EXTRA! Pictures :)

Atalaya Week 7!

Hola Amigos!
This week was great!

On Tuesday it was the birthday of the bishop's daughter. We made a little card and 23 things we love about her. We stopped by to drop them off and her grandma and an aunt and an uncle were there too and everyone told us to sit down for a couple of minutes. SO we were sitting and talking with Brenda and her family and Hermana Vargas out of nowhere asked us whose house we were going to for lunch. Well, that morning when we had called to confirm lunch with the people who feed us every single Tuesday, the wife wasn't going to be there so we had to cancel. We told Hermana Vargas that we were going back to the pension to make lunch and well, she doesn't like that. We ended up coming back an hour later to eat lunch with them. That family is just great! 

Wednesday we woke up at 4:30 in the AM to be in Ramos Mejia (the mission offices) at 7. Buuuut, it was worth it. You know why? Because the reason we had to be in Ramos at 7 was because we were travelling to a chapel in the North Mission for a special conference with ELDER BEDNAR!!! IT was a conference for all the missionaries in the area Suramerica Sur, and it was transmitted from Buenos Aires so the 4 BA missions and the MTC all went to a big chapel in the North Mission. Oh man, Elder Bednar is my favorite. He's so inspiring! He's also really funny - well, with the missionaries. There was a meeting for the youth and one for the Young Single Adults in the area as well and he was pretty serious with them, but with us he was making jokes and throwing random spanish words in just about every 3 sentences. 

I know, I know, you all want to know what I learned from sitting 50 feet (or so) away from and apostle of the Lord for three hours. The answer is, nothing. I learned nothing from Elder Bednar. Now, that's not to say I didn't learn anything that day. I learned a ton. I have three or four pages of notes. But, everything I learned, I learned from the Spirit. Yes, having an apostle there saying what the Spirit was telling him definitely helped. However, I learned everything from the Spirit. That is my counsel to all of you this week. Pay more attention to what people say and do and more to what the Spirit says and does in your heart and mind. At first it can be really hard, but do it and you will be blessed! Also, something else I learned was what it means to ask in faith. When we are praying we are told to ask in faith. This doesn't mean to ask and sit around and wait for your answer! Ask and act! Faith is a principle of first action, then power.

That's all I have time for! The gospel's true, God loves you! Love you all!
-Hermana Cheever

Atalaya Week 6!

Hola todos!

This week we saw miracles. On Monday we received three references from one person in about five minutes. We taught a lot of new people this week. We have 18 nuevos!!! Also we had an opportunity to do service twice! That's the first time in my six weeks that we've done service. No one accepts service from the missionaries here, they do want to help us and serve us (and feed us A LOT) though.

On Thursday the mother of the bishop passed away so Hermana Villanueva and I made the family a little thing with quotes from general authorities and pictures of Christ and scriptures and hung it up by their door to find when they got home that night. They really appreciated it.

Our other service opportunity came because the elders called the bishop while we were at his house to see how they were doing and he invited us all over for pizza at 8. It was around 7 at this point so we didn't want to go to far away to just return right back to the bishop's house. We had a less active that doesn't live too far away so we decided to see if we could find him. While we were walking down the street the were these two cute little old ladies sitting outside talking. We greeted them as we passed and then one of them called out to us and asked to help with something so we turned around and came back. Both of these women were in wheelchairs and they wanted to be closer to each other so she asked if we could push her friend closer to her. We did, then we sang them a hymn and taught them a lesson. They were very friendly and great. Then we had time to teach one more lesson before it was time to return to the bishop's house so we started heading for the less active once again. We only got about two houses down however because we found another lady to teach. By the time we were done with that it was about 8:05 so we headed back to Bishop's house (the whole two blocks away we had gotten in an hour).

Also yesterday Hermana Villanueva completed 9 months in the mission! To celebrate today we got ice cream on our way to the cyber to email.

