Farewell Pres. and Hermana Avila

Hey, long time no email. It feels like it's only been a week though, time is going by faster and faster. The house looks super modern, I love it. I can't believe Jamee and Sara are pregnant!!! Tell them I said congrats and I approve of their name choices. Oh and congrats to Josh too for popping the question! I'm sooo excited for Chloe getting to go to Fiji TOMORROW!! She needs to take a ton of pictures and videos so that when I get back I can look at them, and she can look at more of mine that I haven't sent (: You and Liv are going to have fun in Utah too!! Dive camp and Efy sounds like a great combo! 

I'm glad you guys are enjoying the World Cup because the Argentines sure are haha. It's been crazy too see all the people on the streets afterwards waving flags and blowing horns in their Argentina jerseys- not to mention the gunshots too. Tell Rustin not to worry, he'll get his jersey!

It's awesome to hear that the Wilsons are doing well too- I miss them! Thanks for the pictures! I can't believe Rich's parents get back on the 13th too, that's insane!!

I'm also really jealous that you get to go to 4th year camp, that's awesome. It sounds like your summer's going to be one of the best one's yet. 

Well, these last 2 weeks have been super fun. Our super p-day was seriously the best. On sunday night we got to have a sleepover in the offices and then on Monday we played volleyball, told stories amongst hnas (they made me tell for the millionth time your engagement story- in English this time luckily- and it was a hit as usual), did skits about funny things that happen on the mission, and Pres. told us some jokes. It was the best p-day in history and we ended it by eating pizzas and 3 kilos of Grido ice cream which we also ate the next morning for breakfast. It was a day that we all needed. Oh and Hna Paulson was there because she's being trained by an STL, Hna Sagers! I got there a little late on Monday and when I did the hnas started telling me that there was an hna here who knew me and told them that her sister used to babysit me. Sure enough it was Jenny's sister! She's awesome and is unusually calm and happy for just having arrived to Argentina haha. I'm glad I got to see her!

The next day was the meeting and we had to do like 2 hours of practices/presentation things. Afterwards we sang our mission hymn and we all got to hug Pres. Avila and then sing God be with you till we meet again. It was like saying goodbye to our 2nd family, but luckily I'll see them again in 6 weeks at the Buenos Aires temple, and in April they're coming to Utah!! They left yesterday and the new Pres. (from AZ!) got here on Saturday! So weird.

So in our area this week we were super frustrated for a while because we culdn't get ahold of Maribel, and Belen also disappeared... We didn't have a ton of time to work but we did have a church tour with this member's friend, this 25 year old bald guy who we're pretty sure was high during the tour..... But don't worry, yesterday we finally found Belén in her house! She's alive and I guess she was at her mom's house and her phone broke or something. We couldn't teach much because of the lack of time but we have another lesson on tuesday that we're praying that she's there for! We'll see.

Another surprise that we got this morning: we have to travel 4 hours to Mendoza AGAIN...TOMORROW. I guess Pres. Goats and his wife want to meet us (the leaders) or something so we're going back, and having another counsel meeting! Kind of weird but I'm excited, I love traveling in the double decker bus things (colectivos). So yeah we're not going to have a ton of time to work this week either, plus we have zone meeting this tuesday morning. It'll be another adventure! We're all anxious to see what Pres will be like and what new rules or adjustments he'll make. He lives in AZ so he's obvioiusly cool though and I'm sure whatever he decides will be great. They don't have young kids though so they can travel as much as they want and work a lot more closely with the missionaries. It'll be interesting to see how things change.

There's not a ton more to fill you in on. My comp and I are excited for the 4th of July- we're going to print out the patriotic hymns today to sing, we've got our red white and blue outfits picked out, and we're going to cook hamburgers and eat popsicles. It sounds really lame, I know, but we're excited. I hope your week and your 4th of July are a little more exciting! I love you and miss you!

<3,

Hna Tess Crawford 

instead of slug bugs we punch each other when we see Fititos (little Fiats like this one)

took the train in Mendoza

eating tropical pizza (it's covered entirely in jam with pineapple and brown/black sugar on top.. it's surprisingly really good)

Hermana Paulson is on the right. Her older sister, Jennie, used to babysit Tess when she was little.

it says "smile, no one's filming you" (but they messed it up because they used both vos and usted form..). There's little vegetable stands like this all over the place, as well as kioskos and bakeries.

the bishop's baby, Nicholas <3 <3

yeah so I lied. my feet keep getting worse so the pics are going to keep coming- lo siento. it's not as painful as it looks though, don't worry

all of the STLs (and Hna Paulson, Jenny's little sis!!) at the mission counsel meeting- they're the best

Maribel and Maria

Hey so, surprise- 

we get to email today because on Monday we'll be in Mendoza for our leadership meeting and we're having a super p-day with Pres. so we won't have time! I only get half an hour so I'm trying to send a bunch of pictures and make this letter short & dulce. So I finally got my new comp on Wednesday at 5 pm (super late) after being with Hna Reyes and Japa for like 3 days! 

