Ituzaingó Week 14! Merry Christmas!

Hola Amigos!
I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and encourage you all this Christmas season to remember why it is that we celebrate. Remember our Savior Jesus Christ, for after all, that is why it is called Christmas, for Christ. Try to think of one way that you can make room for the Savior in your Christmas celebrations. Take a moment to breathe, to relax, and to feel His love. Last December there was an article in the Ensign that is called something like "Be at Peace" by Elder Chrestofferson. That basically sums up my thoughts because, well, they came from there. Also go read Ether 12:41. I'm not going to put it here because I want you to go look for yourself. As you read it, think of what it means to you in your life to "seek this Jesus". 

I love you all! The gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Ituzaingó 1B Week 13! Exciting Stuff Happening!

Hola Amigos!
So I didn't write the exciting news last week because I ran out of time. However, here it is now! I'M TRAINING! Last week I received a "refuerza" as we say here, a greenie in English! Her name is Hna Mughal and she is from Millcreek, UT! It has been really fun to be with her and to get to experience all her "firsts" with her! Her first time on a colectivo, her first time teaching a real lesson. Her first P-day. I could go on, but I won't.

Hermana Mughal and Hermana Cheever.

The sad part of the exciting news is that my time with Hna. Poblete came to an end. She is now in Ramos Mejía learning a ton more and progressing a ton more!

This week was full of miracles! In our lesson with Marina on Tuesday, she told us that the lawyer in charge of Eduardo's divorce finally started to work on it. She told us that now it really actually is in the final steps and she is still super excited for it to come through so she can get married and baptized and be living right in the sight of the Lord! She and Emmanuel (her 10 year old son) came to church yesterday for all three hours! Ema was a little shy the second hour so he came to Gospel Principles with Marina and us, but the second hour he went to Primary!

We also found a new investigator whose name is Arsenio. He accepted a baptismal date for the 7th of January! We asked him how he felt after the first vision and he told us that he knew it was true. He said that he was a journalist and worked in radio as well so he know how to analyze people and he said just by seeing how sincere we were in presenting the gospel and that we wanted to help him by answering his questions, he could tell that it was the truth. Now he just needs the spiritual confirmation that comes from a sincere prayer!

Thanks for all the prayers and everything y'all do! Go out and serve!
-Hermana Cheever

Ituzaingó 1B Week 11! "When can I be baptized?!"

Yesterday we met Daniel! He is the reference an hermana gave us last week that wants to be baptized! He is so great!!! He came to church yesterday, even though he was sick, and stayed all three hours. After church he wanted to go to Castelar with the hermana that takes care of him to listen to the choir practice. When Principles of the Gospel finished, he raised his hand and asked "When can I be baptized?" Sadly, we couldn't have a lesson with him and sacar una fecha, but we have an appointment tomorrow! He also received a blessing for the sick from the elders yesterday so that's great that he's already having these experiences in his first contact with the missionaries! He understands really well and it just amazes me that he appeared (seemingly) out of nowhere! I know that the Lord prepares miracles and we just have to be patient! 

We also found another new investigator this week! We went to teach our investigator, Francisca, and she told us that her grandson, Levi - who is a former investigator - was home and asked if she could invite him. She was a little worried because he's a little shy, but he was super attentive and participated in the whole lesson! He's super great! We fasted with Marina this week that the divorce of Eduardo can go through so that they can get married and be baptized on the 14th of January! She was super willing to fast with us and after she said that, besides the hunger, she felt really good during the fast! And, with the amazing skills of Hermana Cheever, we chose two of the hottest days of the week to fast ...


-Hermana Cheever

Ituzaingó 1B Week ... 10...? "I want to be baptized now!"

This week we received a couple of great references! One of them is from a member in Ituzaingó 3. This member is preparing to leave on his mission to Chile and he started sharing the gospel with his friend's family. Now for us to meet his friend, he's going to invite him to come to church on Sunday and he's going to come to our ward with his friend! 

The other reference is a man named Daniel and he's Jewish! He is a reference from a member in our ward! An hermana came up to us after Relief Society and told us about him. He lives in the geriátrico in our area and he has studied a lot about the LDS population in the US. This hermana started to tell him a little about our basic beliefs and he told her "I want to be baptized!!" She explained that he could meet with us and we could explain about the basic doctrine and that he would need to go to church a few times first to really see what our church is and everything. Well, he didn't like that. He said "No, tell your bishop that I want to be baptized now!" So, long story short, she's going to bring him to church next week and we're going to teach him there and yep, he's going to baptized on hopefully the 17th of December!

We also had a lesson with a member this week with Marina and her son, Emmanuel! One of the counselors in the Primary presidency accompanied us and it was great! We did a little Family Home Evening with them and Ema loved it! The hermana was great as well! She answered some of Marina's questions and she took the initiative in inviting Ema to come to primary! It was really great! 

This week was really great! Thank you all for everything! We're going to go out there and find people to baptize in December!!!

Ituzaingó 1B Week 9! More miracles!

Hola Amigos!

This week Marina came to church!!! She was going to come with her son, Emmanuel, who's 10 years old, but al final the kids of her pareja ended up coming and one of them stayed the night until Sunday so Ema wanted to stay with her and Eduardo. Anyway, Marina loved church!!! She stayed the whole 3 hours because she wanted to! She participated in all the classes and ah she's super buena! I can't wait until the divorce comes through so that they can get married and be baptized! The ward was so good with hermanamiento for her! Everyone was super friendly and of their own initiative went and greeted her and introduced themselves and their family. 

 
We had divisions this week and Hermana Gioppo came to Ituzaingó with me. We worked on being bolder in contacts and it helped a lot! We found 3 nuevos! And one of them is a young man who's 20 years old so if he progresses and is baptized he can go on a mission!! I learned a lot from Hna Gioppo. Usually we don't contact a whole lot because we don't have a whole lot of people outside in our area. She helped me remember that that's the reason we talk with literally EVERYONE. If you see 5 people in one day, you talk to those 5 people and odds are that one of them will at least let you share the basics of lesson one or accept a return appointment.

The gospel's true and God loves you! And I do too!
-Hermana Cheever

Ituzaingó 1B Week 8! Miracles!

Hola amigos!

Okay so first off, in case you didn't notice from how many weeks I've been in Ituzaingó, transfers came two weeks ago. For the first time in my mission I stayed with my companion in the area!! My first time having a companion for more than one transfer! It's wonderful and we sure are learning a whole lot together. 

Now for my week,
This week was full of miracles!!! Our investigator, Marina, accepted a fecha for the 14th of January!!!! We put the date so far away because they're still waiting for the lawyer to do his part with the divorce of her pareja. However, we hope that they'll decide to find somewhere else for Eduardo to live until they can get married and then she can be baptized either this month or in December! We're going to talk about that with her when we go over the Law of Chastity again. 

