shirts is amazing! It looks like it's coming along well. You're going to have to take videos of all the dances so I can watch them! I can't believe you get to go to the dedication too- is the prophet coming?? Chloe's dance concert looked awesome too! That sucks that everyone got sick at the practice though, that must have been crazy. Tell Sis Blaser that I've got of few empanada recipes and I'll make some for her when I get home!

My last week here was fun! We had some lessons with Lucia and Gloria which were great because we found out what there doubts/needs are that we didn't know about before. Lucia recieved an answer that the church is true but doesn't want to prepare to be baptized... grr. And her mom doesn't come to church because she doesn't like inequality between men and women aka she doesn't get why the prophet or the bishop can't be a woman.. interesting. So now it's our job to help them resolve those doubts, I hope the new Hna that's coming here is up to the challenge! We also talked to Leanor Ponce (I don't think I've told you about her?) who is an old investigator of other missionaries that told us she has no doubt that the Book of Mormon is true but she just can't let go of the Catholic church because it's all she has left of her heritage because she moved to Argentina from Peru and her dad who was super Catholic passed away. She's really smart though and has a really cute family with a ton of potential! We also met another old investigator who has been to church, read part of the book of mormon, and prayed to know if it's true but neither he or his wife have felt like they've gotten an answer that it's true- he thinks all churches are the same and there's not just one correct path, but they have a ton of potential too! We haven't been able to see Veronica or Angie and Matias but we have an appointment with Angie & Matias today at 6 so wish us luck (we're teaching the law of chastity and they're breaking it..)! We have another investigator named Laura who has potential too- she recieved the missionary lessons a long time ago in Mendoza and even though her mom told her that the mormons were going to ruin her life and destroy her happiness she kept listening, but then she got divorced and moved here and lost contact with the church. She says that she wants to pick a church to go to with her kids because they need more unity, but it's hard for her to get herself to church. She's cool though and she's definitely searching for the truth, which she'll find soon once she gets her butt to church!

I've forgotten to tell you guys that I pretty much have two callings in the branch- one as chorister and another as a primary teacher. The chorister has been sick and in Buenos Aires for the last few weeks and since I'm the only one who knows how to lead and isn't tone deaf they make me lead. It's awkward because there's no piano and I have to sing the first few bars alone so that they can find the note and follow me, but it's kinda fun I guess. And in the primary they're missing a teacher for the 6-7 year olds so we take turns with the other hnas teaching them every other sunday. They're insane and hard to control but it's a fun challenge too.

I'm going to miss this branch so much!

Are you wondering what happened with the transfers? Well, here they are: my comp is staying here and Hna Vargas is coming to be her comp- she's super sweet and I'm happy that my investigators are going to be well taken care of! As for me, I'm leaving... my new area is....... Godoy Cruz! It's in Mendoza, right next to the mission offices (like seriously less than 2 blocks away) and it's the birthplace of my mother aka it was Hna Keller's first area and so I've heard a lot about it already and have seen the pench! My companion is going to be Hna Saenz from Peru. She's just barely finishing her training so she's really new. I've seen her a few times and she's basically a super model, so that's cool. She's supposedly really nice and funny though, and according to my companion she can sing well too so I think it'll be a good transfer. Oh, and I'm going to be living with Hna Sanford!!!! She's the one from Tucson who's one of my best friends here! We're pumped because we'll be together for at least another 3 months!! What I'm a little worried about is the transition from here- this peaceful, friendly little pueblo- to downtown Mendoza where the people are not quite as friendly or open, but the Lord knows what He's doing so it'll be fine. I'm excited to finally take a hot shower again (it's been 3 months) and to have a washing machine & dryer! Hallelujah!! It's going to be awesome, wish me luck! I'm going to travel on Wednesday morning with Hna Sanford.

Well that's all the news I've got. This week will be cray because of all the saying goodbye, moving, traveling, unpacking, new comp/area, etc. but it should be a good one! Hope you liked the pictures, there should be a lot more to come next week! Love you! Have a good week!

<3,

Hna Crawford

PS- Loved the pictures of the Avenues! Hopefully we get in because it looks amazing! I'm glad Jenna's excited- so am I!!

the Quiroga family (they were inactive when I got here, but now they're active & have callings!)

so we found yet another creature the other day: I promise I don't purposely go out and search for animals all day, I think God just puts them in our path to keep us entertained in the siesta

last p-day= sight-seeing in San Luis (I'm gonna miss it here..!)

