ERICA

HOLA BUEN DIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW what a week!! God has been soooooo good to us! This has been such a good transfer. Not gonna lie.. the hardest.. but Ive learned sooooo much. How sad would it be if we lived our lives without any challenges??!

Wednesday I got suuper sick. My stomach has been hurting me for a while but Ive just kept trying to ignore it.. but Wednesday came around and I couldnt get out of my bed. :( I spent the whole day throwing up. haha. But ya know its all good. I feel like it needed to happen cause I was forced to lie down and had some time to just breathe.  BABY V is the cutest, sweetest daughter. She took care of me and told jokes the whole day.HAHA! Little Columbian Comedian she is!

BUT NO SE PREOCUPEN MIS AMIGOS cause Saturday was a beautiful day. ERICA GOT BAPTIZED.(insert angelic choirs singing right here) That little girl has the strongest spirit. But before everything I want to tell you guys something. 

ON Friday we were walking around alllllll over tarnation.. trying to find escogidos.. but didnt have ANY luck. We just dont stop. Looking for people that are already prepared is super hard.  We invite like 5 people to be baptized in a day but none of them are really escogidos. So ya.Anyways out of nowhere I belted out.. HERMANA VARGAS why arent we having any success?? President Ayre called me the night before and changed us to Juncal for a reason... but FOR WHAT? Haha I was just feeling soo mad. And then the angel Hermana Vargas.. stopped me and put her hands on my shoulders and told me, Hermana... Dios already had this planned . Dios already knew that we were gonna find his daughter Erica and bring her unto him. God needed two girls who were humble enough to go through these trials to eventually find a little 13 year old girl who doesnt know who she is. And you know what? WE found Erica we told her we loved her, we told her she has a heavenly father that adores her. We told her even if she couldnt feel the love of her father here on this earth, she has a father in heaven who adores her. And thats WHY we found her. Cause God wanted Erica to know that he has been listening to her prayers. And now her prayers are answered. 

. Hermana Vargas is such an incredible example to me. Her faith in God has definatly helped me trust more in God also. I know now that everything happened for a reason.

And Saturday she made coventants with the father who knows us and loves us best.. our Heavenly Father. Our padre celestial.

When we came to her house we had planned for her mom and her brother to come. But her mom straight out told us she didnt want to come. It literally felt like somebody had punched me in the heart. Erica was trying so hard to hold back the tears. I said a quick prayer asking heavenly father to please help Erica have a good baptism.. without her family:( 

And then an image came to my head. It was so vivid. I could see my mom doing my hair for me for my baptism and then putting my little sparkly headpiece on top of my head. I just felt so grateful for the amazing life I had. For a mommy that understood what I was going to do that beautiful baptism day and she made it so special for me. So when Erica came out in her white dress I asked her if I could do her hair. It was my way of doting on her and trying to make her day as special as mine.

Oh my family.. the love I felt for this sweet little girl as I was brushing her hair.. words cannot describe. Me and Hermana Vargas did everything we could to help her feel special and loved that day. When she came out of the water she put both her hands over her face and started to cry.She told us she felt something strong in her chest and felt the need to cry. We explained that what she was feeling was the spirit! And that Heavenly Father was happy for her decision. 

Ahh. Erica is someone so special. Shes gotta great personality. IN a way shes a lot like Hermana Vargas and I.:) NOW its time for the ward to take her in their arms and take care of her. :) Please pray for her to continue and grow in this ward, and that she will have the inner strength to continue to come to church. 

I testify with all of my heart that the success on the mission isnt the numbers.. but its the pure love of Christ we feel for others. God is pleased with his missionaries. We have another transfer here in Juncal and I know there are plenty of other miracles that God has in store for us. I know God hears and answers every one of our prayers. Never stop praying. NEVER!!

:)

Im sooo happy. I love Juncal. I love the portenos. I love the big streets. I love the people. I love the rude people and I love the nice people.. so many different kinds of people.. but i love em all. I love the Jews cuz we have this strange energy between us ;) (YA WE GAVE A BOOK OF MORMON TO A JEW. SUCCESS) I love the peruvians (90 percent of BUENOS AIRES. JAJAJA) I love my amazing daughter Hermana Maricarmen Vargas. I love myself. I love Erica. I love God. :) 

THATS ALL FOR NOW!!! :)

Hermana Terryblemente GRATEFUL!!! CARRY ON CARRY ON CARRY ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goodness in everything!