Hna Lybbert (my new companion) is awesome, we already get along super well. She's 21 and she's from this town of 5 or 6000 people that no one's ever heard of in Washington called Quincy. She says there's mostly Mexicans and farms there- she used to drive a tractor and everything. She goes to BYUI and she's studying to be a high school softball coach or PE teacher. It's been crazy to try and find our way around San Rafi and finding new people to teach because we didn't have a ton when Anderson left. We've had a lot of success though surprisingly! We had another lesson with Maribel who's the Ibañez's friend, and it was amazing because she remembered every single detail of the Restoration that we had taught her the week before. That NEVER happens here. They almost always forget completely who Joseph Smith was and what the Apostasy is, etc. but not Maribel! She's super smart and likes what we teach so hopefully she'll have time in between all her studies to study the Book of Mormon and come to church! 

Also, on the day we took those pics on the street the ONLY person we talked to was this girl named Maria Belen who was pushing her baby in a stroller and told us we could stop by whenever. We went yesterday and she let us in right away and said she had been hoping we'd come soon. She started telling us about all these trials she's going through with her mom who beats her and her siblings and then pretends like nothing happened, and her various suicide attempts, and her severe anorexia (she hadn't eaten in 4 days when we showed up). She told us that she wants to change for her 9 month old daughter and that she's gone to other church's but hasn't felt anything, and the psychologist hasn't helped at all either..... I'm extremely grateful that we found and decided to talk to her on Sunday and that we didn't give up trying to find people and go back because this girl seriously needs help, like now, and we know that this is what she needs and has been searching for. We're going to do a church tour today and then she's going to come to church on Sunday. Please, please pray that she sticks with this and doesn't run away from the answer God's given her.

Yeah I'm out of time but I hope you like the pictures and that you've had, and continue having an awesome week! I'll talk to you the 29th if I'm not mistaken. Love you!

Hna Crawford

Ibañez's patio

San Rafael

lunch w/ flia Ibañez

a member's super cute kid, Isaias

Last hug

I'm Argentine <3

the first waffles I've eaten in 16 months

hanging out on p-day with the Ballofet hnas- 

carrying groceries like 12 blocks every week = this

I may or may not have neglected to wash my bag since Feb. 13, 2013... but Norma Ibañez washed it yesterday, don't worry

Hna Lybbert & I (new companion)

ciao Hna Anderson :,(

uhh, I think they like rugby

Hermana Medrano

flia Riquelme (recent converts)

vamos Argentina

Where is everyone?

Feliz Día del Padre!! Haha I thought it was only Father's Day here and that in the U.S. it was a different day (like Mother's Day) but I guess not- sorry! I can't believe you went to Cali AGAIN! It sounds like it was a super fun trip though. I hope Rustin & Liv didn't get into trouble at home. That's awesome that the house is finally going to be finished! I love how it turned out, seriously. Haha I can't belive you dyed the dog blue- that's awesome. Way to talk them into it, Liv! I'm glad you guys are enjoying your summer so far.

This week for me as you can imagine was kind of a mess. I finally killed my comp!(Not literally for those who are unfamiliar with missionary terms- she went home.) We spent the week trying to figure her BYUI schedule out, crying (her), getting excited about the food she was going to eat, souvenir shopping, more crying, and saying goodbye to everyone. If you ask any RM it's not easy to kill a comp, so yeah it wasn't the best, but it was cool to see how much she's grown to love the people here and how much they love her. She's been in this ward 8 months in total, which is longer than she's been in any other ward in her whole life. So crazy. It was really cute when the adults came in and surprised her after Relief Society by standing in a cirlce around the benches where we were sitting and singing "Para Siempre Dios Esté con Vos" (God be with you till we meet again). I had an awesome transfer with her even though things didn't always go as planned.

We also had exchanges this week with Hna Hatch's daughter and Hna Japa. I went with Hna Japa to their area in Ballofet. There area is a little rough, but we had few lessons and found some cool people. It's so crazy that I'm only going to have 3 more exchanges before I leave!

