Un Año

Queridos Amigos,

How time flies! This week will mark one year in Argentina. One year full of trials, challenges, lessons, heartaches, laughter, love, and much more.

My life has completely changed in this past year. There are no words to describe it, but I´ll try to explain it with a poem that my companion Hermana Medford shared with me a while back.

A mission is a strange experience

It´s a trial and a test

A mission throws at you the worst

Yet, teaches you the best

I´ve never been so happy,

I´ve never been so depressed.

I´ve never felt so forsaken,

I´ve never felt so blessed.

I´ve never been so confused,

Things have never been so clear.

I´ve never felt my Heavenly Father so distant,

He´s never been so near.

I´ve never been so discouraged,

I´ve never been so full of hope.

I feel I could go on forever,

I think I´ve come to the end of my rope.

I´ve never had it quite so easy

I´ve never had it quite so tough

Things have never been so smooth,

Things have never been so rough

I´ve never traveled through more valleys,

I´ve never ascended more peaks

I´ve never met so many nice people

I´ve never met so many freaks!

I´ve never had so many ups

I´ve never had so many downs

I´ve never worn so many smiles,

I´ve never had so many frowns.

I´ve never been so lonely,

I´ve never had so many friends

Boy, I hope this is over soon,

Gosh, I hope this never ends.

Every single word is true. It´s full of contradictory phrases, but it´s all true.

I´m incredibly grateful for this opportunity and privilege to serve the Lord. This week has been one of the hardest ones of my mission, but it´s brought me closer to my Father in Heaven.

I know that I´m here in Argentina for a reason. I know that my message is true and that it has the power to bless the lives of all those who will take the time to hear it.

I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I´m grateful for the ability that we all have to repent and receive forgiveness.

I encourage each one of you to ponder where you are in the path of life. Are you continuing onward? Did you stop to take a breather? Do your feet hurt? Is the sun hot? Sometimes the path of life is boring. Sometimes we get pebbles in our shoes. Keep the end in mind. Don´t see the path as something hard and necessary to follow. It is something to be enjoyed. Learn to dance in the rain! Whistle a little tune as you continue your hike.

I promise that the Lord is mindful of each one of you. He knows you and He loves you. As His representative I testify that He lives. He is our Redeemer and through Him all things are possible.

I love you all more than words can express. Have a wonderful week.

Con amor,

Hermana Chaffin

"Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow." -Plato

"You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him find it within himself." -Galileo

Hola Hola

Queridos Amigos,

How did the week go by so fast? So much has happened.

The best part of the week was Wednesday when we did a surprise service project for our investigator Victoria.

She had grass almost up to our knees and we cut it all while she was at work. We had an absolute blast!

It felt so good to work hard and to just enjoy working. I love teaching and I love meeting knew people, but it just felt so good to do something for someone that I love.

I had intercambios for a day with Hna Abate Daga from Argentina. I learned a lot from her.

Hermana Johnson is the best companion ever. I absolutely love her! She works so hard and just loves sharing the gospel. I seriously hope that I have one more transfer with her.

I received a letter from Oscar!!! He´s doing great, and he has baptized two of the converts of the missionaries in Banfield. It was such a sweet surprise to hear from him.

I´m so grateful to be a part of this work.

This week will mark the halfway point of my mission. I can´t believe how fast it is going by. I`ve learned so much about myself, the gospel, and our Heavenly Father`s plan for us.

I`m out of time, but I hope you all know that I love you, God loves you, and I´m grateful to have each one of you in my life.

Have a wonderful week,

Hermana Chaffin

Time Marches On

Dearest friends and family,

This week was another glorious week! I am so blessed to be here in Buenos Aires working for the Lord. It truly is the best job, the hours are long, the stress is high, but the joy is immense.

We haven´t found a lot of people to teach, and the ones we do find aren´t home at the times we make appointments.... There are many wonderful people willing to hear our message, they just never seem to be home.

We visited Soledad this Tuesday, and discussed her baptism. She is excited for this, and committed to stop smoking entirely. She says that she wants to be a better example for her children and show them the right things in life. She has changed so much in her life since she met the missionaries. We had an appointment with her on Saturday, but she wasn´t home. We called her, and she said that something came up, but that she would see us at church on Sunday.

