Mi Hija

Bell Ville's City Hall

Hola hola!!

Cómo están todos?

Bueno, this week was crazy!

On Monday and Tuesday I was in Jesús María with Hermana Linares waiting for my companion. I didn´t get to visit people, though, because Hermana Linares got really sick.

On Wednesday we went to the mission home and had a meeting with Presidente y Hermana Alliaud. It was really good! Then, we found out who was with who. There were two gringas and two latinas. Also two gringas and two latina trainers.

My companion is Hermana Jaramillo from Chile. She is 20 years old and really sweet. She is rather quiet, but I think that´ll wear off. She is really excited to do the work.

We got to Bell Ville and started working!

Guadalupe is doing well. Still can´t come to church. I don´t know what else to do to help her. But we are not giving up.

Elva came to church yesterday! It was great! She said that she felt really good. Felt a peace. We´d had a lesson with her the day before and we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We really focused on what impeded her to be baptized. She doesn´t want to lie to us, but she said that she would diligently search for her answer.

Romina came to church yesterday too. With all of her family. O sea, her husband and her two daughters!!! We were ecstatic!!! Also, we are going to start teaching her daughter and her husband! Romina told us that now all of her wishes are coming true. She wants her eternal family. She is amazing! What a miracle is she!!!

Anyway, we didn´t have very many days to work in our area, but we are very excited for this coming week!

I hope that you are all doing well and that you have a fantastic week!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

P.S. Sorry, I don´t have fotos. My camera doesn´t work with this computer. Next week, I promise!

Trust In the Lord with All Thine Heart

Hola todos! Cómo están? 

Wow, what a week. Bueno, I´ll try to get my thoughts in order.

Last week of transfers and we knew (well, we thought) that it would be the last week for Hermana Criddle. And we were right. Transfers hit us. Hermana Criddle left Bell Ville for Oncativo and I am staying in Bell Ville. I am going to train.Yeah, I´m a little scared. It´s a big responsibility. 

Anyway, the investigators. 

Guadalupe: She is so sweet. I just want her to be able to be baptized. She is just waiting for permission. It´s really hard to wait. She´s getting a little down-heartened, but we´re trying to help her keep positive. We were with her when the assistant to the president called me to tell me that I was going to train. Guada started to cry. So did Hermana Criddle because she knew that she was leaving. Guada told us that she wasn´t going to love another hermana. She wasn´t going to do it. But then she saw that I was scared to train and she told me, "It´s ok. I´m going to help you. She can teach me and it´ll be good practice because I already know everything." She is so sweet.

Elva: We talked about the Book of Mormon and about how we can receive our answers from God. It was a really good lesson. I asked her if she had prayed to know if what we were teaching was true. She told us that she didn´t need to ask. She knew it was true. I was about to tell her that she should ask anyway, but I felt the impression not to. I then thought of King Lamoni in the book of Alma. He told Ammon that he would believe all the words that Ammon said. It´s the same with Elva. For a while, we had been struggling to help her accept a baptismal date, so our district leader told us that we could give her a soft invitation. So we did. We asked her if, when she gets her answer about this church, she would be baptized. We didn´t say a date, just if she would once she received her answer. She said yes! We were so happy! The reason she doesn´t want to commit for a date is that she doesn´t want to lie. So, she doesn´t want to make a commitment and then never make it through to the end. But we know that she´ll get there. We know.

Romina: She is amazing! She sets her own appointments! Anyway, she told us that she would be in Bell Ville on Tuesday and that maybe we could get together and read the Book of Mormon. Of course we said yes! We read where she left off. She´s already in Jacob. So we read Jacob 5. We were a little nervous about explaining it, but she understood! It was great! Then she invited us to have lunch with her on Friday with her daughters. We went and had a great lunch and then taught her two daughters. The older one is 9 years old and the younger 7. We talked about the desision that their mom had made to be baptized and what it meant. We invited the older daughter to be baptized and she accepted! She´s so cute. Then we asked the younger one if she would be baptized when she turned 8. She also accepted! Then we taught Romina about temples and family history. She is amazing! She wants her eternal family so much! I really love her. It was sad, though. We knew, more or less, that it was the last time that Hermana Criddle would see Romina. It´s always hard to say goodbye. Hermana Criddle and her other companion were the ones that started teaching Romina. It was a tender moment. 

Anyway, that was my week. On Sunday we said goodbye to a lot of people. It was really sad. I wanted to cry with the members and I was staying there. But, Hermana Criddle is so sweet. So sweet. It was hard to say goodbye to her today.

Right now, I´m back in Jesús María! I´m waiting here until Wednesday with Hermana Linares. She´s going to train as well. 