We also found a new investigator that's super great! Her name is Stella Maris and she moved to Ituzaingó from La Costa a month ago. Something like 10 years ago her dad listened to the missionaries and she noticed the difference in him, but she was working two jobs and raising her kids so she never had time to stay and listen when they were at her dad's house and until we rang her doorbell on Friday, no other missionaries had ever come to her house and she always wondered why. She's super honest and open! The problem is that she smokes, so we'll be focusing on that a lot because she accepted a fecha for the 26th of November!!! 

This last week we had our zone conference, but this one was different. President Robertson organized all the zone conferences and came and gave us a special training and the assistants came as well and gave us a little training/introduced us to what the church has this year for Christmas. 

As you all probably know, every year the church makes a video for Christmas with a little theme. Well, this year is a little different. Yes, there's still a video with a theme, but there's an invitation as well. The theme is "Light the World" and the invitation is that we can all light the world this Christmas season. There will be a little calendar for the 25 days leading up to Christmas with how the Savior lit the world and how we can follow in his example. I'm super excited for this and I invite you all to get excited for it too, because it starts the 25th of November. I invite you all as well to start thinking of ways that you can light the world. If everyone puts forth their little bit of light, the world will change! 

Something else that was talked about in our zone meeting was that President Texeira, the President of the area South America South, challenged us all to baptize every weekend in December! Every single companionship of missionaries in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile now has this challenge. I am so excited to see the miracles that come from working our hardest so that in our area, we can four baptisms, 8 in the ward, and 376 in the mission! FAITH CHANGES EVERYTHING!!! 

Anyway, I love you all and hope you know that the gospel is true and God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

PS: If you could pray for my companion and me and our area and the mission that we can reach our goals this month of two baptisms in our area and 94 in the mission and in December of 376 baptisms in the mission, that would be super muchly appreciated.

Ituzaingó 1B week 7!

Hola amigos!

Well this week was pretty good. We walked. A ton. Enjoyed (read "died in") the sun. We saw Presidente and Hermana Robertson in our area on Friday. And they just about killed us with startledness (not sure if that's a word, but hey it works) because we were both looking where we were walking and not at the cars on the street and we just heard a man's voice yelling "Hermanas!" so we ignored it, then heard it antoher time. And another. Then the car started to back up because they already passed us. Then we saw that it was Pte and Hna Robertson and realized that we were okay.

We also saw two grand miracles! Here they are:
1) Thursday we had an appointment with an antiguo investigadora the Hermana Lideres visited in the tormenta blanca and she is amazing! SHe is so prepared! Her name is Liliana and she understood everything so well. We were talking about how the Priesthood was taken from the earth after Christ's earthly ministry and she was super concerned. SHe said something along the lines of "But, how would the world be without the authority of God? Everyone would be lost!" Then when we explained about Joseph Smith, as we were going to tell the 1st Vision, I showed the picture and she said "Ah how beautiful! SO that's the young man, and those two in the light, who are they?" She really felt the spirit and loved the Restoration!

2) The second miracle happened with our investigator, Marina. Last week we shared the Proclamation with her and she really loved it. She had returned a few weeks ago to her Evangelical church, but after sharing the Proclamation with her she said she was going to have to pray again and see what God wants her to do. Well, we had a lesson with her on Saturday and we felt like it would be a good idea to teach her about Noche de Hogar on ella y ahora quiere efectuar una Noche de Hogar every monday with her son and her boyfriend! At the end of the lesson she said (without us even getting to that part) that she wanted to come to church with us the next day! She ended up not coming because Eduardo, su pareja, already had plans to go visit his children on Sunday and he said he wasn't going to go, but if she wanted to she could stay and go with us, but he was going to go visit his kids. She did promise us though that this Sunday she will go with us! And she already has 1 asistencia so if she comes the next two Sundays she can be baptized in November! Well, that is if she tells Eduardo he needs to find somewhere else to live until his divorce comes through and they can get married. We are praying so much for her! 

This area is pretty hard, but I really have a testimony that the harder areas have more lasting conversions because the people really feel it and they aren't ust being baptized to be baptized.

Well, that was my week! The gospel's true God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Ituzaingó 1 Weeks 4&5!

Hola Amigos!

Okay so just a couple of exciting things happened these past two weeks. One of those things is that we had divisions! Hermana Poblete and I were separated for the first time this transfer and it was a little traumatic ... Haha JK. Divisions were actually really great! I was with Hermana Rodriguez from Perú in our area and Hna Poblete went to Ituzaingó 4 with Hna Barrera from Argentina. Hna Rodriguez and I saw so many miracles! Here's a list of the miracles we found:

1. The less active we had an appointment with was actually there and she's great!
   
2. We found a new golden investigator! (now if we can find her again, that'll be really cool!)
   We were going to beg forgiveness for not going to visit a less active with whom we had missed our appointment the day before and her ex-mother in-law was there watching her kids a little bit because she had had to travel to Salta to visit her dad. Anyway she talked to us and told us she had a ton of faith and that prayer has great power and we presented the Book of Mormon to her and she said she had already read quite a bit when visiting Virginia (the less active) or her mom and we asked if she wanted her own and explained that it was a treasure in our lives and she accepted very gladly and we said a prayer right there outside the house (I have no idea how many prayers I've said with people in the middle of the street, in a park, outside their house)
   .
3. On our way home in the night we paused before crossing the street because there were cars and that's the smart thing to do in that situation and this man on bicycle stopped and started talking to us and he was really great and we didn't even ask if there was anything we could help him with or anything that he would like us to pray for and he told us that he had a request that we could pray so that his paperwork could go through and he could receive the money he's been waiting for for his military service. Then as we talked a bit more, we found out that he lives in Ituzaingó 4 which is the area of Hna Rodriguez! It was actually a little funny because to get to our apartment (which is in Itu 4) we have to cross two or three blocks of the elders' area and then we live like 3 blocks in the area of the hermanas and we found this man as we were crossing the street that divides the wards and areas so we found someone in the middle of crossing the three areas right there. 

Anyway, I think that's all I have time for this week! I love each and every one of you and your beautiful faces! 

The gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Ituzaingó 1 Week 3! Livin' on a Prayer!

Hola amigos!
So, you've probably been wondering if I'm still alive or not and the answer is yes, it's just that the time goes by super fast to email.

As you can see in the subject line I am no longer in 25 de Mayo, transfers were 3 weeks ago and I came to Ituzaingó 1! I'm back in the city and boy is it different! The first few days transitioning from riding a bike all day to walking all day were a little rough, Let's just say I had forgotten that things like hamstrings and calves and feet existed but they let me know they were still there! 

