Temple and Tonsils (9/28/15)

Hi family, WHAT A WEEK! LITERALLY, we had a little bit of everything but I´m happy and im almost 21!! WHOOOOO IM SO OLD!!!!!!!! 

So, I started my first day off in Banfield 1 SOOOOOO SICK! I hate going to the doctor here so i tried to cure me with essential oils but after 3 days it didnt work, so I had to go to the HIGH QUALITY hospitals we have here in south america and i had TONSILITIS! I literally was DEAD! But, after 2 days of sleeping, I am all good and feel all better but I still am so tired of blowing my nose every 2 seconds. If the ward didnt notice there was a new missionary, they sure did when they heard me blowing my nose during the sacrament. What a great first impression!! 

Basically my companion is the best and we get along so well. We havent spoke english in a long time so we speak in english in the apartment and its so funny! We have lost all of our grammar and we have a hard time speaking!! But i am getting a little better! Dont worry family, by the time I get home I will be all ready to speak to you in a little english. 

We SAW SOOO many miracles this week! First off, we got a reference from a member named Walter. He is a baptist pastor, has a lot of knowledge of the bible, his wife reciently died, and hes literally SOO awesome. We got to his house with the member and he let us right in. We started teaching the restoration and he said you know what girls, theres something different about you. We explained how it was the spirit and he said that we can come back. Hes reading the book of mormon faithfully and in search of a testimony. Literally HE IS SO PREPARED! He told us that its a big risk hes taking listening to us because if his members knew they would be very disappointed but he feels like we have something he needs!! GOD IS PREPARING THE PEOPLE!!!!! I know he will get baptized! I know it! 

ALSO! My trainer finished the mission here and in the area book we saw a family that she taught. We went to visit them and the mom and her 3 kids have a testimony of the church, but she is married to a man who she is now separated from and shes now living with another man. So in order to get baptized she needs to get divorsed from the 1st man and marry the 2nd. Well she told us that her husband doesnt want to give his information so they can get divorsed so what did my companion and I do, WE CALLED HIM. I was like hello, I am calling in behalf of Romina. We need your information so file a divorse. And hes like ok, from what law firm are you calling from? and I was like well, actually, we are missionaries and we just want to help her live the commandments of god. Just help us out! And he was like If you think I am giving my info to two missionaries, think again! And he hung up on us.. so we both have learned that being lawyers is not in our future! 

BUT, her boyfriend right now NEVER listeneed to the missionaries. He was really hard headed. BUT we came up with the idea to go to the temple with them. We invited him AND HE WENT! Saturday we went to the temple and they LOVED IT! He just kept saying wow, i feel so happy here. We taught a lesson in the waiting room about how they can be together forever and Juan (the boyfriend) started to cry and said what do i have to do to have an eternal family? And we explained how him and romina had to get married and then baptized, then sealed in the temple, and if they stayed faithful all their lives they would be able to be an eternal family. And he said we are going to do it. We are going to get your divorse done, we are going to get baptized, and we are going to do this because I know that what these girls are saying is true. I have never felt like this before. AHHHH! I started crying! I was just so happy. ETERNAL FAMILIES ARE REAL and God gave me the opportunity to know these people and bring them this blessing. 

I AM SO BLESSED!

Yeah so thats what my week has been! Everyone enjoy conference and listen carefully. AND EAT PUMPKIN PIE FOR ME ON MY BIRTHDAY! WHOOO FOR BEING 21!!!!!!!!!

love you all!

see you in 4 months!

And I'm In... (9/21/15)

WELL, guess what? MY HEART IS BROKEN. I had to leave Guillon. I got called on saturday night and informed that I am now going to serve in.... BANFIELD 1! WHOOO! I went from the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich! Banfield is where the mission home is and its city, but all the houses are SUPER nice. So, basically I am in culture shock.. I got used to houses made of wood, cardboard boxes, plastic bottles (and whatever else they could find.) It was the WORST leaving guillon. I spent all day yesterday saying goodbye to all the families and investigatos I have grown to love so much. It was like saying goodbye to my family, but actually almost worst. Because I know I will see my family again, but I dont know if I will ever see these people again. (in this life) 

Super cool experience! Yesterday we went to say goodbye to the Martinez Family and when I got to Guillon he was inactive (the dad) The wife is SOOO faithful and has such a strong testimony. After A LOT of hard work, Hermano Martinez is now active, hes the president of Young Mens, and they are preparing to get sealed in the temple. Yesterday he got emotional and he told me Hermana Root, never have i given the time of day to any missionary that came to my house until you came. You have a very special spirit and I know that I knew you before this life. I want you to be there when we get sealed and I want you to know you will always be our missionary. I cried and cried and cried. The lord allowed me to know such beautiful people and he used me as an instrument to help this amazing family. Their daughters all cried and hermana martinez said when I get married shes going to be my maid of honor ( Dont worry anna, I will have 2 maids of honor haha) But, seriously, I am so blessed!