Shared Dreams Come True

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well. I hope you know how much I love you all! Have a great week!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

Perfect fit in the palm of my arms

Hola hola todos!

I hope that you all had a wonderful week!

Bueno, todo bien esta semana. No increíble, pero fue buena. :)

[Well , all right this week. Not amazing, but it was good . :)]

There was a lot of rain this week and so it was a little hard to find people. Here, when it rains, everyone stays inside and they don't open the door. Pero, está bien. 

Bueno, with Guadalupe. We've been having a hard time finding her, but we finally did on Saturday. We talked to her and read the Book of Mormon with her. It was really neat. She realized that the Book of Mormon is a story. She kept asking us what happened next and we told her that she had to read to find out. Also, Hermana Criddle had the impression to tell her that if she finished the Book of Mormon, she would have permission from her dad to be baptized. Now she is really enthused! She's so cute. She didn't come to church, though...again. It's so hard. We know, though, that if it were her choice, she would be there every Sunday.

Romina: We went to go teach her on Friday and one of her friends came over to visit. But Romina is not ashamed of anything so we sat there and were talking about the church. Her friend had already heard about us and so we were talking. I gave her a Book of Mormon and she was reading the last two paragraphs of the introduction. She asked, "Who is Joseph Smith?" Bueno, José Smith es.... and we taught the First Vision. It was great! Her friend promised us as well that she would read the Book of Mormon. It was great because we had planned to teach about missionary work and we had the opportunity to show her what exactly that was. Romina as well was teaching her friend. It was so cute. She said, "The Mormons, well us. Because I'm going to be baptized. I don't know if I told you." And then she starting teaching about the Restoration. 

Juan: Juan Juan Juan Juan. Bueno, we stopped by a couple times to see how he was and see if he was listening to the Book of Mormon. He said he was and that he was going to come to church on Sunday. But he didn't come. I think that this week we're going to have a charla franca (frank talk to see where he stands, interested or no). Bueno, we're going to give him a few more chances and then, we'll probably have to leave him. 

Elva and Estefania are doing well. They weren't there for their appointment, but we stopped by on Saturday and found Elva. We talked a lot about why she let us in, why she was listening to us. If you remember, her husband was investigating the church when he died. She talked a lot about him. Her motivation, more than anything, is to be able to see him again. We talked a lot about eternal families and the way that we can make our families eternal. It was really good. They're progressing, but slowly. Everyone has their pace. :)

Anyway, this week was really good and now we are starting out on the last week of transfers. It's always a little hard this week becuase you don't know who's leaving. Or where. Or who's going to be your next companion. But, we are determined to work hard. :)

[Perfect fit in the palm of my arms.]

I hope you all have had a fantastic week! I love you all so much!!! Que disfruten!!! [Enjoy]

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

The Gospel Is Jesus Christ

Hola seres queridos mios! [Hello, loved ones!]

Espero que han tenido una semana llena de felicidad y que se disfrutaran. [I hope you have had a week full of happiness and enjoyment.]

"I found my street."

Bueno. This week. So, I liked how I did it last week and so I think I´m going to continue to do it like that. :)

Firstly, Juan. On Tuesday we had splits with the hermana leaders and Hermana Criddle was extremely sick. So Hermana Humacata (hermana leader) and I went out to work. We visited Juan first. We talked to him about what he was searching for from God—why he was investigating the church. He told us that he was searching for peace. We asked him why it was that he needed peace and he opened up and told us about his life. His parents had died and his sister as well and he was really depressed. He also fought with his pareja (spouse, but not married) so bad that he had an attack and now half of his face is paralyzed. There was much more, but he has had a hard life. After hearing about all of it, we talked about the Atonement and how it applies to him. We talked about God´s love and about how he could have more fully the peace he was looking for after being baptized. We then invited him to be baptized again. There was a long pause and finally he asked, "When can we do it? Can we do it on Sunday?" Of course! We were ecstatic! The Spirit was really strong in that lesson. We were really excited for him. We went to visit him again on Thursday and asked about how he felt about his decision. He said not so good. We asked him why and he said he doesn´t want to be baptized anymore. We asked him why, what made him change his mind, but he wouldn´t tell us. He said that he has his religion and he´s going to stick with that. We were crushed. But we´re not giving up on him yet. I´m hoping that he´s just a little scared, tentative. Anyway, that was a little hard. 

Guadalupe. We weren´t able to really see her this week. Every time we passed by, she wasn´t there. We´re going to see her this week, though.