The Ibañez fam is doing well. I don't know if I wrote it wrong in my last letter but they did go to his baptism (he invited them 5 minutes before it started), but he didn't let them go see him get confirmed on sunday.. They're all super sad that Hna Anderson went home- we had her last lunch with them yesterday and we ate choripan and empanadas on their rooftop patio thing. Renzo, Erik, and Norma came to church too and the newest member of Barrio 1, Renzo, got the Aaronic Priesthood!! Woohoo! They also have been giving us referrals lately and one of them is this girl that lives in the apartment behind the house. Her name's Maribel- she's 18 and is studying accounting. Eric told her about us and about the Book of Mormon and asked if she wanted to meet with us, and she said yes. We had a lesson with her, Renzo, and Eric and it was great! The Ibañez's are some of the best members of our ward even though they're not really members haha. For real, they're great.

Also Hna Medrano came! She and my comp were comps for 2 transfers here like a year ago and their best friends. Their actually scarily similar, it kind of freaked me out to see the two together. They both are amazingly hard workers, but they have super strong personalities. For example our ward mission leader refused to let my comp into sacrament meeting because she made a call and it was going to start in 10 secondss. He's kind of a big jerk with an extremely strong personality too and so he was holding the doors shut so she couldn't take the sacrament and she got so mad that she all of the sudden shoved the door open- hurting his hand in the process- and walked in before the prayer started. Haha it's those kinds of things that happened a lot when we were together and that Hna Medrano does too, so yeah it got a little intense, but it was cool to see how much fun they have together.

She's gone now though, and at the moment I'm chilling with Hna Japa & Reyes until my new (LAST) comp comes on Wednesday! My LAST TRANSFER starts TODAY!! I got my LAST transfer call this morning and my killer will be..................................................................................................................

Hermana Lybbert!!! A gringa from Washington I think, who dies in September. I've only talked to her a little bit but she seems cool and from what I've heard from the other Hnas she's patient and humble, so that'll be good! I feel bad that she has to kill me because after killing someone I know how hard it is, but we're going to work hard and it'll be fun! 

Last night was kind of crazy because it was the first game that Argentina played in the World Cup. There was NO ONE out on the streets and no one wanted to talk to us.... We walked in the middle of the streets, danced, and took pictures/videos because literally there was no one and even though we tried visiting people no one wanted us.. Argentina won though (: It's going to be a fun transfer though with all of this lovely futbol stuff going on though.. Grr. And it's freezing. But we're going to find people to invite to come to Christ, don't worry!

This Sunday we're going to Mendoza because for Pres.' last P-Day we're going to have a super p-day with all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. It's should be fun. I'm going to try not to get lost or freak out when my new comp gets here on Wednesday. It's never fun having to take over an area after a short time trying to figure out the people and figuring out where things are, but it's ok. It'll be an adventure. I hope you're summer's an adventure too and that you don't have too much fun without me before I get there! Love you!

<3,

Hna Crawford

San Rafael

San Rafael

Feeding the kitten

acá están, che
(the whole city was like a ghost town during the Argentina's world cup game, so the girls got creative with their picture taking)

Why not? 

Renzo's baptism! 

Helping Renzo into the baptismal font!

Messi!!
(famous soccer player that scored yesterday and helped Argentina win their first game in the World Cup)

the only guy I'm allowed to put my arm around

el distrito

I'm going to miss seeing things like this all the time

Renzo's Baptism!!! (and really bad Chinese food!)

It sounds like you're summer's gotten of to a good start. The house seriously looks AMAZING, I can't believe it's the same house I used to live in.... it looks so different with the wood/tile and the rug! I can't wait to see it all finished. I'm glad the girls are excited for their trips and that Rustin's working hard and his surgery went well. Haha I'm sorry you hurt your foot, but I guess it was pretty convenient!.. Things must be pretty crazy over there at the Crawford house. I hope Peter's doing better too- he's seriously a magnet for crazy things like that. He better use his next 6 lives wisely. Tell him I said happy birthday!!

So this week was........... insane. It started off bad when we went to that crappy Chinese place I sent the picture of. I was really nauseaous afterwards and we had to stay in the pench. Then on Tuesday morning I was feeling ok, and we had zone meeting so we went to that and our part of it went well. Then we ate lunch with members and afterwards I was starting to feel gross again so we went back and I tried to sleep it off. The next day I was doing better, and so we went to our lunch appointment but the lady had forgotten, and so we went to go buy something and on the way we saw two kittens in a cage that said "se regalan" (which means they're free basically) and they were super dirty and starving and it was freezing, so we called a few people to see if they wanted a kitten, but when no one did we decided to save them and take them to the pench until we found them a home. We walked into the grocery store with them and I thought they'd kick us out but no one was even phased at all. Haha. We then bathed and fed them milk and played with them as I was still trying to recover. 