And then, we ended our goodbyes with the Familia Gattuso. (the two girls that got baptized.) Well adriana, the mom, is trying to quit her smoking habit and shes SOOO close to baptism. She made us Asado for dinner and she when we got done we all started to cry and Adriana told me that I was an angel sent from heaven and I got to her home in the perfect moment. We knelt and prayed and they promised me that the next time we saw each other would be when they are in the temple getting sealed as a family. When I got to the apartment, I knelt down and prayed and thanked my heavenly father for these past 7 months in Guillon. It truly was the perfect area and I saw SOO many miracles. I will always have a place in my heart for Luis Guillon BUT now I am in banfield and this will probably be my last area. My trainer ended her mission here!! 

It was horrible saying goodbye to Hermana Latoja BUT now, I am with Hermana Ostler from ENGLAND MY FIRST ENGLISH SPEAKING COMPANION! And I am also a Sister Training Leader. I get to go and do exchanges with the other hermanas to help them out and make sure they are all doing okay. I know that this is going to be the BEST transfer and all will be okay! 

I love you all! OH MY GOSH ONLY 3 MORE TRANSFERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

See you soon!! 

1. Zona Monte Grande! 

2. Familia Zabala

3. Hermana Johnson 

4. Last Bike ride in Guillon!

5. Hermana Cosenza

6. Chau mis conversos :( Familia Gattuso!

7. Our last selfie!!

8. Chau Guillon :(

9. Familia Miño!

10. Hermana Martinez

11. Familia Martinez !

12. Hermana Miño!

13. Hermana Lita y Pamela!

14. Familia Rodriguez

15. My investigator Maria

16. Familia Cardona!

17. Rebeka Puodzunas!

18. Hermana Silvia!

19. Hermana Flavia!

Blessings (9/14/15)

Hi hi family! oh my word, its already monday. This is scaring me just how fast the weeks go by!!

WHAT A WEEK!!

 My companion and I just went to a hair school here in Guillon to get our hair cut for free. Surprisingly they didnt mess our hair up too bad. The things we do to save money... 

 Let me tell you! We have seen a lot more miracles, have a lot more funny stories, and we are still happy little missionaries here in Luis Guillon!!

So basically we live without power. Theres something going on here in our city and we NEVER have power. We had to use our gas stove for lights and had to shower in the dark for 3 days. Everyone who has EVER said i am high maintance, you should take that back. haha I am getting used to showering with cold water, never having running water, and never have lights! I LOVE MY GHETTO PIONEER LIFE!

Funny story, this week I was riding my bike and right as I crossed a busy intersection, my pedal, yes my pedal, COMPLETELY FELL OFF! I have never seen such a thing but I now have a bike with one pedal... everyone laughed at me in that was watching. Im embarrassed. My companion had a melt down and said ya know what, the missionaries in the states have their nice cars with air conditioning and I have my bike that barely has brakes! haha Sometimes we feel a little picked on for being in an area so ghetto but WE LOVE IT! Because, there will never be another time in our lives that we live so ghetto! HAHA

Miracles!! This week we made the goal to do a LOT of contacts and talk with everyone. We found a woman named Soledad and she is GOLDEN! She was sitting on a curb smoking (I always talk to the smokers haha) and I started talking to her and she said that shes been praying to find a church and she wants to learn more. AND WE FOUND HER! Shes SOO awesome! Its insane how god just puts the people where we are and we just open our mouths and we have exactly what they need to hear. Its the best!!

We are teaching a less active family, Familia Rojas and they are SOO awesome. We made them a promise that if they went to church these 4 sundays of september that they would have a change in their life. SOO hermana rojas has been suffering with health problems for over 9 months and they have gone to church these 2 sundays for the first time in YEARS and she just told us that they found out she has a syst (idk how to spell it ) in her brain and they are going to take it out and her problems will be solved. After 9 months of testing, going to church was what gave her the blessings to help the doctors find out whats wrong! MIRACLES ARE REAL!