Romina. On Monday, Romina had her baptismal interview and passed! She is amazing! Then on Friday we went to talk to her and we had to change her baptismal date. She was going to be baptized this last Saturday, but the M----- family (the only other Mormons that live in San Marcos) couldn´t come. Seeing as they are her only connection with the Mormon world, we decided to postpone. Her date is now set for the 29 of August. We had a lesson with her about the ten commandments. It was really good. She told us that she felt guilty about not following some of the commandments earlier on in her life. We told her that after her baptism, it doesn´t matter what she did beforehand. That´s all gone. Erased. She felt good about that. She also told us that she wants her daughters to be able to grow up with better moral standards than she had. Romina is amazing!

We have two new investigators! Elva and Estafani. Elva is an elderly woman whose husband was investigating the church when he died 17 years ago. Estafani is her granddaughter. We have taught them about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. They really liked the Plan of Salvation and want to do the right thing. We invited them to be baptized. Twice, but as of yet they haven´t accepted. They want to be sure before they accept. But we´re excited for them! 

Anyway, one thing I learned is the importance of finding people´s real needs. With Juan, we didn´t find his real need until Tuesday. Yeah, he doesn´t want to be baptized yet, but we were able to teach him what he really needed to hear. With Guadalupe last week, we found out that she really just wants to feel her dad´s love. That was really strong for me. I realized that we don´t really teach anything until we find what they really need. Once we find that need, the words that we speak have meaning. But, if we never find that, we never really reach them.

This week we also had a zone conference. It was amazing! I love zone conferences! We had a lot of talks and I learned a lot. I would say that more than anything, I´ve learned more about the Atonement. I realized that there is only one topic in the Gospel, really. The Atonement. We talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What does Gospel mean? Good news. The good news of what? The good news that we have a Savior, we have a way back, we´re not stuck on this earth alone. The good news that Christ suffered for us. That we can return to our Father in Heaven. The good news is the Atonement. So it´s not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is Jesus Christ.

"I found my favorite kind of chocolate here, in Argentina!!!!!!"

Anyway, I hope that you all have a fantastic week! I love you all!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

When It Looks Darker, Here Comes the Blessings

Hola hola!

How was your week everyone? I hope you all had a great week!

Bueno, this week I was a sinner and didn´t write in my journal...so we´ll do a summary of what happened. From what I remember...:)

Bueno, we´ll go by investigator.

Guadalupe:

Guada is doing well. She is so awesome! I just want her to be able to be baptized already! She told us that she wants to be a missionary. We visited her a bit and tried to talk to her dad. We even made an appointment with him, but he didn´t show up. We want to talk to him so that we can really communicate what we are donig and what it is that his daughter wants to do (get baptized). We went to pick her up on Sunday morning, but she didn´t come. Again. I want her to be able to come so badly! She is a dry Mormon. She´s amazing! We just don´t know what else we can do to help her.

 

Hna Criddle, Micaela and Romina

Romina:

Bueno, Romina is amazing! She is reading the Book of Mormon and is really liking it! She told us that the only weird thing were the names. Y sí, es así. Pero bueno. When we went to our appointment on Friday, she was waiting for us with a cake. So we ate cake and mate cocido. Then, we went through the baptismal questions for her interview. All is well and she is absolutely ready! She told us that she was going to come to church in Bell Ville (because she lives in San Marcos) yesterday, but she didn´t come. She had a commitment she´d forgotten about and couldn´t come. We were really sad.

Juan:

Wow, now Juan is the big story this week. So on Wednesday, Juan had is baptismal interview. All was fine, he passed, todo bien. So we were organizing the baptism, and we couldn´t find clothing that would fit him. Nowhere. We didn´t have clothes, the elders didn´t have clothes, there weren´t clothes in the church. Nowhere. We were panicking. So we postponed the baptism (that was on Saturday) to Sunday during the second hour of church. We found clothing, all was well but on Saturday night, we went to see Juan and we couldn´t find him. Which is weird. He´s always at the soccer field (because he works there and lives there). We thought he might have had to go somewhere and everything was fine. But, Sunday morning when we went to pick up Guadalupe, we went by his house. It was all locked up still. So, we waited for a bit and finally he showed up. He told us that he couldn´t come to church. He was sick. He told us that he went to the doctor on Saturday and that he couldn´t come to church. We asked, "not even for your baptism?" He told us no. So, we didn´t have a baptism. No baptism. We went back to the church and drained the font. We don´t know really what happened. If he really was sick, if so, what does he have? If he´s just scared. If he downright doesn´t want to be baptized. We don´t know.

In short, this week was a bit dramatic. We had a failed baptism and no investigators in the church. At times, I feel like a failure here. Like I can´t do anything right. We work all week and then no one shows up on Sunday. I ask myself what I´m doing wrong and I try to improve the next week and then again, no one shows up.