We traveled (bus, train, and walking) for an hour on Sunday to help her make it to the chapel on time, but when we got to her house, she didn´t answer our knocking or phone calls. We waited for 40 minutes but she never showed. It was a very long trip back to the chapel. It is so sad when people miss out on opportunities to feel the spirit more in their lives. Hopefully we can meet with her tomorrow and see what we can do to help her attend church.

Last Monday we had our district activity, and it was a blast! We played ping-pong and foosball (not sure on spelling) and then ate pizza! After everyone had eaten, we played soccer, and I made a goal! It was so fun to relax and spend time with other people. My companion is great, but sometimes I need to hear other people. Afterwards, we shared photos of our families and ate icecream. It was perfect.

Friday, we had exchanges (where we trade companions for a day) and I went to a different area with Hna. Latoja and Hna. Menezes (they are in a trio, so I got to be with 2 new people!). I had a blast! It is so fun to meet new people and see how they do things in the mission. I can´t wait for my next exchange. Hna. Latoja is from Chile and Hna. Menezes is from Brazil. They both speak a little bit of english, and were showing off what they know. My favorites were "Jesus is my friend and God is my bestie", "Don´t make me come over there!", and the endearing, "Good-night buttheads". I don´t know who´s been teaching these sisters, but I guess you´ve gotta start somewhere.

Today we have a zone activity in Lanús. We  are going to eat asado!!! Asado is what Argentina is famous for. It is basically barbecue, but better. The meat is AMAZING! We will also be doing some form of physical activity and then go about doing the rest of the things we need to do (groceries, etc).

While this week has been fantastic, it has also been incredibly difficult. I´ve gained a greater appreciation for leaders, hard work, and patience. I hope that everyday I´m improving and that I can return better than I left. I know that God is aware of our needs and that He will support us in our trials.

Besos,

Hermana Chaffin

photos

1 Hna Menezes y Latoja

2 The dolls Hna. Menezes put above my bunk to scare me

3 Silly smiling sisters

It is better in prayer to have a heart without words, than words without heart. Mahatma Gandhi

God is greater than your greatest need

C. Mervyn Maxwell

If ye are prepared ye shall not fear

Doctrine and Covenants 38:30

10 Minutes

Dear Friends and Family,

I only have 10 minutes.... I had so many lovely emails from my family that I ran out of time!

This week was great! We had interviews with the mission President and they were wonderful! He is so funny and loves the work. He truly wants what´s best for us.

Today we have a district activity, which should be fun. It is my first district activity and I´m super excited. All I know is that pizza is involved.

We taught a woman named Soledad who lives alone with her three adorable children. The Elders were teaching her, but couldn´t always get a member to accompany them, so they passed her on to us because sisters can teach single women. She is so humble and kind. She accepted our invitation to be baptized!!!! She is working to stop smoking and desires to follow the Savior.

I know that God knows each of you personally, by name. As His representative, I testify that He loves you and has blessings ready to pour upon you if you follow Him.

That´s all I have time for!

Lot´s of love,

Hermana Chaffin

D&C 122:9 ...Fear not what mlan can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever

Photos- Our apartment

P.S. 2 MONTHS DOWN!!!

Por fin!

Dear friends and family,

It`s finally P-Day!!! I don`t know if I`m more excited to have a break or have something to read in english!!! It has been so great hearing from all of you (especially my dear family).

So much has happened since I last wrote!

I left the CCM on Tuesday, had lunch with President Calquin (he is from Chile) with his wife and the other new missionaries. After lunch, and a little debriefing on our mission and our goals, we went to the church to meet our new companions!

My companion is Hermana Medrano and she is from Bolivia. She has been out now for 14 months! I feel like a toddler around her when it comes to knowledge. We are in an area called Banfield 2B. Normally, when you come to your first area, your companion has been there for a while and knows the area. However, that is not the case with me (I always knew I was special). We are in what is called a "white-wash", we are both new to the area and are learning together.

Our area is super nice and the members here are so sweet! They`ve fed us a lot of delicious meals that I`ve enjoyed immensely.

The missionaries before us were only teaching 2 investigators before we got here, and we`ve only been able to contact 1 of them. Hopefully we will start teaching people!

Fun fact, I bought some new perfume before I left on my mission, and I`m allergic to it!!! I broke out in a nasty rash on my neck. I guess I`ll stick to lotion for a while :(

Haha no worries, it cleared up in 3 days and I just used makeup to cover it up.