On Sunday two hermanas in the ward accompanied us for a few hours in the afternoon/evening. The hermana I was with served a mission in Uruguay and she just returned 5 months ago so I was able to learn a lot.

Sorry there's no pictures this week, the computer messed up my memory card again.

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

Atalaya Week 5!

Hola everyone! I'm still alive! My new companion is great! Her name is Hermana Villanueva and she is from Lima, Peru. I was a little worried about having a latina companion because I wasn't sure how well I could communicate in Spanish when I'm not just talking about the gospel. The answer to that is, with a little bit of pointing and gesturing and a sound effect here and there I can generally get my message across. Also pretty much I have the area memorized (well, the parts that we've worked in). So that's pretty great. I was able to get us on the correct colectivo and to Ramos Mejia to the offices just fine the other day and I also got us home and home from San Justo. I did not get us lost on the way to church on Sunday or on the way to the Ciber today. This makes me happy.

This week we did not have a baptism. The Familia Diaz went on vacation until around the 21st then we have stake conference the 28th so they can't be confirmed then so we have to wait until the 5th of March to baptize them! Agghhh! But, one way or another, they'll get there.

On Thursday we were supposed to have correlacion and consejo de barrio at 7 and 7:30. Well, the Bishop's mom was in the hospital so it got cancelled and we had no plan b after 6:30. So, we contacted for about two hours and we passed by the bishop's house because he lives next door to someone we were teaching, so Hna Villanueva got to know him a little before Sunday. We found a lot of great people. One of which is really great. We saw him and it was about 8:45 so we thought okay we'll do this one last contact then off to the pension. We approached him and introduced ourselves and he said "I was just thinking about God". That day he found out that he has some sort of problem with his heart and he hadn't told anyone in his family yet because he didn't want to make his wife and kids sad. He asked if we could come back to teach him on Friday because he didn't want to disturb his family. 

We went back on Friday but he was busy helping his wife finish up the stuff she needed to do before she went back to work. We told him we would come back later and teach him. We passed by last night, but just that day something had happened with his electricity and his brother was over and they were fixing it because they didn't have any lights. He asked where our chapel was and when he could visit there so we left him a targeta with the address of the church and the horario. Later that night, we had walked down his street and then like ten minutes later when we were a few blocks away and we heard someone call out to us behind us we turned around and it was Alejandro. When we had passed by his house eon our way to somewhere else he had a thought come to him that he should give us his number so he found his phone and ran in search for us. He told us he just felt like he should give us his number in case we need to call him and that way we can also make sure he's home and available before we come back to teach him. I'm very glad that in this world where so many don't want to listen to us, there are people like Alejandro who need the message and are being prepared for it.

That's life in Atalaya this week! I love you all! The Gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Atalaya Week 4

Hola!
Well, this week I sent Hermana Abbott home. Right now I am in Ramos Mejia in a trio as we all await our new companions. Two of us are still new so that's interesting because we have to do our First 12 Weeks stuff and because I came in the middle of a transfer I just finished week 4 and Hermana Alarcon just finished week 6. Let me tell you, planning on a Sunday night when you have three people from different areas just awaiting companions is a struggle. We started, then Hermana Jensen's District Leader called her to get the numbers of lessons and everything from this week. She finished and we started again and Hermana Alarcon's District Leader called. Then as she was almost done my District Leader called. We finally got started on our planning again then my phone started ringing and the other Hermanas in my district were calling because they had a reference for me. Then Hermana Jensen's Zone Leaders called with the transfer information for her. As that was finishing up our zone leaders called Hermana Alarcon with her information and at that point we knew it was pointless to start planning for the next couple of minutes because I'm in the same zone as her so we just waited for like 2 minutes until my call came.

Tomorrow I get my new trainer! Her name is Hermana Villanueva and she's from Peru! Well, if I heard my zone leader correctly last night that's her name and where she's from. I'm staying in Atalaya and I will have to teach my new companion the area! Good thing I know it pretty well. It will just be interesting when we have lunch with members in the Elders' area to see if I remember where to get off the colectivo. I'm pretty excited for this next transfer, but at the same time a little nervous about communication. My spanish skills are going to be tested! 