Una experiencia. Tuesday we decided to dedicate the whole day to contacts. We went around trying to contact people. Nobody let us in. Nobody. We went to one house and were about to ring the doorbell when the woman of the house said, "No toquen el timbre chicas. Vayan no más." (Don´t ring the doorbell. Go away.) That day was really hard. We had a lot of rejection that day. But, on Wednesday, we found 11 new investigators. That, to me, is a testament that when it looks really dark, the blessings are really close. (O en español, cuando lo más oscuro se ve, ahí viene las bendiciones.) [Or in Spanish, when it looks darker, here comes the blessing.]

But, also, lately we have been having a hard time finding new investigators. But, this week we found 17! Much better! I am hoping that at least one of these people progresses. At least one.

It´s really hard to be senior companion. Everything, good or bad, is your fault. I felt really horrible yesterday with our failed baptism. It was my fault. We didn´t plan it well, we couldn´t get our investigator to the church, we couldn´t this, we couldn´t that. I know that it´s really terrible to tell yourself these things, but sometimes it´s hard to stop the thoughts. Anyway, sorry to be a Negative Nelly.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

We will see the fruits of our labors.

¡Hola hola! Cómo andan? Todo bien? Espero que sí!!! [Hello Hello! How is it going? All good? Hope so!!!]

Bueno, on Tuesday we went to go see Guadalupe and Antonela, but they couldn´t talk to us. Guadalupe was just leaving her house and Antonela wasn´t there. But we did talk to Juan. We talked about the Book of Mormon and left him a CD so that he could listen. (He can´t read.) That evening we had correlación misional.

Wednesday we traveled to Leones for district meeting. It was really good! I really like this district. It´s fun to be with other hermanas! After the meeting, we made lunch together. Bueno, Hermana Criddle made lunch. She made alfredo and it was delicious! I´m so blessed to have a companion who can cook! That evening we visited with Guadalupe. We talked about the life of Christ. She told us that she didn´t know what happened to him while he was here so we taught her. She is so cute!

She always has great questions too! Then we taught Juan. The CD didn´t work. :( We have make another one. But we went through the baptismal questions and he´s all good there! Then we went to Antonela´s. We had a charla franca (frank talk?). We talked about why she doesn´t want to be baptized. She said that she likes what we teach, but she doesn´t want to be baptized. Maybe in the future. Finally we discovered that she doesn´t want to be baptized because she isn´t quite willing to live the standards of the church yet. It was really sad. It´s really sad when you have to stop teaching someone. But, her time will come to accept the Gospel. It´ll come. That evening we went to celebrate the birthday of Elena. She is an elderly woman from the ward. I think I talked about her last week. She is amazing! We had asado and empanadas!

Thursday we had weekly planning and after lunch we visited Guadalupe. She wanted some help with un chico [a boy]. He was wanting her to be his girlfriend but she doesn´t want it. We helped her talk things out. It was really cute. She thinks of us as her friends and I love that. After that, we taught Juan the ten commandments. It was a good lesson. We used the finger gestures to help him remember. Then we visited a member, Pedro, who just got his eye operated on.

Friday we went contacting in the morning with little success. After lunch we went to San Marcos! We visited Romina. Ella es tan buena! [She's so good.] She is really excited for her baptism and told us that she wants this for her whole family. (We would be teaching her husband, but he works all week and is only home on the weekends. But Romina works on Saturday so that just leaves Sunday.) We tried visiting some other people there in San Marcos, but nobody received us. Then we visited the M----- family before heading back to Bell Ville.

Saturday we did a lot of contacting. Contacting in the morning and then lunch. Then we had a SPLASH with the primary. We did divisions. I went with a young women named Chiara (Kiara). But, nobody answered the door. Then, reunited with my compi, we did more contacting. Little success.

Sunday we went to pick up Guadalupe before church. When we got there, she told us that her dad was going to take her. So we went to church. She never came. We don´t know what happened. :( After the block meeting and lunch, we had studies. Then we went to San Marcos to go to church there. (They have sacrament meeting there every other week.) Romina was there!!!!!!!!!!! We were so happy!!!! She is amazing!

Anyway, it was a good week. Though, without much success. Sometimes it feels that you can work and work, but you don´t get anything. Pero todo bien. Vamos a trabajar duro esta semana y vamos a ver los frutos de nuestro labor. :) [But it's all good. We will work hard this week and we will see the fruits of our labors.]

I love you all so much! Thank you for you love and support! Have a fantasmagorical week!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson