Monte Grande

Queridos amigos,

First off, I´m so sorry that I´ve been falling short in the email department. Things have been so crazy busy that I haven´t had time. Thank  you for your patience and love.

A lot has happened since I last wrote, and seeing as I only have about 5 minutes left, I´ll do a few points:

-I had my first embarassing spanish error where I asked for diapers instead of tissues....

-We had a week with two sisters that don´t have an area but visit the hermanas to help them out for a week.

-We found a few new investigators that have a lot of potential.

-Hermana Johnson and I ate peanut butter!!!!!

-We made no bake cookies with the peanut butter!

-I got transferred to Monte Grande yesterday and I´m now with Hermana Santos who is from Brazil

-I am now a sister training leader, which means I´ll be having a lot of exchanges with other hermanas in the mission

I´m so incredibly grateful for the time that I had in San Vicente. It will always have a piece of my heart. I met the most amazing people and I grew so much in so many ways.

I´m also grateful for my time with Hermana Johnson. She is the most amazing person ever. I will miss her so so so much. She was a true companion and friend.

I´m excited for this new change and I hope that I can achieve a lot in my new area.

I love you all!

con amor,

Hermana Chaffin

¡Bautismo!

Queridos amigos,

This week was absolutely amazing! It was busy and crazy and I loved every moment of it.

Monday we had a lesson with Victoria and she said that she felt ready to be baptized this week! So, we left that lesson trying hard not to shout for happiness.

Tuesday we had district meeting and then we were in charge of a ward activity. We basically had a free yard sale. We had a bunch of donations of clothing, and we organized it and then gave it away to those that need it. We had a great turn out and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Wednesday Victoria had her baptismal interview, and it went amazing! She was so happy and seemed so at peace with her decision. We also celebrated my halfway mark by buying icecream and wearing pants!

Thursday we had a bunch of amazing lessons with investigators and we just had a fantastic day.

Friday was the day of the baptism!!! It was absolutely amazing! All of Victoria`s family came to support her and it was simply beautiful. The spirit was so incredibly strong. I love her so much and it will be so hard to leave her and her family. They are a huge part of my life that I will never forget.

Saturday we had a normal day teaching and testifying.

Sunday Victoria was confirmed, and her family also came to support her in that. It was so wonderful to see that whole family sitting on the bench in front of me and my companion. One day I hope to see that as a regular thing with all of them baptized. They`re all getting there, some just slower than others.

I`m so grateful for this blessing that I have to serve a mission and get to know some of God`s wonderful children. I could never learn what I´ve learned here in any other place. I`m truly humbled to be a small part in the Lord`s work here.

Thank you all for supporting me in this decision. I love you all so much! Keep smiling!

Con amor,

Hermana Chaffin

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph" -Thomas Paine

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

We're dead! We're alive but we're dead!

Queridos amigos,

First off, don´t be too alarmed by the quote from the Incredibles in the email heading (that means you mom).

This week has been insane.

Monday- I wrote you lovely folks and then did grocery shopping for the week. We deep cleaned the apartment and that night we had a family home evening activity with our investigator Graciela and her family. It was great. We made stir-fry for them and they loved it! Juan, Graciela´s boyfriend had never tried broccoli before! He´s 52! But, they all liked it, broccoli included.

Tuesday- We had district meeting and we got a little bit of rain. My comp´s permanent retainer fell out, but we had so many lessons scheduled that we did divisions with members so that I could teach and she could go to the dentist.

Wednesday- We had a worldwide conference for missionaries where we learned about new changes to schedules and studies in the mission ( I´ll write more later about those when Pte. Calquin approves them)

Thursday- My companion woke up with a headache (not out of the ordinary because she gets migraines occasionally). We had a lesson with Victoria (she accepted to be baptized 17 de Febrero) and then one with Olimpia (she accepted to be baptized 11 de Febrero). Then, we had lunch with Graciela. Graciela didn´t have water, so we went with her to her mom´s house to eat. My companion started to get chills and was shivering up a storm. She did not look good, poor thing.

Graciela is a nurse, so she took her blood pressure and checked her oxygen level. It was all very low. So, she gave her some mineral water with some sugar and then sent us home. Hermana Chappell went to bed and slept. I washed laundry and cleaned the apartment while she slept.

Friday- I continued to clean and do things to keep myself busy. My companion was still sleeping until 2pm. We called the mission president´s wife and she gave us the rest of the week off and told us to rest.

Saturday- Hermana Chappell felt a little bit better, so we did weekly planning and then rested some more. We decided to go visit Graciela and after we left her house, I started to get a headache. We then headed to visit Sonia. When we left her house, I felt nasty. My head hurt and I was dizzy. My skin hurt to touch and all of my muscles were sore. It was a blessing that we made it back to the apartment without any problems. That night I had a fever of 101.8 F and I was taking Ibuprofen and Tylenol like it was going out of style. My fever never went away and it was a rough night.

Sunday- I slept until 8am and then we slowly made the walk to the church. I felt a little better, but not that great. I made it through all of the church meetings and then we had lunch with Graciela. After lunch we walked back to the apartment where I went to bed to die. I was close to overdosing on Ibuprofen and my fever wasn´t going down. So, what does one do in times of desperation? Turn to God. Or, His servants the Elders. We got a sister to drive us to the chapel ( I couldn´t walk to the chapel and the Elders can´t enter our apartment) and the Elders met us there.

They gave me a priesthood blessing of health. During the blessing, I felt my fever break and all of the pain left my body. I couldn´t believe how fast it took effect. I´m truly grateful for the priesthood and the miracles that it works in our lives. When I entered the chapel my temperature was 100.6 and when I left it was 98.3.

I know that God has restored His church through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that Joseph Smith received the priesthood authority of God, to act in God´s name and that through this power miracles are wrought. Today, worthy men in the church hold this power and have the great responsibility to use it to bless the lives of others. God is a God of miracles. He always has been and always will be. I´m grateful for the daily miracles that I´m seeing here.

I hope that you all look for the miracles in your lives. They are everywhere, just stop and look.

I love you all and hope you know how much you mean to me.

Con amor,

Hermana Chaffin

"The sheep is worthy of divine rescue simply because it is loved by the Shepherd" -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"The highest ideal of man is the will of God" -Anonymous

La Vida Loca

Queridos amigos,

There are random occasions in life that cause us to reflect on who we are, where we are, who we want to be, and where we want to be in the future. This week I had one of those moments.

I was trudging through the mud with my companion (with our bright purple bikes and shiny orange helmets) when we turned the corner and passed a house blasting the song "Livin´ la vida loca". I smiled because a year ago I would have never imagined that I´d be where I am today.

Argentina is beautiful, the people are great, and the work here is amazing.

I´m extremely grateful for all that I´ve learned here in these short 7 (almost 8) months here in Argentina and my short 20 years here in this beautiful world that our Heavenly Father created for us.

This morning I looked in the mirror and asked myself if I am who I want to be. My immediate answer was "No, but I´m getting there".

This life isn´t perfect, but our Father´s plan for us is. It is for us to learn and to grow. We must experience sorrow to truly experience joy.

I challenge each of you to ponder your lives, however "loco" they may be. Are you where you want to be? Are you getting there? What needs to change?

La vida es loca, but I wouldn´t want it any other way.

Thank you all for being a part of my vida loca. I´m grateful that I have a part of yours as well.

Thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes and thank you for your support. I truly appreciate each one of you. You wouldn´t be receiving this email if you weren´t important to me.

I love you all and I know that our Father in Heaven loves you too.

Con amor,

Hermana Chaffin

"Everything you are learning now is preparing you for something else" -Marjorie Pay Hinckely

"Are we prepared to leave our comfort zones to reach a better place?" -Elder Godoy

Milagros

Dearest family and loved ones,

This week has been amazing! The only thing that could have made it better was if there had been a baptism.

Tuesday we traveled to Alejandro Korn for district meeting. It then proceeded to rain like nobody´s business. It flooded everywhere! The water was almost up to the doors of the church!

We were so grateful for the rain! We knew it was going to rain and we intentionally left our umbrellas in the apartment so that we could fully enjoy the rain. After taking the bus back to San Vicente and happily trudging through mud and a lot of puddles we arrived at our lunch appointment (with members) completely soaked! Haha it was great! Our clothing actually dried quickly and then we went and taught a lot of lessons.

One of our lessons was with Sonia and her family. We taught about the Plan of Salvation. The Spirit was soooo strong! It was incredible. Everyone was crying in the end. There aren´t words to describe how wonderful it was (I also don´t have time to find the words because I have 6 minutes left...)

Sonia ended up coming to church yesterday! After 3 years of listening to the missionaries she came to church! We are positive that she will be baptized this transfer!

Saturday we had a service project with her that was amazing. We have daily contact with our investigators now and they are all progressing so much! I can´t believe that I´m so tired and yet so happy. Missions are the best!

Sorry, out of time!

Love,

Hermana Chaffin

Feliz Año Nuevo

Queridos Amigos,

Okay, I would like to appologize in advance. This email is going to be short.

Today has been all sorts of crazy and it´s only 1:30pm.....

We had personal study and then companionship study and then we headed to the cybernet café to email all of you wonderful folks. Guess what.... it was closed! Have no fear, Hermana Chaffin is not so easily discouraged. Yes, there is only one option in this small town for computers, but I rubbed a few brain cells together and called the Branch President to use the computers in the chapel. He answered right away and said come on over. Sweet! Problem solved right? False.

We arrive at his house and he´s not home.... But, some friendly construction men are and we talk about missionary work with them while we wait for presidente to return. After 20 minutes he arrives. At last we receive the key and head to the church. Unfortunately, there must be oposición in ALL things in this life.

We get to the chapel and unlock the 6 locks to the computer and discover that two of the outlets aren´t working.... So, after jiggling cords, stretching extention cords to their max and several very heartfelt prayers we connected the computer to another outlet-only to discover that the internet wasn´t connected. At this point I was laughing hysterically at our situation and my companion was giving me concerned looks....

So, if you received this email today please now that I suffered a lot to send this to you. I hope that it made you smile and I hope that you forgive me for not being as frequent in my emails. Things happen (see example above)

This week was amazing. We had many lessons with many investigators. I love this área with all of my heart. It is amazing. Hermana Chappell is the greatest and we are having a blast sharing the góspel with others.

I hope you all had a wonderful 2016 and that 2017 is even better. I probably won´t see most of you until 2018, but through cords stretched across church hallways and keyboards across the world we can keep in contact. I hope you all see this year as an opportunity to strive a little harder to reach your true potential. Set goals and make plans to achieve them. You can do anything you set your mind to. The wise Dr. Seuss said, "You have brains in your head,you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose"

Lots of love,

Hermana Chaffin