As usual the Ibañez's were worried about us and had been giving us medicine and stuff the whole week. When the mom (Norma) sent Renzo to give me some drops that were called "novomit", we were talking to him something crazy happened. He informed us that a friend he had invited to english class on saturday wasn't going to be able to come. He then told us that he wasn't going to make it either (which was weird because he never misses a class) and then he said we weren't going to make it either. When we asked him why we wouldn't be able to go, he said "because I'm going to get baptized on Saturday"... We didn't believe him at first because he had said before that he wouldn't do it unless his whole family did, and also that he still had doubts and hadn't gotten an answer from God yet. But he wasn't kidding, obviously! He's a private person so we're not positive how or when he got his answer, but he did and he got confirmed in church this sunday! Thanks for the prayers- they paid off!

So yeah I was still sick on thursday (throwing up & everything). I ate salty noodles for lunch and slept, and then we had to travel 3 hours on a bus to Malargue at 6 pm. By six I was feeling better so it wasn't terrible, but I definitely was feeling carsick. Malargue was.. freezing. The hnas there are Hna Tanner from St. George, UT (her grandparents own this new drink place called Swig at BYU Provo that's supposedly awesome) and Hna Bentley from Lindon UT who is being trained still. I was with Bentley and we got to visit a few people who were kind of strange and frustrating, but it was still fun. She doesn't really speak Spanish yet and so it was my first time being with someone who couldn't help me much with the lessons. My poor latina comps must have been stressed to have me as their comp when I first got here haha. It was fun but we didn't have a ton of time because we had to travel back to our area at 7.

On saturday we had to get everything ready for the baptism. He wanted us to sing all the hymns in English and so we had to print of the lyrics and stuff. Then we went to the church to pick up white pants and a tie when we looked at the font and realized that there was old, nasty, freezing water still in it and it was broken (undrainable)... So we freaked out and had to change the location to the Hnas chapel in Ballofet, a somewhat nearby area. We also surprised them by singing their family song- I'll Fly Away. The one from the movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou. It was crazy and we basically spent the whole day trying to clean and get everything ready. Luckily it went well and the whole family made it, even though they almost didn't because Renzo didn't want them to go but he changed his mind 5 minutes before the baptism. He didn't let the come to his confirmation on Sunday though and we were about ready to kill him when we found out! The members got mad that we didn't invite them, but he only wanted the missionaries there because like I said he's a private person. I understand though, I would've probably done the same exact thing haha. The baptism was awesome though and even his sister Belen cried who's kind of rebellious and not making the greatest choices right now. Hopefully the rest of the family makes the same decision to get baptized soon!

Yesterday President Avila and his wife came and said goodbye with one last zone conference thing. Their messages were the best I've ever heard in my life, I'm glad I have one more leadership meeting in Mendoza with them before they go. There was lots of crying going on though because for others it was goodbye forever. So crazy.

This week should be insane again. There will be even more crying than there already has been (my comp, not me), lots of goodbyes, and getting trunky. Wish me luck, it'll probably be hard, but we got another surprise- Hna Medrano (the one who was my leader when I was here before and is my hero) is coming to visit this Saturday!!! She'll be with us Saturday and Sunday! She and my comp were comps and they're bff's so that's why she's coming. It's going to be great to see her! I still don't know who my killer (last comp) will be, I'll let you know on Monday after I get my LAST transfer call on Sunday! Ahhh. Stressful. I'm doing good though, I'm not sick anymore so don't worry! I'm tired though..

I hope you all have an awesome week! Love you! Enjoy the pictures.

<3,

Hna Crawford

last p-day we ate at the nastiest Chinese buffet place that had moldy ice cream, was expensive, and made us all sick... worst idea ever Elder Stocks

Renzo's baptism!

sorry for all the feet pics, I promise these are the last ones

the nicest hotel I've seen in Mendoza- Eric Ibañez works there

the only pic I got of Malargue

Spanglish?

our pench is #2- my favorite part is the grape vines above the gate

my comp & I

gatitos in the pench- don't tell President

More kitten pictures

Hola!!

Hey! 

First of all oh my gosh, I can't believe they already have my flight reserved and everything! 9:23 am at the Sky Harbor Airport......... Ahhhhhhh. Ok.

I'm glad you guys had a great week. Girls camp sounds like it was amazing based on what the girls told me, and the floor looks so great! I can't believe they flooded the house- that's insane! I hope everything's alright. 

I also hope Rustin's surgery goes well and that in Olivia's next dive meets she gets better judges who aren't crappy scorers. 

