Chivilcoy C Week 16!

Hola Amigos!
This week was pretty great! On Thursday we had interviews with President which is always a highlight of my week! We found 7 new investigators this week and 7 new people committed to a baptismal date! Here's the stories of some of them.

Junior y Lujan:
We found a couple that were former investigators we had looked for before that Hna Abbott had taught! They are so great! They remember a ton of what the Hnas before taught and it was a year and a half ago that their registro was last updated. They accepted a fecha for the 17th of June, they already know they have to get married and make some changes and they were pretty excited!

Camila and Mirta:
On Friday we went by a reference the elders had given us of someone they found in the house of their recent convert. Her name is Camila and she's 17. We taught her and her mom the Restoration and just recently her grandma died so we were able to tie in the Plan of Salvation and they loved the lesson! They were so excited to accept a baptismal date and the mom, Mirta, asked if her other son could be baptized too or if the invitation was just for her and Camila. We explained that everything we do in the church is centered on the family and that it would be great if her son is baptized with them.

One adventure we had this week was getting lost while looking for a member we had set an appointment with. It turns out she lives clear on the other side of the elders´area, but we didn't know that when we set up the appointment. Anywho, we set off for the adventure and about a third of the way there I realized I didn't take another look at the map and count the blocks (because after about ten blocks there's no more street signs) and I didn't have my little map with me because I had lent it to the other hermanas last week and I forgot to ask for it before we left. Anyway, I just figured, well it's close to the hospital, I'm sure once we find the hospital someone will know where the street we're looking for is. We kept going and going until I saw a hospitalish looking building and we started asking people for the street (I don't know why we didn't ask for the hospital) and no one knew where it was. One guy even went in his house to look it up and came out saying it wasn't on the map but he had heard it so it had to be close by. We decided to just keep going a little further and when we passed the hopitalish looking building it turns out that it was a college and that's why we couldn't find the street ... Once we found the hospital, it was on the same street as the member we wanted to visit so we started looking for the house number. Hardly any houses had numbers on them ... Well, we decided that we're missionaries and we know how to knock on people's doors and ask them questions. It was lunch time so no one answered their door. We finally found a guy outside his house and we asked him for the member and he told us it was the 4th house in the block before. We finally made it! An hour late, but we made it! It was worth it though. The Hna told us she had figured we had gotten lost, but she didn't have our number to call us so she just waited. We shared the Restoration with her and without even having to ask for references she told us that because she knew we were coming she had been thinking during the week of someone she wanted us to visit. She had thought of her sister, but she just moved so she said she would ask for her new address and tell us the next time she sees us! We left a few pass along cards with her and she was so excited to share them with people! Working with the members is the best!!!

Have a great week! The gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Fotos:
We bought ice cream :)

The branch president's family brought us dinner on Saturday night, but when Hna Lau and Hna Avila came back from going to get it they dropped a huge bag on the table and said here's dinner! We opened it up and it was a ton of oranges. Not that I'm complaining, I love oranges, but it was strange that they didn't bring us real food. It was a joke. Hna Lau and Hna Avila went back into the hallway and brought in the bag that had the pizza and guiso.

Chivilcoy Week 15!

Hola amigos!

Well, this week was exciting! On Monday as we were making our way to come write all you lovely people I realized that my bike seat seemed a little wiggly so we stopped and analyzed the screws and everything seemed to be in order so we continued. When we left it felt a little more wiggly and there just happened to be a bike shop open during the siesta (everything here closes from about 1-5) so we stopped and as the bike repair person went inside to get his tools, we were looking over my bike to see if we could find out what was wrong. Well, it turns out the bar thing where the other bar goes in to put the seat on (I only know the name of bike parts in Spanish) anyway, that part was breaking off. I am certain it was the Spirit that told us to inspect that because I'm pretty sure if I had ignored it and we would have kept going it would have broken completely and Hna Cheever would have ended up on the road and not on her bike. Anyway, the elders were nice enough to let me use one of their bikes and so now I'm using that and they're walking until I get my new bike (probably this week). That was exciting!

Yesterday we found a great new investigator! Her name is Dina and she has a baptismal date for the 27th of May! We knocked on her door and she let us teach her right then and there and the when we extended the baptismal invitation she asked "IF I'm going to get baptized?" "Yeah, I'm gonna get baptized. At some point." SO we extended the date of the 27th of May and she accepted!!!!