More of San Luis

Subway!

our little church building

had to take pics of my area before I leave- these are things I've walked by every day for the past 4 months: Downtown

the road to our pench

and new houses they're building close to ours

not the most original pose but it had to be done

peruvian stuff my comp got from one of our investigators from Peru

my district- one of the strangest ones I've been in but it was fun!

a mouse in a bottle that my district leader threw at me last tuesday in the middle of district meeting. we set it free afterwards

uhh. yeah

I snagged a pic of Godo- the dog that gave us the referral for Veronica

more puppies that are in our area- hopefully this one makes up for the picture of the dead dog/corpse that I sent last week haha

this is water straight out of the sink... a couple times a week it comes out like this, extremely brown and undrinkable

they didn't realize that their graffiti was helping promote the church

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!

Hey! 

I can't believe I'm already writing you again, this week flew by insanely fast. I love all the pictures that I've seen of the Gilbert temple. It's gorgeous, just like Chloe in the MORP picture! Dang, girl. I'm glad the dance practices are going well too and that you're working hard. So to answer your question, yes, it feels like I'm coming home soon. But at the same time I feel like I'm never really going home and this is my life now forever. I don't know, but seriously time is going by so fast now, it freaks me out. I'm so excited that I'm going to room with Jenna again though! It gives me a little reassurance that I'll have someone to teach me how not to be weird and fill me in on what I missed while I was gone. Thanks for figuring all that BYU stuff out for me! PS the interview with Pres is already taken care of. Let me know what else I need to do if there is anything.

This week was a cold and rainy one. I've been told that all of Argentina has been rainy this last week? But yeah, we got trapped downtown without raincoats or umbrellas twice this week. Once was after district meeting and the roads were literally rivers that we had to cross in our sandals and skirts. The other time was on my anniversary when we had a "tormenta blanca" with the zone in our district leaders area to help them find more people to teach and literally we had a tormenta during the tormenta haha. The elders had sent Hna Barney and I to the furthest part of there area to knock doors (like 40 min away) and it was pouring the whole time as we walked in our drenched cardigans. Then when we finally got to the area we could only knock 3 doors and get in one house for 5 minutes before the elders called and said they were cancelling the tormenta blanca and that we had to walk the 40 minutes back to the chapel.. Oh yeah and as we were walking back we pass a grocery store and I look in the window and see Hna Hatch inside with a fireman's jacket on drinking mate! What the? I guess she had gotten super cold and went in to the grocery store to get warm and they all freaked out and gave her the baby treatment. Her face was purple when I saw her. Poor thing, she's always getting sick! Yesterday we had to stay 4 hours at lunch yesterday because she felt like she was going to faint and so she laid down in a members bed for a while.

But yeah, the rest of the week was good. We had lessons with Lucia & Gloria (they were the ones I made the banana bread for) and also with Angie & Matias. They're doing well- Angie is progressing most out of all of them. We had an interesting experience in that lesson that I don't really want to write about because it makes mad, but when I get home I'll tell you about it. All I will say is that I'm never going to doubt spiritual impressions again because it's the worst feeling ever when you realize that your companion had the same one and neither of you followed it.. Ahh. Anyways Veronica is doing well too but she traveled last week so we couldn't talk to her. She's really pregnant- like she's due next week- so we'll see if we can talk to her again before she goes home to Mendoza. Our eternal investigator came to church yesterday and we had an awesome relief society lesson about strengthening families/marriages which is just what she needed to hear, which was cool. I'm sad to be leaving La Punta in a week. I really love the branch- it's like a family, and it's so pretty here. I'm excited for a change though- I'll let you know next week where I'm going and who my comp is! Love you all! Have a great week! Enjoy the pictures!

<3,

Hermana Crawford

our last week as comps!

My roomies

took this on the year mark to commemorate the main picture on my blog (where apparently I look like the Pope) waving goodbye and getting in the car

decided to change it up a little too to represent where I am now as opposed to where I was a year ago aka I'm in Argentina eating empanadas

year anniversary lunch & dessert from my comp

failed attempt at making banana bread.. I don't know what happened.

for Jenna

also on the anniversary: drinking malta after we got soaked in the rain

What a good dog!!

Hey, Happy almost Valentine's Day! 

Thanks for the emails. It's good to hear that things are going well in AZ. It's super weird to see the pictures of the girls in their lax uniforms because to me they seem way too little to be playing, but I guess they're actually not that little anymore. Tell the Williams (Kira & Tanya) I said hi! And I can't believe that I'm missing the Olympics.. I thought they weren't going to start until winter when I'll be home, but oh well! It sounds like Bill is having a lot of awesome experiences and is enjoying the single life haha.