Right now we have and investigator that's super great! Her name is Marina and yeah, she's amazing! She's already read the whole Book of Mormon! There's just one slight problem: Her boyfriend needs his divorce to finalize so they can get married and we don't know how long that's going to take and since they live together she can't be baptized until they either get married or he finds somewhere else to live while they wait for everything. If you could pray for her that everything can come through, that would be wonderful! We've got a few really great families here! It's so weird to be in a ward again! And with members who have served missions or been members their whole lives! It sure changes the dynamic of things! 

Ah! I forgot to say anything about my new companion! Her name is Hermana Poblete and she's from La Serena, Chile! Aaand I'm training! It sure is an interesting learning experience. I think I'm learning more than she is! She's super great and prepared! 

As far as the other half of the subject line goes, I hit my halfway mark on Friday! Yup that's right folks! It's been 9 months since Hermana Cheever left her house and entered the mission! I have learned a ton and I love the mission so much!! 

Now for the most exciting part of the week - GENERAL CONFERENCE! I was able to watch 3 out of the four sessions in English and I was so grateful for that because I love to hear the talks from the general authorities in their actual voices and how it was originally written! The spirit was so strong and talk about a focus on missionary work! This conference basically taught us the Restoration and Plan of Salvation with a whole lot of faith and missionary-ness thrown in! I especially loved the talk given by Elder Evan A. Schmutz. The Spirit was so strong in the little room where we were watching that I felt like I could basically reach out and touch it! I encourage you all to go back and read or listen to that talk because I'm pretty sure it's a life changer! Well, I love you all! Never forget your divine heritage (as Elder Rasband taught us)! The gospel's true, God loves you!

-Hermana Cheever

25 de Mayo Week 6!

Hola Amigos!
Well, this week we worked a lot and I just want to tell you about two people we found on Saturday!
One of them was a reference we had of an older man who had had his leg removed removed recently. We went to visit him and we taught the Restoration to him and his wife and neighbor and they were all super attentive and interested, however we didn't feel in the moment that we should invite them to be baptized, so we'll see what happens the next time we go. They were super nice though and they even want to invite us to come eat lunch with them one day so that was pretty great. 

Another person we found was a man we contacted looking for an old investigator. At first we just asked him if he knew the woman we were looking for and he said no so we thanked him and kept looking. However, when we were outside another house Hna Da Silva said to me that she felt like we should go back and give him a Book of Mormon, so we did. He was super great! He's an artisan and travels a lot so he's seen and conversed with a lot of missionaries, but we're the first ones that really presented the message to him. We found out that he lives with his señora and son that has 1 and a half months. I'm not sure if he's married or not, we forgot to ask ... He was so great! He accepted the Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and said that he was interested so he was going to read! I'm excited to see what comes of that! 

The Lord works miracles when you do your part! The gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

25 de Mayo Week 5! Temple!

Hola amigos!

Yup, that's right, we went to the temple this week!!! It meant leaving 25 for three whole days, but it was so worth it! I love the temple so much and the Buenos Aires temple is so beautiful! This week I learned that when we are diligent and obedient the Lord will help us, even if we have to be outside of our area for 3 whole days.

We started off this week really well with a lesson with Maxi and Melany on Monday night, and they had two friends there who also listened and accepted compromisos! After that we had a Noche de Hogar with a recent convert and we talked about Patriarchal blessings, only to find out that she's already got hers!

The temple was wonderful!

On Friday we had divisions with Hna Córdova and Hna Mattinson and it was great! I got to work with Hna Córdova and yeah, she's pretty great. Sofia accepted a baptismal date for the 3rd of September! Another one of our investigators, Liliana, did as well!

In our zone meeting at the beginning of the transfer we talked about how to use inspired questions and we've been applying it a lot and it has brought miracles! I know that my leaders in the mission are inspired of God and when I take what they have taught me and apply it in the work in my area and with my companion as well, miracles come! I love being able to represent my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for this time! I love you all! The gospel's true, God loves you!

-Hna Cheever

The attached picture is my group (the zone of Chivilcoy and the zones of Luján with the exception of those in their last two transfers) in front of the temple. 

BONUS POST! Pictures

25 de Mayo Week 4!

Hola amigos!
Well, it was a pretty calm week out here in good old 25 de Mayo! We taught some lessons, found some new people, saw a few cows on our adventure to where it's like really actually farmland (as in someone says that their "neighbor" lives in front of them when you can see the speck of their house about five or six huge fields away. I don't know how many kilometers we biked that day, but it was fun, unsuccessful in trying to find the referral, but fun. Here's a little part of my week.

As far as the work in 25 de Mayo A goes, we've been looking for new investigators and trying to contact the million references that we have and we've made a dent in the references and have a couple new investigators so that's good. 

I don't know if I've written about Maxi and Melany before, but they are a young couple that was a reference from the branch president. Melany is 18 and Maxi is 17 and they have a 2 month old daughter. We've been visiting them, mostly Melany because Maxi is working two jobs, and I've got a lot of hope for them! On Friday morning we had a lesson with Melany and she accepted to live the Law of Chastity and talk to Maxi about getting married and she accepted a baptismal date for the 8th of October! They are a super great little family! Melany told us that before Maxi had had a lot of problems with drugs, but since they've been together he's left it behind and doesn't have the problems he had before with the addiction or with neighbors and people on the street. 

We're also working to teach Maxi how to read and write because he doesn't know how, but he's willing to learn and he's even the one that brought it up. Melany also said that she had problems with basically everything in the Word of Wisdom in the past (well, not in those words because we still haven't gotten that far in the teaching), but one day she had a big scare and left everything behind. This family really is a great one and we are praying so much for them that they can get married and be baptized to be able to enjoy the blessing of the gospel in their family and raise their daughter with the Lord's help.

That's all for this week! The gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

25 de Mayo Week 2 and 3! Transfers

Hola Amigos!

Well, I don't remember very well everything that's happened in the last two weeks because they've been a little crazy, but I'll give you some of the highlights. 

First off, Leonor was baptized on the 30th of July! It was great! Fun fact, 25 de Mayo is one of the 2 (I think) wards or branches in the mission that doesn't have a baptismal font so we use a portable pool. So yeah, that's fun. But it was a lovely baptismal service. 

Then, Sunday night, the transfer call came! Hna Bonholzer and I were about 95% certain we were going to stay together in 25, but that was apparently not what the Lord had in mind. Now Hna Bonholzer went to ... ATALAYA B! My first area! And now I have Hna Da Silva as my companion, she's from Brasil, from Sao Paolo. She's pretty great and this week we had an adventure in that I ran into a car and fell off my bike so we actually got to know each other in the first week. 

I can't think of much else that happened right now and I don't have much time left so I'll send pictures next week! 

Love you all! The gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

25 de Mayo Week 1!

Hola amigos!