Well Margarita and Milagros Diaz are going to be baptized this Saturday! I'm pretty excited for them and I know that their faith will be a great example to Abel y Cristian.

This last Saturday the Elders baptized one of their investigators and it was just great timing because on Sunday in Gospel Principles (is that what it is in English?) we talked about the Holy Ghost then he got confirmed in Sacrament Meeting! 

Well, that's the life of Hermana Cheever this week! I love you all! The Gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Hermana Jensen, Hermana Alarcon, Hermana Cheever

Atalaya Week 3!

Hello all,

I am glad to report that Hermana Cheever is alive and well. I am also glad to report that we have hot water after 2 weeks and that all my rain stuff is waterproof.

This week I learned that sometimes you might not make your goals, but that miracles still happen. We had the grand goal of 12 investigators in Sacrament Meeting and we had a total of 3. However, those 3 were great! One of them, Jesica, is someone Hermana Abbott and her old companion had found and taught either once or twice, but once I came we couldn't keep contact with her because she's only available in the mornings and because I'm new we have an extra hour and a half of studies in the morning and can't go teach her. Well, on Friday we were walking home from teaching the Familia Diaz and we had about 30-45 minutes until we needed to go home so we decided we would stop by Jesica to see if she was home and invite her to church. She was home! She came outside and talked with us and we were trying to set up a time to come teach her and nothing was working out. Then she said that Sunday mornings would be good. It was perfect! We told her that on Sunday mornings from 9-12 we have church and invited her to come with us. Because she's great and loves learning about God she said she would! We told that we would stop by around 8:15 on Sunday morning and walk over together. On Sunday we got out of the apartment a little later than planned and when we had tried calling Jesica she didn't answer. We walked to her house and said a little prayer that she would be there. We knocked and she was waiting there by the door all ready to go with her Book of Mormon and everything! She loved church! 

The next people that came to church are the parents of Nayla, a less active recent convert. We thought they wouldn't be able to come because Nayla had said that her parents were working on Sunday morning and Nayla was going to be babysitting in San Justo, but she told us she would try to go to the church there. Well, as they were just about to start the sacrament portion of Sacrament meeting, Nayla and Zulma and Hugo walked in! It turns out that Nayla got back in time and that Zulma and Hugo were working later in the day! 

Now for the rest of the week. On Tuesday we had divisions with the Hermana Training Leaders. I went to San Justo with Hermana Durfee, and Hermana Alvarez and Hermana Abbott stayed in Atalaya. We had two totally different days in the two areas. In San Justo we didn't teach a single lesson, but we did a lot of street contacts which is really good because that's something I have been trying to work on and improve. We also practiced contacting in our district meeting earlier that day, so it was kind of cool that I got to put into practice what I had learned right away. In Atalaya Hermana Abbott and Hermana Alvarez taught ten lessons! They found some great people that I am really excited to work with!

I just realized that I haven't told you all about the Familia Diaz yet. Oopsies. Well, they're great and I love teaching them! The mom and daughter, Margarita and Milagros, have a baptismal date for this Saturday and I just really hope they make it! The father and son, Abel and Cristian, are great people and can add some great things to the lessons, but they're kind of hard headed and unwilling to commit to anything. 

In our area we have it split into four areas and we have only been working really in green and orange, but this week we got into blue and purple! There was a lot of walking done this week. I think there were three days this week that we went from one corner to the other in our area because we would be working down at the bottom, but we're trying to have daily contact with Margarita and Milagros so they can make it to the 6th for their baptismal date and they live at the top. But, now we have reason to work in blue and purple because now we have people there so this week won't be nearly as all over the place I don't think because it will be planned out better.

The word for this week is COLECTIVO. That's what they call the buses here. Don't ask me why, because I don't know. 

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