This week wasn't quite as eventful as the last one (besides the bugs & foxes we saw). We haven't been able to talk to Lucia or Natalia & Federico, but hopefully this week we'll have more luck. Gloria- the one with the disabled son- is doing well and almost came to church yesterday. Angie & Matias are also doing well but have been super busy lately. We had kind of a funny experience the other day when we were walking along and a dog came up to us and starting crying randomly. He kept crying and crying and so my companion said jokingly that maybe he wanted us to share the gospel with his owners. After thinking about it for a minute we decided to go for it and knock the door. A 23 year old girl named Veronica answered it and she's now a new investigator! Now it's become a joke that everytime a dog barks at us or something that they are trying to give us a referral. 

Oh yeah I also had my interview with Pres. this Friday. It was good- we talked about how we can help La Punta become a ward and how we can help the youth grow too. Then he told me that this was my last transfer in La Punta :( It's gonna suck leaving here because it's paradise and the members are amazing, but have been needing a change. This is the longest I've been in an area and I need to get out of here. We'll see in a couple weeks if the trend continues and I get put with another Latina, or if they stick me with a Gringa. I'm thinking they're going to send me to either San Juan or to Malargue.

This next week shouldn't be too crazy, and hopefully we'll see some more progress with our investigators and find some new ones too. Oh and I hit my year mark too, as I'm sure you're aware. Faltan 6 meses nada mas! Cray. Love you guys! Sorry my letters have been short and slightly uneventful lately! They should get more interesting in a few weeks.

<3,

Hna Tess Lorraine Crawford

The other day we found this centipede, and then about an hour later we saw a milipede too (but obviously we didn't mess with it seeing as how it's poisonous..)

I never thought that I was going to encounter so much wildlife out here in Mendoza- the other day we saw two foxes cross the street but I didn't have my camera to take a picture of them

We find these dead frogs EVERYWHERE. They're always dead, never alive.

one of the awesome things about San Luis is that you can find a lot of stuff from the U.S. here like P.B and Hersheys

Investigators!!

Hey flia!

Your week sounds like it was cray! It's awesome to hear that your lives have been revolving around the temple for the past few weeks. All the work you're doing will definitely be worth it! I'm also glad that the girls are having fun with lacrosse and getting ready for efy. Haha I wish I could meet Rustin's new gf too.. Oh Rustin. That's weird that you met Hna Hatch's cousin, I'll have to tell her! And Presley looks giant, by the time I get back she'll probably be twice as big as Jasper haha.

This week down here in Argieland was great! We had exchanges and I was with Hna Barney- the one whose bff is/was serving in the Stewarts ward. She's an awesome missionary and taught me a lot. Our miracle of the day was when Lucia (not the one with the handicapped bro, another one), a 19 year old from Buenos Aires accepted a baptism date! She's pretty Evangelical but is willing to read the BoM and pray about whether the church is true, but she couldn't come to church because her parents need her to help with their glass business so we'll see if she can make it next week. Then on Saturday as you saw in the pics, the hnas had a baptism! My comp and I had been praying that we could bring at least one person, and Lucia (the other one) came!! She loved it, even though the tall gringos who baptized the kids freaked her out. According to my comp she cried during the testimony of the kids' mom too! She couldn't come to church either though :/ But Natalia, Federico, and their daughter Guadalupe did come to church even though they got home from working at like 4 in the morning! They liked it a lot too and their daughter stayed for all 3 hours even though they had to leave after sacrament. We had a total of 10 investigators (between us and the other hnas) in the branch this sunday which is definitely a record! Also like 4 less active families came! It was pretty exciting to see the room filled for the first time- we actually ran out of chairs. My comp and I are excited about our investigators and their progress and we're working hard to find more (:

This next week should be a little loca because we have zone meeting, interviews with Pres, and also Hna Avila is coming to inspect the pench- wish us luck...

We're doing great out here though, thanks for being an awesome family and for all the emails and pictures! Guess what, we're going to skype again in only like 3 months, isn't that crazy? Love ya!

<3, 
Hna Crawford

cutting a chicken with a crappy dull knife.. don't look at my face, estoy sin maquillaje  (it's without makeup)

no explanation.. hna hatch.

The comp. and I

uhh. I wouldn't trust these people with my niños.. 

our beautiful baptismal font here in La Punta

the other hnas had a double baptism this Saturday (the kids of the lady that got baptized a month or so ago)