This week was a pretty good one! We got to go to Mendoza on monday and the meeting with Pres. was incredible. They talked about unity and tied in the Mundial aka the World Cup which is about to start in a few weeks (which I'm not excited about because it's gonna be cold and no one's going to let us in their houses because they'll be watching the games..), and they talked about being true disciples of Christ. This week we get to have zone meeting and share what they said with the other missionaries who didn't go. Our idea was to make a zone flag/standard of liberty type of thing with an Argentine flag that we wrote a scripture on (Moroni 7:48). It's going to be awesome.

My comp and I are doing great- we get along super well, she really is amazing and her story gets more insane every day. I'll tell you more about it when I get home, you'll want to hear it. She's kinda freaking out a little bit though because she literally only has TWO WEEKS left!! She's been emotional.. It's kind of helped me calm down a little though because the time I have left is a lot more that what she has left so it feels like it's further away... kind of. She's great though.

Our fave. family the Ibañez's are doing really well actually. Both boys came to church, and we're slowly helping the younger one resolve his doubts and the whole family understand the book of mormon better. We had a sweet lesson last night about applying the scriptures to our lives and we had them each read a story from the BoM individually, summarize it for us, and apply it to our lives. It went really well and they're starting to get it! Pray for them please, they're the best! 

We had exchanges this week with the Hnas from Barrio 2- my old area. I went over there with Hna Aguilar (the Peruvian I lived with last transfer). It was cool to be there again and to see a few people I knew including the Patriarch, my investigator Luicana (her son got baptized, but there are major problems and threats from her boyfriend that keep him from going to church and her from getting baprized, and they're moving), and also an investigator of there's who's going to get married & baptized and was actually being taught a while before I was there last year who we had visited a few times but she stood us up twice so we gave up trying. Everyone really does have their own timing, it's crazy. It was fun to be with Hna Aguilar too- her comp is having some problems so I tried to help her figure out how to deal with them, which was good.

Oh yeah- interesting experience: we got a call last week from our district leader who said there was this guy who they talked to on the street that invited them to an addiction recovery group which happened to be in our area so he gave us the info so that we could go. We went this saturday and there was about 30 people (alcoholics and drug addicts) in a little gym room on benches in a circle. The meeting lasted 3 hours and it was actually extremely interesting to see the different stages of addiction people were in and to hear their thoughts/feelings and hear the advice other people gave them. There were some who we're in a really desperate and depressing state, and others who were doing ok but still struggling, and others who were recovered and super grateful. Towards the end Hna Anderson & I commented and talked about how God can help us overcome addictions and that His way is the best, longest-lasting way and that they could talk to us after the meeting to get more info about our message. We also said we thought it was awesome that they were helping eachother and talking with eachother about how they feel and what's helped them. It really was amazing, but at the end the guy in charge came up to us and said that we can come back if we want but this is a non-religious group and that he doesn't want religion contaminating it... So yeah, we might go back one more time because we said we would but it sucks because we know that the only real way that they'll be able to completely heal is through the Gospel. We tried though and invited them, so we feel like we did our part to help.

The ward is great and a love them all already. I got to give one of my last testimonies in Spanish on sunday, and they all freaked out that I don't have a gringo accent at all. We skyped with a lady from spain who's a recent convert's girlfriend who got him interested in the church and is keeping him active by reading 2 chapters a day from the book of mormon and analzying it- she's great.

Random story- our next door neighbor is the mom of the kids we teach English too and she's really young and has basically no money, but she's super sweet and we love her. Last week she asked us if we had an extra bible and we didn't, so we gave her a book of mormon instead (: We decided to help her and let her help us by paying her to clean our pench this morning, and I had an awesome experience answering the questions she had about why mormons sacrifice so much and why we suffer so many things as missionaries. She's great and is starting to get interested in our message, so pray for her too! She's going through a lot of rough things right now but she's so great.

This week's going to be fun. We're traveling 2.5 hours to Malargue- the furthest south that this mission gets- on Thursday to do exchanges with the hnas. down there. It's going to be FREEZING. Also it's my comp's second to last week so she'll probs be getting even more emotional.. haha! I love you guys and I hope you're week is mansa! Don't get too trunky y no quemen tanto por favor!

<3,

Hna Tess Crawford

some cool pictures of San Rafael

Chicken on the street

eating the best lomito I've ever had here- it was a Canadian version with pineapple on it

got to see Luciana and her kids- our main investigator from my old area here!

working on our flags for zone meeting

a better pic of me with my illegal immigrant notification thing

some of my new fave hermanas! the one on the right goes home in August too and goes to BYU provo- she's hilarious (Hna Sagers)

a really cool less active lady named Delia

her cat.. I don't like them but this one's ok..