ALSO, we found a new investigator from peru named Sesi! SHES AWESOME! She is divorsed and has a little girl thats 7. Her dad has reciently died and we taught the plan of salvation and she started crying when we explained how families can be together forever. WE ARE SO BLESSED TO HAVE THIS KNOWLEDGE! 

ALSOOOOO, we got to go to the temple again! We brought 6 investigators and gave a tour and taught them about temple marriage! We went saturday in the morning with sandra and her two boys luciano and juan. THEY LOVED IT! She cant be baptized because her boyfriend doesnt want to get married but she told us how she never wanted to leave the temple! WE went back saturday night with a recient convert and her daughters and we had the COOLEST lesson! Literally, this has been the best week!!

Yeah so i love the mission and this week is transfers and i pray I dont go! I hve 7 months here in Guillon but hermana latoja and I are working so well together that I dont want a change! bUT I will go where the lord wants me to go! 

I LOVE YOU!!!

Hasta luego familia!

1. Birthday cake I made for Hermana Dunlop

2. Hermana Lita!

3. Rainy Day

4. The Villa!

5. the relief society president, sandra, juan, and luciano!

Member Power! (9/7/15)

Hola! WOW QUE SEMANA! 

Seriously, ever week is just SO AWESOME here in Tina. Its starting to get SUPPPER HOT AND I HATE IT BUT OH WELL. We are working so hard and seeing SOOO many miracles. I have no doubt this is the Lord´s work. We are just his instruments and he is guiding us!

This week we had zone conference and it was DA BOMB! We talked about working with the members. Literally, without members, THERE IS NOT MISSIONARY WORK! My companion and I made the goal to invite members to go with us EVERY SINGLE DAY! It doesnt matter if we have appointments or not, we are going to invite them all so that they can see what its like to be a missionary. When a member is in the lesson, EVERYTHING CHANGES. As missionarys, the investigators often think we are perfect (but we arent) but when they see their friend, family member, neighbor etc. testify of the truthfulness of the gospel, THATS WHEN CHANGE HAPPENS! So, whenever the missionaries ask you to go with them, GO! Because sometimes we have to call every member in the entire ward to get someone who is willing to spend 2 hours with us!! The other night we had to call 11 families until 1 said they would accompany us!!

Funny story, so we have to use the trains here all the time and my companion and I were running to get on the train and my companion walked in, AND THE DOOR SHUT ON ME! I couldnt get inside! They had to stop the whole train to get me out.... how embarrassing. haha ALSO, i almost hit a pizza man with my bike this week.. I just ran over his foot.. no big deal! 

More funny stories: On thursday we had SO many appointments but they were all really spead out. Our area is HUGE! so we would get done with one, hop on the bike, fly to the next one, y etc. SO my companion and I were in a super sketchy part and her chain broke on her bike. SOO what do we do, she held onto my backpack and I pulled her all around Guillon for the rest of the day. It would be like biking down downtown portland pulling your companion everywhere you go (and dont forget we had our super cute helments ) So EVERYONE was staring at us. haha 

MIRACLE TIME! We found the BEST investigator this week. Her name is Pamela and shes 21, she has a 3 year old and we found her in the bus! She was sitting down by me and I started talking to her and we ended up teaching the plan of salvation to her in the bus, we then went to her house and we taught her how to pray and she said her first prayer and IT WAS SOOO AWESOME. She got done and started to cry and told us how she has tried to pray many times in her life but never knew how and she said how she felt so close to God while she prayed. We told her that was the spirit and she accepted a baptism date! WHOOO! 

ALSO, we are teaching a woman named Sandra. She lives in very poor circumstances and they literally have nothing. Not even running water. She has a son named Luciano and he is 8 and doesnt know how to read. So we are teaching him how to read with the book of mormon. Yesterday we gave him the book of mormon (but for kids with pictures and such) and he told us, ¨wow hermanas, no one has ever given me a gift. This is the most wonderful book I have ever seen!¨ It filled me with so much joy. There is nothing like being with these people so humble. The littlest things make them so happy and the love I have for them is eternal. I love my area and my investigators so much. 

Yesterday a member shared her testimony and she said we are all celestial beings living in a fallen world where we dont belong. ITS SO TRUE. We are here in the earth to learn and grow but we dont belong here. We all have the potential to live in the presence of god and we need to make it possible so that EVERYONE can make it back to him. We all want to live with our families forever but God too wants to live with his family forever AND THAT FAMILY IS ALL OF US! We have to help everyone make it back to him! 

I love you all! 

Thanks for being so awesome family. 