Hola Familia-

Please tell Paul Im so proud of that cutie going to his first day of 7th grade!  Wow watch out Junior High, here comes the adorable Paul Terry! 
Well, I dont know if youve ever heard this before, but what doesnt kill you makes you stronger!  Guess what?  The two lady missionary sisters in Juncal, Argentina are pretty dang strong.  We are working every angle we can think to work.  We did find a beautiful girl named Erica who is 13 years old who is asking, ready and wanting to be baptized.  She comes from a very difficult situation where both of her parents are alcoholics.  Her first time at church she felt somthing she had never felt in her life.  She wanted us to explain to her what it was.  It was one of the most beautiful moments Ive had in Argentina explaining to her that she has a father in Heaven who loves her and wants her to have an amazing life.  She teared up at a concept she had never considered before.  Her poor parents are dealing with so much, and have such deep addiction issues, I think it never occured to her that God is loving and watchful and can be a parent in her life that will meet her needs on a whole new level.  A week later she attended a baptism with us.  She leaned over to me and said "Hermana Terry, can I be baptized today?'  I told her no not today but we have her scheduled for September.  I hope it will work out.  Her brother is sixteen and he is starting to show alot of interest.  The parents are not interested at all, so I hope we can keep an open good understanding with them so that they will be supportive of the whole process if this is what the kids end up both wanting to do.  Erika and her brother have a hard time sleeping at night because the parents have drug and drinking parties and they cant sleep.  Erika told me she has started praying and talking to God during these nights, and thinks someone is listening to her.  I immediately thought of the story you sent me at Christmas.  Love you forever.  I told her about a mother that kept an eye on her son all the time.  At night she always snuck into his room to hug and snuggle him because she loved her son so much.  Even when the son was a father the mother still found him and snuggled him.  That made Erika laugh.  Im going to give her the book you sent me mom.  She doesnt read english but I am going to write the spanish words in.  I told her that is like her Heavenly Father.  At nights she cant sleep, or the drinking and drugs in her house get bad, he comes to her and holds her.  I told her I think he sent her to Church, so she could find him and have a relationship with him.  And when she is an old woman he will come to her and snuggle her at night, because she is his daughter and he loves her so much he cant stay away.  Its a new concept for a child that has suffered neglect and abuse.  I told her these words and she started to cry

This young woman touches my heart so much.  Please pray for Erika and her family ok fam?  She is so lovable you just want to hug her all the time.

I feel a little discouraged fam.  I wish I was having more success.  People have really been nice to me for most of my mission, but some are pretty rude in Juncal.  I try not to take it personally, but it wears you down sometimes.   I do just wanna tell you about the goodness in Argentina because there is alot. The more people I talk to.. the more I am amazed. Gods children are so amazing.  If you listen everyone has a unique relationship and way of relating to God.  I can learn so much here. This one guy told us that he feels like God looks more on the positive than on the negative. He thinks at the end of our lives he pulls out the book of life and judges us by all of the amazing things weve done. He thinks we will be the ones that are so surprised that our loving father has kept a record of how amazing we are and how much he loves us, where I think so many worry the only record he keeps is whats wrong with us and all of our mistakes. These people teach me more than I teach them.  I think this man knows who God is and he was  put him in my path so I could think some new ideas and see someone who is at peace inside of themselves.  I wrote in my journal that you told me that song called Grace has a line that says " GRACE sees the good in EVERYTHING". Its so true. I feel like sometimes as mere humans there are people that obsess about their faults but Gods way and the way he wants us to be is to see GOODNESS IN EVERYTHING!  

So things are slower than I wish they were, but we are working harder than we ever have.  I will trust in the Lord with all my heart, I will not lean upon my own understanding, in all my ways I will follow him, and he will direct all my paths.  Im thankful to be here family.  Time is flying.  I want to come home bloodied and blistered and exhausted knowing I gave everything I had to this beautiful country of wonderful people.  I miss you but Im grateful for every day I have in Argentina.  Its where I am supposed to be.  Carry on Carry on Carry on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reaches my Reaching

Buen dia. :)

Hows hot August? :) Its freezing here! READY for school?! I cant believe Emma will be a senior. :)  MAX IS leaving the mtc? Wow I cant believe it is already time for him to go out in the field!  Time is flying!

Well well well (haha my comp always says this in her cute latina accent and she just makes me laugh every time:))" this week was a week of trying new things." :) We prayed last Sunday night and specifically asked where we could find people whose hearts were ready and open and could benefit from our message. And we both felt so strong that we needed to visit the menos activos (less actives). 

Bueno. So we made this our goal. We tried to visit alllllllllllll the menos activos in Juncal. I feel like Juncal is Springville, Provo and 2 Orems combined in one. People--- pioneer children who sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked have nothing on us. We walk soooo much. ME MATA.

Long story short we found this menos activo named Miguel. Hes so great! I dont know how long its been since hes come to church,, but its been quite a while. When we walked in and saw him in the congregation I wanted to cry. Theres an hermano in our ward that once told us.. seeing a menos activo en la capilla is just like having a baptism. Ya know what we feel? We feel like God wants us to FIRST help the less actives and then he will lead us to find his children that are ready to be baptized. 

Theres something I learned on  the mission and that is this: THERE IS NO PERFECT FORMULA to have baptisms. Im truly convinced. Ive spent my whole mission doing the essentials we needed to do to have success, but I can say that there is no predictable outcome to doing things a perfect way. This is GODS WORK. And I know that God has every baptism planned. He sees the big picture. I just need to trust in HIS PLAN for us. Because sometimes when I pray and ask for things to happen the spirit will tell me something different. Sometimes our will doesnt always match up with gods will. its so hard to explain.. Sometimes he tells my heart somthing total opposite of what I think or want to happen.  But this is what has taught me about faith. I know that WHATEVER happens, happens for a reason. Were gonna keep giving it our all and if it be Gods will we will have baptsims.  And then this is the really hard part that makes me cry a little  Its really hard to say but I feel like I should say it.  I want my family to know this.  If we walk and talk and pray and fast and give and plead with God, and he doesnt lead us to any baptisms, my faith is the same.  His love for us is the same.  The sacrifice and love of Jesus Christ is the same.  And I will seal my heart to his heart with equal love and gratitude if he gives us success or not.  And honestly that does make me cry a little, because I know what I want.  And Im learning to surrender my will to his. 

