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)

FOTOS!

This is María Ester. She's a little abuelita less active that we visit. She is the funniest little old lady! She is 82 years old and she is always making jokes and laughing with us.

My companion, Hermana Villanueva, and me.

We had a Noche de Hogar with the Familia Diaz the week of their baptism and we made tacos!

The Familia Diaz! (Abel, Margarita, Maxi - the son of Matías, MIlagros, Matías, Cristian, and Rocío - a family friend)

Margarita y Milagros!

There´s this place called Grido that has really good ice cream (like all the ice cream here) for cheap. THe closest one is in San Justo and since we were already in San Justo last week for P day we bought a kilo and shared it when we finished our cleaning. It  was very delicious.

​

Atalaya Week 8! Flashes, Miracles, and Baptisms

Hola amigos!
This week was quite the week.

Monday passed by nice and calm, we made chocolate chip cookies :).

Tuesday, we were having a nice little district meeting talking about everything we learned from the broadcast with Elder Bednar and at the end, the elders' phone started ringing so Elder Quezada (my district leader) looked at it and just from his face we all knew it was the assistants calling. Anyway, he answered and he was freaking out a bit and then he said "Oh, my companion? Yeah, here you go." and handed the phone to Elder Sales. Everyone looked at Elder Sales then at everyone else and we all smiled because we knew there was a flash (when someone gets transferred and it's not at the usual time of transfers - also called an emergency transfer by some) and Elder Sales was leaving. However, he was very calm and collected (especially for only having 3 and a half months in the mission) which made the rest of us start to laugh because Elder Quezada was kind of freaking out. So yeah, Elder Sales told us he was going to Mercedes and needed to be in the offices at 3 that afternoon and Elder Quezada would receive his new companion. So now from the missionaries in the Atalaya ward that were there when I first arrived, I'm the only one left!

Wednesday, our gas was shut off and we have a gas stove and a gas water heater . . . We called the dueña and she said she would look into it.

Thursday we had a Family Home Evening with the Familia Diaz and made tacos! They all thought they were pretty spicy and Hermana Villanueva and I were both thinking that there was no spice to them at all because we're accustomed (is that a thing?) to spicy. Well, we got home that night and while we were planning for Friday someone knocked on our door. We live in a building that you have to enter with a key from the street and then there's all the apartments inside so we were a little startled. We peeked out of the hole in the door that's for peeking and it was our dueña. She told us that the people that lived in the pension before us had a debt that needed to be settled and that's why they cut the gas. She told us that we needed to go to San Justo and pay the debt then when we come to pay rent she would discount us the amount we payed for the gas.

Bueno, so Friday we went to San Justo to the gas company and stood in line for what felt like forever to find out that the debt was about 350 pesos more than we thought and also that the person whose name is on the bill needs to be there to sign to reconnect the gas. We called our landlady and she called the person who's in charge of her then she told us that we needed to be at the gas company at 2 that afternoon. It was only about 11:30 or 12 at this point. Anyway, we called the senior missionary who's in charge of the pensions and told him what was happening and he told us to go to the bank and take out the money we needed and just stay in San Justo until 2. We did that and the lady came and signed what she needed to, then we had to stand in another line for forever to pay the debt and the reconnection fee. We got to the front of the line and the man told us that we had no debt on the account, that it had been paid that day and we just needed to pay the reconnection fee. Well, we paid that and they told us that there would be a man coming by Saturday between 8 and 3 to reconnect the gas and that we needed to be there to let him in. We had a baptism coming up on Saturday and needed to spend a couple hours in the chapel in the morning to fill the font, but we couldn't leave. SO we called Elder Quezada to ask if he and Elder Cook could do it. You know what Elder Quezada said? Something along the lines of "Oh Hermanas, we have to be in the offices tomorrow morning for a flash" Haha Elder Quezada, not funny anymore (at least twice a week when he calls he tries to convince Hermana Villanueva that there's a flash and she's going somewhere else because she's had few already in her mission.) But really there was. Elder Quezada was receiving his third companion that week

Saturday: We didn't have time to wait around until three, but we did it anyway! Aaannd the man never came. However, this is when the miracles come in to play. When Elder Quezada and Elder Araya got back they went to fill the font for us and a member had already come and filled it (but with cold water) so they drained it halfway and didn't have time to fill it before their next cita so they went to their cita and returned to the chapel and finished filling it for us. I am so grateful that they did that for us because we did not have time.

Also on Saturday while we were waiting for the man to come we needed to make lunch and also we were making chocolate chip cookies for the baptism but we needed chocolate. We went to a Chino that's about two blocks away from our pension and while we were standing in line the hombre that works in the carniceria in the back of the store passed us then turned around and said "chicas, vengan". [girls, come] We didn't feel the Spirit telling us not to follow him down the aisle so we followed and he handed us a matahambre and said, "Esto es por ustedes. Yo soy miembro en San Justo y mi hija y esposa van a la capilla cada semana. Hace mucho que yo no asisto porque trabajo los domingos pero cada vez que pasen por aqui vengan y yo dare algo." [This is for you. I am a member in San Justo and my daughter and wife go to the chapel each week. Long ago I do not attend for work on Sundays but every time I pass by here I come and give you something.] The meat was already cooked and we just needed to heat it up in the microwave. It truly was a miracle!

Then yesterday we had a lesson with this young man and I invited him to be baptized and he said "si. Es una cosa muy buena, no? Nunca me bautice y yo quiero." [Yes. It is a very good thing , no? I never baptized and I want.] He has a fecha [date] for the 9th of April and he told us at the end of the lesson to note it in his Libro de Mormon so he didn't forget!

Sorry I didn't have time to translate the quotes into English! [Translation provided by Kaitlin's mom through Google Translate] I love you all!
-Hermana Cheever