HEY and listen to what skye said, we have pioneer heritage so we need to live faithful to the legacy they left us. They didnt cross the plains for nothing! Go skye for being so awesome and doing family history. ALL OF YOU NEED TO DO YOUR FAMILY HISTORY okay! 

LES AMO PARA SIEMPRE FAMILIA! 

Con amor, 

hermanita root! 

1. Zone conference with my favorite Americas!

2. Biking in the Villa!

3.  This is the Country (or aka where everyone throws their trash so they dont have to pay for garbage service )

4. Hermana Latoja and I! WE LOVE HELMATS!

PIOJOS AND SOBRINAS!! (8/31/15)

Hi familiy, 

Okay no big deal I just started crying in this Internet cafe.. OH MY GOSH I AM AN AUNT. AND SHES A GIRL. Shes SOOOO CUTE! I cant wait to meet her! You all need to to tell her that she has a super awesome aunt (the best aunt) and that shes going to get to meet me in just a few months. Congrats Nena and Kev.. Shes a belleza !

Wow, seriously if you all thought me falling in the poop ditch was funny just wait till you hear what happened this week. My companion and I literally have THE WORST LUCK but we both are hilarious so we never stop laughing. So on monday night my companion was telling me how see saw lice in the hair of the kids we were teaching monday night. We had a family home evening with a less active family and so shes like hermana will you check my hair for lice and I was like yeah sure! theres no way you have it, NO BIG DEAL SHE HAD LICE! ( i didnt have it, THANK GOSH! ) So, it was 9 pm and we have to be in the pench at 9:30 so we left running to by a comb and vinegar. Our neighbor told us vinegar kills lice. We got home and I soaked her hair in vinegar and the whole house smelled HORRIBLE! We then put a plastic bag over her head and we waited an hour and we go upstairs to wash it out, nbd, we had no water! (argentina is super ghetto and always likes to cut the water just because they can ) MY COMP HAD TO SLEEP WITH VINEGAR IN HER HAIR! haha we woke up and we still had to water so we had to get on the bus and go to the house of the closest missionaries in Monte Grande. She showered and I had to spend like 3 hours combing her hair! And then we put mayonesa in her hair ( I remember that Christy taught me that Maynese kills lice) haha Now my companion is lice free but our house still smells like vinegar. And we had to live 3 days without water. My investigators saw a whole new side of hermana root. haha

But, we had the BEST week. We found 5 new investigators and they all have baptism dates! SUCCESS COMES FROM THE MEMBERS! We got a lot of references this week and that is how we are successful! ALSO, we were able to do a little tracting this week and literally everyone opened their door. NEVER IN MY MISSION THAT HAS HAPPENED! God is seriously preparing the hearts of the people. My area is super sketchy and ghetto but I love it so much! All the little kids in the street are getting used to us now and we play soccer with them when we pass by. These people live in the poorest conditions but they are so happy and so willing to learn. I am so blessed to be a missionary here. I LOVE GUILLÖN! 

We had stake conference yesterday and they talked about our observace of the sabbath day. We all need to step that up! Sunday is much more than just going to church. We need to dedicate the day to the lord! 

Yeah so basically I am super happy and I love being a missionary! 

besos y abrazos!

Hermana Root

 

Families can be JUNTOS PARA SIEMPRE! (8/24/15)

Helllllooo family! 

Okay, well no big deal, this week was just the best week of my entire life!!!! Lets start from monday, after p-day we had a lesson with Familia Gattuso and we made plans to go to the temple Saturday morning before their baptism (theres a new rule that we can give tours to investigators in the temple!!!) The two girls, Yazmin and Giuliana and their mom Adriana! SOO we visited them with like every member in the ward during the week and kept them super excited for their baptism and when saturday came, EVERYTHING TURNED OUT AMAZING! We all met up in the bus stop at 8 and got to the temple by 8:30. We ate breakfast outside on the lawn and then took pictures and started the tour. We went into the waiting room and we talked about how in the temple we can be married not only for this life but for the life after this life. Adriana started to cry and we explained how she can be sealed to her husband and her children. She told us how that is exactly what she wants and that shes not going to let cigarettes keep her from having an eternal family (she smokes and until she stops she cannot get baptized) The girls told us how they arent going to settle for anything less than a temple married and it made me feel so happy. This family changed so much and its was so beautiful seeing the light of christ in these 3 women. I LOVE THE TEMPLE! It changes the hearts of the people!!!