Here's a super quick update on how you're favorite Hermana Cheever is doing!

Well, this week was interesting. We didn't get a lot of work done because Monday night my bike broke so we've been using our feet all week.

Then Tuesday through Thursday was all spent in travelling because Hna Bonholzer had a meeting in Ramos Mejía with all the other people in their first and second transfers, so I stayed in Chivilcoy with Hna Macha (My sister training leader whose companion is also in her second transfer).

But on Friday we were finally able to meet with Leonor and Sofia, basically our only investigators, and teach them the last little things Leonor needed for her entrevista. Saturday she had her interview and she's getting baptized on Friday!

We also found a couple of new investigators on Saturday. We were looking for a reference and we didn't have a house number, but there was a lady outside with her young kids so we asked her if she knew the person and she said no, sorry. I was deciding how to start a contact with her, and Hna Bonholzer just said "Ok, bueno, umm Can we come in and share our message about God and Jesus Christ with your family?" In that moment I was like oh no, we scared her off, but she didn't even think for a minute, she just said "Ok, if it's fast, I've got no problem" That was a lesson for me in remembering that we just need to open our mouths sometimes and the Spirit will talk to the people also in humility reminding me that it's okay to try new ways to do things. The woman, Juliana has 4 young kids all under the age of 5 or 7. We don't know if shes married or juntada or anything because it was just her and her kids home at the moment and her sister, Milagros was visiting. So we were able to teach them the Restoration and they accepted an appointment for Tuesday! I'm really excited about them!

I'm learning and growing lots here in 25 de Mayo and I love it!
-Hermana Cheever

From left to right - Me, Hermana Macha,
Hermana Le Sueur, Hna Bonholzer

After the interviews and flash.
Hna Villanueva (my second mom in the mission, far left)
with her other hijita, Hna Muchica (or something like that, far right),
my companion /hijita Hna Bonholzer, and me.

Mercedes Week 10! FLASH!

Hola amigos!
Well, this week was pretty calm. We have FHE with the Bishop's family and the Elders on Monday
We taught Valentina on Tuesday and went to the English class Elder Wihongi and Elder Porter teach.
We did service for a less active family on Wednesday helping them clean their kitchen.
Then on Thursday the hermano came to install the alarm in our apartment and then we went to lunch and our correlation meeting.

Then things got not so calm ... We started correlation and our phone started to ring. This last week we had interviews with Presidente Robertson and some trainings from the assistants and secretaries. When those kind of things happen the assistants are the ones that call to assign people to say a prayer or lead the music or whatever it is that's needed so Hna. Salino was joking all week that the assistants were going to call (everyone hates it when they call because they're also the ones that break bad news, like if there's a flash...). 

Well, we looked at the phone and sure enough the screen said "Asistente 1 E' Dagleish". As we were walking out of the room to answer Elder Sales said jokingly "Ah flash!" Well, Hna Salino answered the phone and Elder Dagleish asked to talk to me ...

So, yeah, he told me that there was going to be a flash and I needed to pack everything that night and be in the chapel of Luján 1 the next morning at 8:50 because I was being transferred to 25 de Mayo. He said I would have my interview with Presidente and all the trainings, then go off to my new area. After I repeated all that so he knew I heard correctly he told me that my new companion would be ... Hermana Bonholzer! and that I would be finishing her training! So yup, I'm now training!! I love my new companion, she's great! She's from Cedar City. It's a little weird to have a white companion after 4 latinas in a row, but it's great. Life is great. 

The branch here (from what I can tell with 3 days) is pretty good. Yesterday was a little bit interesting because there was no electricity in the chapel so we only had sacrament meeting. I love you all and wish you the best in everything that's happening in your lives!

Oh and the scripture I chose to Ponderize this week is Ether 8:26. It's a really great one.

26 Wherefore, I, Hermana Cheever, am commanded to preach these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved. (Ether 8:26, Italics added)

I love you all! The gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Mercedes Week 9! Días de Independencia y Bautismos!

Hola Amigos,
Well, sorry I didn't email last week, but not much happened. It was my birthday and that was pretty great. Santos is progressing, slowly but surely. 

Now for the great miracle!!! BELÉN AND MARÍA LUZ were baptized!!! We had to move their baptismal date because Ezequiel is in a band and was going to be traveling to Buenos Aires that weekend, so we moved it to Wednesday, the 13th of July (which, in case you haven't noticed hasn't happened yet, but be patient and I'll explain the story of their baptism). After church last Sunday Belén pulled us aside and asked if we could move the date of her baptism and I thought "Ah, great something happened with Ezequiel's schedule and she wants to postpone." But no! She said there was a conflict with her schedule and asked if she could move it up a week to that Wednesday!!! We of course said yes and ran (but not really ran because that's irreverent) to find Elder Sales to see if we could do the baptismal interview on Tuesday. Anyway, Wednesday came around and we spent the day in the chapel filling the font and cleaning and preparing everything so it would be just perfect (partly because it was a miracle baptism and we wanted everything to be perfect and partly because we invited President Robertson and wanted everything to go smoothly) and when 8 o'clock came around they were baptized! It was absolutely perfect! 

The brother in-law of Belén baptized the three (oh yeah Magalí, the other daughter who's 8 so she wasn't our investigator because her dad's a member) and it was so beautiful! Magalí was afraid of putting her head under the water so we coached her through it and when the moment came Hno Porcel (who was the person baptizing) was able to immerse her completely and when she left the font she had a smile on her face, but she said "Tío, I'm going to kill you!" because she felt good in the moment but when she came out of the water again it entered her head that she had been completely underwater and the fear came back. That moment though, was so special. Hno Porcel said that it wasn't even him that was able to baptize her, that it was the Spirit completely. He was thinking (as were we all) that she wasn't going to be baptized that day because when she entered the font she just kept saying "I'm afraid, I'm afraid!" and we thought she would change her mind, but one of the witnesses told her that all she needed to do was sit down and then her uncle would help put her head in the water for a second so she was okay. Then just before the baptism her dad whispered to her "Maga, no tengas miedo" which means don't be afraid. Oh my goodness it was so beautiful!!!! 

We also planned a special surprise for the family during the baptismal service. Ezequiel is a man that, although he plays in a band, doesn't like to speak in public very much, but he agreed to bear his testimony and oh man was it powerful. He's also kind of a large person and he appears all tough, but the moment he starts talking about the gospel he starts crying. I don't think there was a dry eye in the congregation.Oh my goodness there was so much excitement this week! Then yesterday was the confirmation of Belén and María Luz and Magalí and ah I just love seeing people enter into the fold of the Good Shepherd. Ooh and what's even more exciting is that in 1 year I'll probably be able to go to the temple with them to see them sealed right before I go home! 