This week has been pretty rough, but I`ve had the strength of the Lord. The scriptures have especially helped me. I love you all so much!!! I can`t even express how much I love you all.

He lives!

Con cariño,

Hermana Chaffin

Scripture that helped me: Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many, but endure them, for lo, I am with thee, even uto the end of thy days - D&C 24:8

Last P-Day at the CCM!

Queridos amigos,

This week has been wonderful! I can´t believe I only have 4 days left! I have no idea what the future holds, but I´m sure it will be great!

Last Saturday we went proselyting in in area called Moron. It is in the Buenos Aires West Mission. It is much nicer than the first area we went to. I had my first empanada! It was so amazing! Words cannot describe how magnificent it was! I can´t wait to get some more this Saturday.

The first two hours it was overcast, but the last three it rained steadily (fear not, for Hermana Chaffin is always prepared with an umbrella and thermal tights). I stayed perfectly toasty and my toes didn´t feel a drop (shout out to the dansko shoe company). Around 3:30 we came across a very frinedly man. He asked us who we were, and we talked to him for a while.  He tolds us that we were too pretty to be missionaries and that it was too bad that we couldn´t have boyfriends (this man was about 50 yrs old).

After about 5 minutes, his friend showed up with 2 teenage boys. All but one boy went inside, and we started talking to him. He told us that his name is Ian (he is 17). We ended up talking to him for almost an hour in the rain. The poor kid was shivering! I offered him my umbrella but he wouldn´t take it. We had a wonderful conversation and he ended up giving us his phone number and address. After talking to him for several more minutes, everyone came out of the house and he left with them (he and another man took a book of mormon and they both promised to read it).

We wandered around our area for about half an hour, clapping doors and talking to people to no avail. Hna. Warnock had to go to the bathroom, so we started heading to a gas station near our drop off spot. We were one block away from the station when we heard someone yelling "chicas!" We turned around to see Ian running after us! He told us that he had been driving around for several minutes looking for us. He asked if we could talk to him longer. We of course said yes, and went into the gas station where there was a dining area to sit down at. When we got inside, all of the Elders from our district were there! It was so strange! Everyone had something to add to the conversation, and we gave a short lesson to Ian.  Elder Bednar was right when he said, " There´s no such thing as a coincidence when you are on the Lord´s errand"

I was seriously smiling for the next two hours after our bus picked us up. The gospel is true! All of it! I can´t wait to go out again on Saturday and then after Tuesday it´s my full-time job!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

No pierda la fe,

Hermana Chaffin

Our only concern should be to do better than we did yesterday. Step by step is the law of growth. God does not expect the acorn to be a mighty oak before it was a sapling. -George E. Carpenter

D&C 64:33

p.s. please enjoy the photos from our rainy Sunday at the temple

Una Otra Semana Bonita

Queridos amigos,

It has been another beautiful week here in Buenos Aires.

Let me start off by saying that I love my district. Even with the 3-6 sister to elder ratio I love it. We´ve been practicing memorizing the baptisimal invitation, the missionary objective, and the first vision. I am the only one so far that has them all down. We were practicing as a district, and Elder Belnap noticed that when I recite them, my right eyebrow twitches! I practiced saying them in front of the mirror, and it really twitches! I am now working on saying them while controlling my facial expressions! Everyone thinks I´m a hoot!

The Elders also love to comment on my hair. I don´t think that it is that humid here, but my hair does. I have beautiful curls every morning when I wake up. Elder Hazelgren´s quote of the week is "Hermana Chaffin must be stressed, her hair is poofier than normal"

Saturday we went proselyting in Banfield. We got dropped off at 12:15 and around 12:30 we saw a guy riding his bike. We shouted a greeting across the street to which he waved, paused, started to turn towards us and then decided against it and continued on. We were sad that he rode away because he had the biggest smile on his face. After 4 more hours of walking and talking to people, we came across this man again! This time he rode right up to us! We were soooo excited!!! He told us his name is Jorge and then talked about himself and his family. He said that he´d never seen sister missionaries before and was very interested to hear about why we would give up everything to serve missions. He accepted a Book of Mormon and said that he would read it. He even gave us his phone number so that some other missionaries (that can speak spanish better than us) could come visit him. It was such a wonderful experience. I was able to understand everything he said, and I was able to give (simple) answers back.