 Lately I have been discouraged.  Alot of faith and trust has been put in me to open this new area and nothing is happening.  I find myself wondering why I am not seeing Gods hand work miracles.  But then I  read these scriptures this morning and I felt an answer to my prayers.

6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

FAITH IS THE ANSWER TO EVERY UNANSWERED PRAYER MY PRECIOUS FRIENDS. Trust him.  Trust him.  Trust him.  He is the one who reaches our reaching.  In our Gesthemene he is our Savior and our dearest friend. 

have a a good week yall. 

HERMANA TERRY

I hope-I love! Thats what I do!

I love and I hope.

I love and I hope. I feel like thats all I really need to tell myself for the rest of my life. :) I found an old liahona in our pension and I came across an article from Herny B Eyring called, Help them Aim high. It was soooooooooo meant for me. I needed to hear that! Cause it made me look back on my life and I realized that my parents helped me see my potential. My heavenly potential. :) Thank you mom and dad for helping me see who I truly am.  Thank you for your emails today.  You did the exact same thing youve always done for me where you lifted my eyes to heaven and helped me to see there is a greater plan than what I see and  this isnt about me. 

Well this week we worked haaaarrrrrddd. HARDCORE WORK MAN. I love it. MY comp loves it. We get sooo much joy out of it. Even if we cant see much of the fruit of our labors. :) BUT I WILL TELL YA THIS.... WE HAD ASISTENCIA.!!!!!!!! Out of the 14 new investigtators we found.. WE only had one person come to church. 

But let me tell ya peeps. This 24 old chico IS EL MEJOR. 

So were in this casa tomada.. and we get up to the very top floor to look for an antigo investigador de las hermanas. But shes not home.. so we start talking to the mom.. The mom doesnt want anything. I start getting antsy.. cause thats what I do when I feel like were wasting time. Hah. BUT NO WAS I WRONG. This guy comes out (well actually he looks like a 15 year old. This little peruvian. ES UN AMOR. jajajaj) and hes like... HEY! I wanna come to your church! He gave us his number and that was that.

We didnt think much about it..? We sent a text to all of our investigators reminding them about church the next day and he immediatly responds and says hes excited to go. Haha. I dont know what we were thinking.. but we honestly thought it was a joke. CAUSE when people say theyre gonna go 90% of the time ITS A LIE. hah.

BUT THE NEXT MORNING he texts us at like 8.. and he says  DONT FORGET ABOUT ME! So we came to pick him up and he was already to go holding his santa biblia. MI AMOR.  I was soooo happy. Because we had passed for every investigator and none of them answered. But man.. When we walked in with Jonathon I wanted to faint I was so thankful. My comp told me she was thanking God through out all of sacrament meeting for this miracle. 

TOO CUTE! Jonathon is sooo special. Like he is soooo prepared. He acctepted a fecha for el 17 de Agosto. After our little lesson he said that we are angels that God has put in his path and hes so grateful to learn more about Jesus Christ. :) 

That was incredible. :):) Last night I dont know why but I felt a little down. I shouldve been more grateful.. but I just felt in my heart we would have at least 2 investigators come with us to church yesterday.

Literally 20 minutes later I get a message from Hermana Jensen saying that this random guy showed up to church in La Boca and said that he talked with Hermana Terry and wanted to see what the church was about. She and her companion thanked me for talking to him.

:) I cried. I just felt in this moment that God was telling me.. SEE?! Even though at times I cant see the fruits of my labor.. it doesnt matter. Because I know that every person we find.there is for a reason. Thankyou God. :)

There was one morning this week... that almost killed me. I couldnt move my body. I couldnt get myself to get up and get going. I felt as if all the stress in the world was on me. I tried so hard to keep myself upbeat, but I just wanted to break down and cry. So I walked over to my desk and grabbed my bible. I said in a prayer in my head and said.. Heavenly Father Im serious right now. Please give me a message in your scriptures. 

And this is what I opened up to:

Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.

 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save,he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joyover thee with singing.

I am so grateful for these lifechanging experiences Ive had on the mission. The more I hear from God the more I wanna scream I LOVE AND I HOPE!! Im so grateful for the trials that Ive had. THAT IS WHY IM HAPPY. Thats the secret to happiness. Is the tough things we have to go through in life. There is always always always a light at the end of the tunnel. Im excited for the things that God has in store for me and baby V. :) 

Love you guys. Peace and blessins!! 

HERMANA TERRYBLEMENTE MAD CON ANIMO!!!!! Carry on Carry on Carry on!