Well, that was the week of Hermana Cheever! Oh! One more thing, we have another golden investigator, Valentina and she's amazing! I don´t have much more time, but basically she's the niece of Hno Porcel (I swear he has more family than I do and they all live in Mercedes) and she's 12 years old and is passing some difficulties at home and could really use your prayers. I love you all! The gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

The familia Orozco and the missionaries

The missionaries and their beloved converts (and Hno Porcel)

 

Hno Porcel with Belén María Luz and Maga

 

The Porcel family with my beloved Belén, Ezequiel, María Luz, and Magalí

Mercedes Week 7! The Miracles Kept Rolling In!!!

Hola Amigos!
First off, thank you all for the birthday wishes whether they were sent in an email or just remembered in your heart I thank you! 

Now for the first week of transfer two in Mercedes! Friends and family, miracles are real and the Lord knows everyone's perfect moment! When I was waiting for Hermana Salino to arrive on Tuesday I still had to finish up a few of the plans for the evening and I wasn't exactly sure where to go or who to visit and I was in Lujan so I didn't have the area book with me to help me. However, the thought came to my mind that we should visit Ezequiel and Belén (the less active member and his wife who came to the conference). I was going to put it off because Belén had never showed interest and had even said she wasn't all that interested, but we could pass by to visit Ezequiel if he was home. I thought "nah, she doesn't want anything and Ezequiel has said that he wants to come back and baptize his family, but then never does anything on his part to make it happen!" But then I thought "Well, maybe it's from the Lord. They did after all come to the conference. And it never hurts to try one more time to find the Lord's sheep." 

When we passed by that night there was something different in Belén. She looked grateful to see us and her countenance was happier. She told us that Ezequiel wasn't home, but let us in (for the first time since I've been here). After getting to know her a bit more and gain her confidence, we said a prayer and Hna Salino pulled out the pamphlet of the Restoration and Belén looked at us like maybe we were a bit crazy and told us that just that morning she had been looking through some boxes for something and had found a pamphlet of the restoration and sat down to read it with Ezequiel. After telling the First Vision, we felt the Spirit super strong and so we invited her to be baptized and guess what! She accepted!!! She's going to be baptized on the 16th of July and we're working with Ezequiel as well so that he can receive the Priesthood and baptize them! Oh yeah, the second time we went, the whole family was there and María Luz, the 12 year old daughter, also accepted to be baptized on the 16th! This family is basically the greatest! 

Now really quickly a couple of other miracles: we had 20 lessons this week! 20! The most we ever had in the last transfer was 15! On Friday the elders gave Santos a blessing to help strengthen him so that he can complete his goals and feel ready for baptism and then no Saturday to Sunday the 5 of us fasted and when we called Santos to start the fast on Saturday we asked who he wanted to say the prayer and he said "I'm going to say it". Then we challenged him to arrive at 9 o'clock on Sunday and he did! The Lord is really working miracles here in Mercedes C! I love this work! I love the Lord! I love my companion! I love everything right now! I love you all!!! 

The gospel's true, God loves you!

-Hermana Cheever

Mercedes week 6! Transfers!!!

Hola amigos!
Sorry I haven't been that great at writing a general email this transfer, but here's the highlights from this week!

• This week we finished teaching Santos everything in the first 4 lessons and today he's going to have his baptismal interview! 
• Elisabet and Milagros continue to be wonderful. A bit of an obstacle we're going to have to overcome with Elisabet is that she smokes and what doesn't help is that she lives in the same house as her sister and her mom who also smoke. She is willing to try to stop and accepted our offer to help her create a plan to quit so that's good! 
• Miriam is also progressing well, well as well as she can without coming to church. She is policia so her schedule complicates coming to church on Sundays. However, the other day we went and she had been reading in the back of the pamphlet about our worship services and she was really interested and wants to be able to come! 
• On Friday we were finally able to contact Cristian and Maria again, we haven't seen them in like 2 weeks, and they are also great. We don't really know much with them at this point, but I think that they'll be able to progress well it's just that their schedules are a little difficult to work with because Cristian gets home from his job at about 4 and Maria leaves for hers at 4. However, they are willing to work with us and Maria has a job that's more flexible and if she advises her work she can come a half hour/hour late and we can teach them together!

On Sunday for the conference we had a miracle! None of our investigators that we've been working more with were going to be able to come because it was Father's Day and the menos activos didn't really give us any hope either. So on Sunday we showed up without an investigator or menos activo and we felt a little bad because that's supposed to be one of the focuses right now, to bring people to church. However, we sat with a few of the members from the branch and a little bit before the meeting started Elder Sales asked us who the family sitting in front of them was. We looked and it was a less active,Ezequiel, and his non-member wife, Belen! The husband is the brother of another member of the ward and I suppose that he made sure they came! We hadn't even really thought about them because we've taught them a couple of times but lately every time we pass by they're not home or are super busy and can't attend us and when we call they don't answer. However, they came! And the brother of Ezequiel said that he (Ezequiel) wants to baptize his wife and daughter!

Another miracle we saw this week was on Friday none of the appointments we had fell through, and we had 4!

Oooh! Exciting news! Yesterday Lujan became a stake! And Mercedes became a ward!!! Woooooooh!

Now for the exciting news! TRANSFERS!!!! I will be staying in Mercedes C! Aaaaaaaaand my new companion is Hermana Salino from Brasil! I'm super excited to work with her! I've heard so much good about her and I think I might know who it is and if she's who I think she is, this transfer's going to be a blast! Also, the 4 Elders in Mercedes stay the same which is super great because our district has great unity!

The gospel's true and God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Mercedes Week 5!

Hola amigos!

I have very little time this week so here's a little bit about the exciting things!
Saturday we had an activity in the chapel were we watched Meet the Mormons. At the end it finally came through, but it was a little interesting getting it to happen. First off we were going to watch it with the projector - the projector didn't work, but we had the back up plan in mind already of using the TV and DVD player. The DVD player didn't recognize the disc. FInally, Presidente Lettieri ended up looking it up on youtube and we watched it in the security room. So I suppose it might be a good thing that almost no one came. But someone that did come was one of our menos activos, Roberto! We had planned to go visit him in the late afternoon before the activity, but as we were on our way to visit the other people in our plans, we saw him standing outside his house and decided to invite him to the activity then, and if we had time, return before the activity to visit them. Then, as we were figuring out the situation with the movie, Roberto walked in! Ans he came to church the next day! And Santos came to church on Sunday and he came in time for Principios! He usually comes during sacrament meeting and has never arrived on time for the sacrament, so we challenged him to arrive at 10 this week and when we walked out into the hallway to call him in the time between Relief Society and Sunday School, he was standing in the doorway talking to some of the members and the elders and he brought his son, Domingo!

The gospel's true and God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Mercedes Week 2! and 3! and 4!