Saturday at 6 was their baptism and President Thurgood and his wife came!! It was so beautiful. We sang and everyone told me I can sing good!! WHOO! haha but honestly, you cannot express the joy that one feels seeing someone you love get baptized. I am so thankful god gave me this opportunity to meet them. Their dad, (who has been inactive for over 10 years) came up to me and said, thank you for going on a mission. You´ve changed my family forever. I immedietely started to cry and I told him that Heavenly Father was the one who changed them, I am just an instrument. He said how him and his wife made the goal to get sealed and that he is now going to come back to church and that very soon he will be baptizing his wife!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHH! He had an interview with bishop on sunday and the whole ward is just accepting and loving and helping the whole family!! ITS SUCH A MIRACLE!!!

ANOTHER MIRACLE! A less active family that we are teaching have put the goal to get sealed in January and they asked me if I would be there!! YAYY FOR ETERNAL FAMILIES!

On a more light note, this week I fell in a ditch! and dont worry it wasnt just any ditch, it was a sewage ditch. We were in the ghetto and we had to cross this ditch to get to a house. I jumped and I thought I was going to clear it, but because of the mud I fell RIGHT in. Poop all the way up to my upper thighs and my planner floating. My companion DIED laughing. I didnt know if I should cry or laugh. We were about an hour from the house walking so we took the bus and the bus driver almost didnt let me on because i smelled SOO bad. He said if I didnt have such pretty eyes he would have left me! And I have no pictures to prove it either :( But yeah, not everyone can say that in their mission they swam in poop and pee and a bunch of trash. WHOO yayy for the mission! 

Yeah so that is my wonderful week! I love the mission and I love ALL the blessings that God is giving me! I am sooo blessed. I love argentina, I love luis guillón and and all of these experiences I am having. I am so grateful I was able to come back to the mission and be a part of this great work! 

CHAUUU!

Love you all!! 

Best Week Ever (8/17/15)

HIII EVERYONE!! 

What a week! Seriously, BEST WEEK EVER! My companion, IS THE BOMB DIGATY! Literally, we are 100% sure we were best friends before this life. We have seen SOOO many miracles this week that I do not have ANY IDEA where to start. 

But I will start off with the best. NO BIG DEAL! Its been freezing cold and raining all week, AND OUR WATER HEATER BROKE! I didnt shower for like 3 days and then I had to face the freezing cold water. We also boiled pans full of water and tried the sponge bath. Basically, we are living in the pioneer days. AND ON TOP OF IT ALL, saturday night we got home and we had no lights. We lived a day and a half without lights and the batteries in our flash lights were dead. Basically we have been living completely GHETTO this week but hey, its all a great experience!! 

MIRACLE TIME!

So Yazmin and Giuliana have their baptism date for this week, ON SATURDAY! But, on monday night they told us that they wanted to wait another month. They are COMPLETELY ready to be baptised! So we prayed and prayed and fasted and sent messages to all the members to fast and pray for them and yesterday we went to their house after church and they said HERMANAS WE ARE GOING TO BE BAPTIZED! WHOOO! We are going to have a baptism this week! actually 2 baptisms!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH!

Also, we are teaching a less active ( who is a drug addict) AND HE WENT TO CHURCH YESTERDAY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS! 

ALSO, we found a new investigator named Celia! Shes an athiest but for some weird reason she let us in her house. We invited her to pray and ask if God exists, so she did and we came back the next day and she said Hermanas Im not sure what I felt but I just feel so happy. I loved to pray teach me more! We taught her about the plan of salvation and she started to cry when she heard that the families can be together forever! SHES SOO AWESOME!!!

Funny story: 

My companion and I were walking and we saw a house that was hot pink so we naturally wanted to knock on the door. So we said okay we are just going to make up a name of someone and say we are looking for her so that we can start talking. A 20 year old man answered the door and I said Hola, we are looking for Pamela. Hes like, ok one moment, let me go get her! (Keep in mind, we made up the name pamela and were not actually looking for a pamela) A 25 year old girl comes out and was like ummm.. hi what do you want? And I was like oh we talked to a girl named pamela and she said she lived on this street but it wasnt you. Do you know a girl named pamela? and shes like no im the only one in this neighbor hood so I was like well then maybe we are looking for you! haha we then started talking and she said we could come back!!! Literally the most awkward experience ever but whatever! 

Yeah so that was my week! Best week ever! 

Love you all! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELBY!

Chauuu!

1. Hermana Latoja and I

2. Happy Birthday Shelby!

Sorry for the overload of selfies this week! haha