It was just amazing! My companions did great as well! Their spanish has improved so much!!! After we said good-bye to Jorge, we were talking about how well our discussion went. Hermana Wunderli shared something so sweet with me. She said that while I was talking to Jorge she was praying that I would be able to understand him and be able to respond to his questions. I feel so blessed to have a companion that loves me so much. She is so wonderful. I´m sad that after the CCM I won´t have the opportunity to be her companion because she is going to the Bs. As. Norte Mission.

My comps and our roomates

Sunday was wonderful (as usual). Elder Lambert (a new norte americano) was conducting and asked me the night before if I would give a talk in sacrament meeting - IN SPANISH! It is so fun to write a talk in spanish when you are given the topic at 7:30, don´t get done with class until 8:00 and have to shower and then have lights out at 10:00. Just kidding, it was great. It was actually a fairly nice talk.

Tuesday we taught a fake investigator (all investigators are based on real ones that the teachers taught on their missions). The teacher that was acting did a fabulous job! He was pretending to be drunk and was very believable. At one point in our lesson, he was sharing how hard his life was. His family didn´t want to see him, he felt that his parents´divorce was his fault and that he couldn´t be forgiven because of all of the things he´s done. He then started to tear up! This teacher can cry on demand! We were able to testify about the Atonement and forgiveness when Hermana Wunderli shared a scripture. Unfortunately, she shared the wrong scripture...... She shared Alma 32:3 (I´m not going to type the scripture because I´m almost out of time, so look them up!) when she meant to share Alma 36:3. The teacher went with it, and it turned out really well. When we got back to class and looked up the scripture in english, we were dying laughing! At least we are making mistakes here and not in the field.

District of goof-balls

Yesterday, we watched a recording of Elder Bednar giving a devotional at the Provo MTC. There are not words to describe how wonderful it was. It wasn´t a topic that I´ve ever really thought about, and it made me contemplate a lot. He then shared that for several years he´s been writing a song in his head, and recently he worked with some people to make it into a song. At that devotional, some primary children and some missionaries sang it. That was the first time the song has been sung. It will be appearing in next month´s New Era magazine, and I implore you all to look it up.

Well, time´s up. I love you all!

-Hermana Chaffin

I love Thursdays!

Dear friends and families,

How is everything going? Everyone seems to be busy! Today has been crazy! This Tuesday all of the missionaries (except for the americans that arrived with me) left for their missions, and the CCM was empty. It was soooo nice having it to ourselves. Today the new "shipment" arrived. It is super funny to see how confused everyone is 😀 . I cannot believe that I was ever like that. So much has happened these past 3 weeks. I cannot believe that I am halfway through my time here at the CCM.

Buenos Aires Temple

I never fully appreciated Sundays until I came here. I have been in dire need of a day of rest. Our days here are so spiritual, but Sundays seem to be especially motivating spritually. Also, it is really nice that we get cake every Sunday. Haha.... I love the food.

My companions and I the third time we visited the temple

Proselyting on Saturday was AMAZING!!! We had such a great time. Even with our small vocabulary of spanish, my companions and I were able to share a lot of messages. We ended up giving away two Book of Mormons, several pamphlets, and all of our pass along cards. I have no fear when it comes to talking to people, but I am sure that the more I get rejected the more that will change. The gospel is real people! Jesus is the Christ!

My district at the CCM

On Sunday, President and Hermana Benton were visiting the Buenos Aires West Mission for a new stake that was being created, so Elder Hazelgren and I were in charge. Two of President Bentons counselors were here, but we conducted everything. Because of that, I had the opportunity to teach the Relief Society lesson. It was sooo great! I learned so much while I prepared, and I loved every minute of it. It was on the Atonement, and everyone should read Bruce R. McConkie's (YAY I JUST FOUND THE APOSTROPHE KEY!) talk called The Purifying Power of Gethsemane.

My companions and I have been playing volley-ball with the sisters from the other district this week. It has been a blast! I have actually been getting in a lot of spikes! Who knew?

That's it for now. Lots of love,

Hermana Chaffin

"You can live the impossible dream, or you can live an excuse. It's all up to you" -Paul Kane

p.s. Everyone should read Alma 16! It's my favorite!!!