Hola Amigos!

Week 2:

Well, the hermanas of Mercedes C had a very interesting week this week. Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal. There were a couple of lessons, a couple rejections, a couple of doors knocked, a couple of really poorly planned appointments in complete opposite sides of the map, a bit of travelling for the Zone meeting in Lujan, and yeah just normal missionary things.

Wednesday was where the interesting things started. After our lunch we started a special fast for Cristian and Mariana and Santos, some of our investigators, and the fast was great. The day, let's just say the Lord tested our faith and diligence that day. To start off, we lost the phone/maybe someone robbed us of it somehow when we were in an appointment. When we entered one house for a teaching appointment we had it, but at the next house when Cristian (other Cristian) didn't answer the door we went to call him and we didn't have a cell phone. So that was fun for the next couple of days after that, well, really a week, because the zone leaders brought a phone from the offices when they went that Friday and had to come to Mercedes for a baptismal interview of one of the investigators of our district leader on Saturday, but they forgot it. So we weren't going to have a phone until Tuesday, but as we were leaving the chapel on Sunday, Elder Sales called the zone leaders to see if he could leave their phone with us because the 4 elders of Mercedes all live in the same apartment and could share. Yeah, that was an interesting week. To top off that day I fell off my bike as well. But it didn't hurt and I was laughing after so don't worry.

Week 3:
I got a flat tire on Tuesday. However, we also got our new phone that day! Wednesday was the Patriot’s Day I think would be the translation to English (Día de la Patria) and there was an activity in the church. On Saturday and Sunday Elder Sales and Elder Loez had a baptism!

Week 4:
Well first off, we dropped Cristian and Mariana this week. Or maybe they dropped us. It was a mutual dropping. However, it wasn't a forever type thing. More of a we're going to give them some time. It was a little bit sad at first because I was leaving them something to read in the Book of Mormon and I was going to leave something in the Bible as well and I asked if they would read and Cristian said "Hermanas, no voy a leer El Libro de Mormón. Puede dejar algo pero no lo voy a leer. Vamos a leer La Biblia y vamos a continuar orando. Gracias por ayudarnos conocer Dios y Jesucristo más y por ayudar nos tomar este paso de matrimonio porque vamos a recibir estas bendiciones en la familia." [GOOGLE TRANSLATE: Sisters, I will not read the Book of Mormon. You can leave something but I will not read. Let's read the Bible and we will continue to pray. Thank you for helping to know God and Jesus Christ more and help us take this step of marriage because we will receive these blessings in the family ] So yeah, we're going to pass by when they get back from Salta and congratulate them and we'll see what happens from there.

On a happier note, Santos accepted a baptismal date!!!! It's a little complicated because it's for the 18th and we have the district conference so we'll have to move it, but he accepted! And he finally realizes that it's just a little bit of fear that has been holding him back. And he came to church again on Sunday! He now has 4 asistencias! And he brought his 7 year old with him.

This week I had trámites [red tape or formal] paperwork for my residency here in Argentina so I can be legal and we had to go to capital so we weren't working in our area for almost two days, but God loves us and he blessed us. On Thursday when we got back we planned to go contact some references we had for the hour and a half we had before we had to return to the pension and finish planeamiento semanal [weekly planning] and plan for Friday. We had about six or seven people and we looked at all of them and decided to start with the first and work our way down. When we knocked on the door a woman answered and after we presented ourselves she said "Pasen chicas porque hace frio." [Come in, girls, because it's cold.] It turns out this woman, Elizabeth Gutierrez, is an antigua investigadora [former investigator] and she is golden! I think the only reason she got dropped is because of a transfer and she got forgotten. She has two kids that are 8 and 9 that are also great and attentive. I think it's a possibility that we might be able to bring this whole family into the church. The first problem is that Elizabeth is juntada ... But así es en Argentina and it's something that can be solved.

Something I learned or rather had reaffirmed this week is that the Priesthood really is the power of God here on the earth. Hermana Sierra and I have a bit of a bad head cold or something similar and yesterday we asked the elders for a blessing and yeah, the Priesthood is real! Even just during the blessing my head started clearing up a bit and then the rest of the day and today I feel a whole lot better. I still have a bit of a stuffy nose and a cough, but I can think clearly and I haven't gotten a fever again.

I love you all and hope you are doing well! The gospel's true and God loves you!

-Hermana Cheever

Mercedes Week 2 - quick highlights :)

Here's my highlights:

Wednesday
- We lost the cell phone
- I fell off my bike
- We had a really good lesson with Santos and the elders


The rest of the week
- We knocked a ton of doors
- Mariana is wonderful and wants to gt baptized on the 20th even if Cristian isn't ready at the same time
- We found a great family Cristian and Maria and their daughter Lucy

Mercedes Week 1!

Hola amigos!
¿Cómo están todos? Bueno, I'm sure you all want to know about Hermana Cheever's adventures in bicycle. The good thing is that I have yet to fall off, kill anyone, or cause any major accidents. Also my part of Mercedes isn't as much campo as I thought so that's good that we have (for the most part) paved roads. However, there's times that we decide to go to the part with basically all dirt roads. And that time happened to be yesterday. After it had rained all night and in the morning. And it was a Sunday so there was almost no one to talk to. Yup. Well, here's the highlights of my week!

I love Hermana Sierra! Also Mercedes is pretty great! Some things I have learned this week are how to ride a bike and how to follow the Spirit (I feel like I learn that every week). 

On Tuesday I learned how to ride my bike. Yep, before Tuesday I had no idea if I still knew how to ride a bike. I didn't really remember all that much. I successfully have to this point in time avoided falling completely or causing any accidents, so that's good! 

I also met Santos, Cristian, and Mariana (some of our investigators). When we had our other lesson with Cristian and Mariana on Thursday we didn't know what we were going to teach them to help them (and us) resolve their doubts so we asked the advice of Elder Sales and our ward mission leader. They gave us some good advice and scriptures to use in our lesson and we felt better about teaching them. Then, when we got to their house and Cristian told us he had doubts about tithing so we ended up having an inspired lesson on tithing (and we had a member with us so that was wonderful because she could share her wonderful testimony about tithing). 

Then on Saturday we once again were clueless as to what we were going to teach and throughout the day we stopped to pray about it about 5 times. Finally about 5 minutes before we were supposed to meet up with the hermano who was going to accompany us we had something. We decided to teach them using Ether 12 and talk about faith. 

Both of these lessons were wonderful and the Spirit was so strong! And at the end of the second lesson, Cristian asked if they could be baptized earlier than the date we had planned! 

On Saturday we were calling Santos to remind him about church but he never answered his phone! We called him again on Sunday morning but he still didn't answer! Then a miracle happened. We were sitting in Sacrament Meeting and Santos walked in! Wonderful things are happening here in Mercedes! 

-Hermana Cheever

Morón Week 6! Feliz Día de la Madre!

Hola amigos!
How's everyone doing? Well, yesterday was my first call home and it was just great! I'm not really sure what to report on because I feel like not much has happened since the last time I wrote. We've had a couple baptisms fall through, taught a few lessons, met a few new people, ate a few meals, I got bitten by a dog, basically life has been just normal. Or at least I don't remember the abnormal things. 

Ah I know what happened! I completed 4 months in the mission! Ah the time is going by so fast!!! It's hard to believe that 4 months have already gone by! As well as 4 months going by, 3 transfers have already gone by too! I'm sure you're all just dying to know what's going to happen with Hermana Cheever! Well, let me tell you. Last night, the Elders never called. Buuuuut they did send a message. Hermana Laurie is staying in Morón 1 for her 3rd transfer here and she's training!!!!! Hermana Cheever (that's me) is going to ... MERCEDES!!!!!!!!!!! AAAHHHH Mercedes is campo campo I don't think I know how to say that in English, sorry. You want to know what that entails? Riding a bicycle. I haven't ridden a bike since I had like 12 years. Also, I'm one of those people that never really learned very well how to ride a bike. Yup. This is going to be really interesting. 

OH! And my companion is ... Hermana Sierra from Colombia! My third latin companion and every one from a different country. I'm actually super excited to have her as a companion. I've heard lots of good things about her and she's Colombiana so she's probably hilarious and Hermana Laurie told me she has a super strong accent! I love the accent of Colombianas!! SO yeah that's my life. 

Well, I was going to send pictures, but my bad luck came back and the computer erased all my photos from this week (luckily only from this week). So, no photos today!
The gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Morón Week 4

Hola todos!
To start off, on Saturday we had an open house for a chapel in La Perlita. It was amazing and the Spirit was so strong! After this we had a baptism back in our area, but it's super far away because we were in another zone. We had to leave early and then the train was cancelled so we had to take two colectivos and ended up missing the baptism part. However, it was a ward baptism so he was confirmed that night and it wasn't completely in vain that we left Moreno early and arrived in Morón late.

Now for the rest of the week. On Monday we had a zone activity in Villa Amelia and because it's so far away, we didn't end up being able to teach Adele because she's only home from 2-6 on Mondays. However, we had a lesson with Leví (the child who was baptized Saturday) and he's wonderful! We taught lesson 1,2, and 3 all together because the mom told us on Sunday that Saturday was his baptism and we were supposed to teach him the missionary lessons. Even though there was a lot all together, he was super attentive the whole time!

Tuesday in our first Reunión de Distrito of this transfer, we practiced inviting members to invite their friends and family to listen to us, the missionaries. It was super great! We put that into practice this week and we saw miracles! One of these miracles was on Wednesday. I was picking up the phone to call someone, it started ringing and it was Elder Figueiredo calling to pass us a reference of a menos activo and his pareja that live in our area! Then on Thursday we went to pass by a member's house to see if the less active son was home. We sat down to share a scripture with them and before we could start, Brother Benitez gave us a reference of his neighbor! 

On Friday we found Adele once again! We were a little afraid she had changed her mind because we had left notes and tried to call her the whole week and nothing. However, she was just super busy so when we passed by she wasn't home and she didn't have credit on her phone to return our calls or send a message. We finished teaching her lesson 5 and tomorrow afternoon she has her interview. We are praying for a miracle with her this transfer! She knows she needs to be baptized, she just doesn't feel ready. Hopefully after her entrevista she will see that she is so prepared! She's even asked the person who organizes the practices she has to do (she's studying medecina) if she can come late on Sundays so she can come to church! 

Yesterday we had divisions with 2 hermanas in our ward who are retornadas. It turns out the hermana I was with served in the same mission that one of my friends is in right now and she knows her! We were also able to find a really prepared nuevo when we stopped to ask for a street because I didn't have a map with me. Her name is Cristina and during the lesson she was so attentive and so open to share with us things that are happening in her life. I have a lot of hope for her.

Well, that was my week! I learned a lot about going where the Spirit leads because God knows best, He knows things that will happen and He knows who He has prepared.
Hermana Cheever

Hermana Laurie, Hermana Garcia, me,
Hermana Chineppe, Hermana Kachkachian, and Hermana Alarcon
at the capilla abierta in La Perlita on Saturday

Morón Week 2! Miracles Do Happen!

This week we saw so many miracles and tender mercies! I'm going to start with Tuesday because I didn't write much in my journal on Monday and yeah. Tuesday - In the zone meeting (is that what it is in English?) I was able to feel the Spirit a whole lot and receive revelation for how to help our investigators and the compromisos the Hermanas and the Lideres de Zona left us have really helped us this week.

Wednesday - We had to go to Capital to renew my visa and when we got back to the offices Elder Millett gave me a bag that had in it my water bottle with the filter (I had forgotten it in the Remis during transfers) and a letter from my dad! Also, we were feeling kind of down because up to that point in the week we had had 4 lessons. When I started to write in my journal I usually start with tender mercies I saw in the day and it was little hard to remember because we had just done our planning and I was looking at our numbers for the week. However, just after this Elder Ruiz and Elder Child called to tell us we had had the most lessons in the zone the week before! They also gave us encouragement that although we didn't feel like we were having much success, the Lord was preparing blessings and we just needed to keep on trying. 

Thursday - we doubled the number of lessons we had had in the week. Friday - We found 2 nuevos! The way we found them was by putting people we thought were less active from the directory in the plans and miracles came! The first one, Alfredo, is the nephew of a member. We don't know if his uncle was less active or not because well, he died a while ago . . . (our directory really needs to be updated, they're working on getting us a new one). The second one, Barbara, is the daughter of a less active. We rang the doorbell 3 different times and no one was answering so we were about to go on with our plans, but then she opened the door! Ah she's great! The spirit was really strong n the lesson and when I was telling the 1st Vision it reminded me of my first time with our "investigator" in the MTC - I couldn't tell if I was saying the right words or even speaking the right language, but the Spirit was strong and guiding my words so I continued. Also, later in the day we were sitting for a bit for our cena and a member called us. He told us that he felt desires to accompany us and that he was available in whatever day at whatever hour, just to call him! 

Saturday - Cristian (the member from Friday) accompanied us for the last hour of the day. We had two citas and the first one fell through and the person who was the back-up plan was just leaving. We went to our last plan of the day (our 2nd cita) and a joven answered the door. His dad is the one that we were going to visit, but he wasn't home and Damian (the joven) had to leave soon, but he said we could enter and teach him something for 15 minutes (don't worry, his grandma was in the house). We taught him and once again the Spirit was so strong! There were tears in his eyes during the first vision! 

Sunday - Adele came to church all by herself! And during testimony meeting, she was almost crying. It was so beautiful! We found three new investigator thanks to a reference from our ward mission leader! IN correlation on Thursday he told us about a menos activo and his family who weren't members and told us that we should visit them because they're great. So, yesterday we went and El Turco (the member) wasn't there, but his brother and cousins (who were really the reference) happened to be the people next door when we asked them if they knew who he was. 

All in all a good week. Sometimes it's hard at the beginning and a little slow, but it's just because the Lord is preparing miracles and blessings!
-Hermana Cheever

Morón Week 1!

Mis Queridos Familiares y Amigos,

First off, I love Hermana Laurie!!! We work together great. I love her enthusiasm and diligence. Second, I'm a real missionary now! Yesterday we finished my training and now I get to put in practice all I learned for the next 15 months! Semana 12 was ah I loved it! I realized that my animo had been suffering a little bit the last few weeks, but I love that semana 12 is the same as semana 1 because it reminded me of how diligent and obedient I was my first week and all the animo I had to just go out and work! I have set a goal that every twelve weeks for the rest of my mission I go back and complete semana 12 to see my progress and renew my animo which may be suffering without me noticing.

This week we saw lots of tender mercies. On Wednesday, as we were walking down the street on the way back to the pension we ran into a member from Hermana Laurie's old area. As it turns out, she served her mission in Mexico with my sister! What a small world! On Thursday, sacamos una fecha with one of our investigators, Adele. She is buenisima. Her boyfriend is a member and he started bringing her to church and then Hermana Laurie and her last companion started teaching her. On Friday it rained. A lot. I had my rain boots, my rain coat, and my umbrella and I was still soaked. However, when we got to the house of our investigator he was willing to sit outside in the rain with us because we can't enter his house. ON Saturday, well General Conference! Besides it being conference, in the Saturday afternoon session, which is always my favorite because I have the opportunity to sustain the leaders of the church, two of my favorite apostles (Elder Bednar and Elder Ballard) spoke and the choir was from BYU-ID! Ah I love conference so much!! ON Sunday, we didn't have lunch. the stake president is in our ward and had told us on Saturday that if we didn't find lunch for Sunday to let him know and we could eat lunch with his family. Well, when we called in the night they didn't answer and we they weren't there in the chapel to watch conference so we didn't end up having lunch with Presidente Muni and his family. But, Adele and Josp (algo así) were there and they offered to feed us! So, we went to Adele's house for lunch and we could have one more lesson with a member! 3 tender mercies in one! Adele came to conference, she fed us lunch, and we had a lesson with her!

I have learned a lot about the Lord's timing this week. One day, we were headed to the house of a menos activa and we got lost. We ended up going in a huge circle and losing a lot of time. However, on our way back we were walking through a plaza which Hermana Laurie calls "the plaza of the elegidos" because it's apparently where almost all the recent converts were contacted. There was a little old man sitting alone on the bench and I felt like maybe we should go talk to him and then Hermana Laurie turned to me and asked if we should talk to him or keep going to the colectivo. So, we ended up talking to him and teaching lesson 1. At first he was just friendly but not really that receptive. However, after the First Vision, he was completely receptive. Had we not gotten lost and spent all that time walking in a circle earlier in the day, we would not have been there at that time to talk to Mario.

Well, that's all for this week! The gospel´s true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

The first picture of Hermana Laurie and me! 

Our lunch with Adele
(And Elders Fower, Motta, Figuereido, y Fregenal)

It was raining ... 

Atalaya Week 11! Easter and Transfers!

Hola todos!
¿Cómo están? For all of you that were wondering, yes I am still alive, I just haven't had much time to write in the last couple weeks. This last Friday and the Saturday before (the 25th and the 19th) we had activities for Easter in the Atalaya ward.

On the 19th, we watched The Testaments and brought a few investigators (well, the elders did, ours never showed up or answered their phones). It was so great. At the end almost everybody, investigators included, was in tears.

On the 25th, we watched a short little thing called something along the lines of How to Find Faith in Christ. It's great because it's only about 30 minutes long and it shows many of the miracles Christ performed while here on the earth and talks about his resurrection. I suggest to all of you that you look it up and watch it right now. After we watched this we did a little representation with the iron rod to teach everyone about how it is important that they all have faith and a testimony for themselves.

We only had a few nuevos this week, but those we had were great. The first one is the niece of Zulma Gonzalez (an investigator), her name is Mayra. She had been in the background of a couple of lessons before but never really participated. On Wednesday we were there to check up on the date Zulma and Hugo had decided to get married, but they weren't there. Mayra told us they would be back in just a little bit so we waited and while we were waiting she had questions because she knew almost nothing about our church and culture. We ended up teaching her Lesson 1 and talking about the word of wisdom a little bit too. Shew also basically taught us the law of chastity. Ah she's so great!

The other is the brother of the bishop. One time we were at the bishop's house and a bunch of family was there and we ended up talking to his sister in law and she told us we could come teach her sometime. We went one time a few weeks back with the daughter of the bishop and taught her lesson 1. Shortly after this they went on vacation and then they were super busy after so we hadn't been back to teach her. On Friday we were close and we felt like we should go teach her so we knocked and they had just finished lunch but she let us in and we taught her and her husband! They're also great!

Here they have a tradition of easter eggs, but different than in the US. It's an egg made out of chocolate and filled with little candies and the family will all have one big one and they all put their hands in a stack on top of it and the father counts to three and then brings his hand down to break it open. Everyone while they are doing this has a wish in their mind. We had lunch with the Familia Diaz yesterday and joined them in this. I love learning new things about the culture here and participating in traditions! Also, people give a smaller egg to family and friends. The Familia Diaz gave us each one and also Nico Rivero, a less active that is working on being active gave us each one.

Bueno, transfers! drumroll please ... I'm going to ... MORON 1 and my new companion will be ... Hermana Laury from Chile! I'm excited, but also scared because Chilenas talk really fast (both the elders in Atalaya right now are from Chile) and even Elder Quezada (who I can't understand half the time because he's talking too fast) says she talks really fast. But something funny is that my new zone leader is Elder Ruiz who was my first district leader (that is if he didn't get transferred as well).

I love you all!! The gospel's true, God loves you!
Hermana Cheever

Alcira - This little old lady that's less active that we visit. 

She's my favorite (as is everybody.)

Huevos de Pascua

Huevos de Pascua

Atalaya Week 10

We had district meeting in a park a few blocks away from the chapel because we don't have keys to the chapel and the hermano that has the keys wasn't home. 

My district. Me (Utah), Hermana Froggett (Nevada) ,Hermana Villanueva (Perú), Hermana Alvarez (Spain), Elder Araya (Chile), and Elder Quezada (Chile)