Today I experimented with a few tips an investigator who is a hair stylist had given me and I cut my own hair! NO pictures this week because where we are the USB thing doesn't work.

That's all I can think of now! Love you all! The gospel's true, God loves you!

-Hermana Cheever

Chivilcoy C Week 14!

Hola Amigos!
Well, not much happened this week. We contacted. A TON. We went to parts of our area that in the two transfers with Hna Loderup we never or at least almost never went, and hey we found a few new investigators that are former investigators and they're pretty great! It was really just a calm, normal week. Hna Avila learned that she can deal with a little coldness better than she thought, so that's good! That's all for this week! Nice and short!
Love you all! The gospel's true, God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

Chivilcoy Week 13!

Hola Amigos!
So, in case you forgot from last week, I'm training! My companion is Hna Avila from Honduras! She's super great! She's got a ton of faith and works hard! That's what brings miracles! The other day thanks to that we found 4 new investigators and got three people to commit to a baptismal date! I'm writing today because yesterday we had a meeting with President Nelson! It was so cool! Also this last week everything was crazy getting back to our area because it was semana santa and everyone was travelling. Anyway, we ended up staying in Ramos until Thursday afternoon. What the good thing about that was that the secretaries sent us to work with the hermanas in ... ATALAYA!!! I got to see the Familia Diaz (my first converts and now the husband was baptized in February!) and a couple of other people! It was great! Here's some pictures! Sorry it's a short email I don't have much time left!

Chivilcoy C Week 12! Transfers!!!

Hola Amigos!
¿Cómo están todos? 

New news in the life of Hermana Cheever: I'M TRAINING AGAIN!!!!!!!!! I absolutely love training and I am so glad the Lord has given me this opportunity again! 

As for this week not much has happened. We went to 25 de Mayo to do divisions so that was fun going back to my old area! We made contact with Alfredo, our convert, for the first time in like 2 weeks! He's doing great! Hermana Loderup's leaving Chivilcoy and going to San Justo! Her first area in the city! I have learned so much from each and every companion and I can't wait to see what I'll learn from my next one!

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

Chivilcoy Week 11! General Conference!!!

This week was just a normal week. Nothing big happened in our area, just preparing people to come to conference! It was so cool the Spirit that we felt as we invited and talked to the people about general conference. We could feel that there was something special about this conference. After conference we were talking and realized that it was really just super basic. It was the very basics of the gospel. There was nothing new, nothing deep, nothing grand, just that the gospel has been restored, God has a plan for each and every one, and we have the tools to know for ourselves and help others as well. That's what was special about it. The gospel is just good. 

This week also my companion and I noted the difference faith has on our work. One day we had a ton of citas, but they were all just with people Hna Loderup and Mason contacted in divisions so they could easily fall through. I was thinking about that, but then I decided that they could easily happen too. So I told Heavenly Father that I knew that if we showed our faith in that day, he would bless us with someone to teach at every hour we had a cita, even if it wasn't the person in the plans. In the morning our cita fell through, so we decided to keep going and try to find a reference we had close by. No one knew who the reference was and we were about to just give up and go on to the next plan, but Hna Loderup asked me if we could just contact the woman watering her garden on the corner. We went. She accepted us. As she went inside to look for the keys and open the door, I told Hna Loderup what I had thought earlier that morning and she told me that she had just had a similar experience. It was so cool! Even though our cita fell through, the Lord provided another one of his precious daughters for us to teach. Also, I feel like the Book of Mormon is helping tremendously to increase our faith! I love this challenge!

We had a really cool experience with conference! We were watching it in English and we were in the secretary's office because the transmission was cutting out, so they had the TV ready just in case it cut out. However, with the satellite transmission there's the little TV there with all the boxes of satellite signal stuff, so it was playing conference in Spanish and we were watching it on the computer in English. It was a little distracting to have the Spanish there, too, so Hna Loderup leaned forward and cupped her hands over her ears to block out the Spanish and augment the English and it worked! So Hna Mason and I tried it as well. As the three of us were sitting there leaning as forward as we could, literally straining our ears towards the sound of the voice of Elder Oaks it made me think more spiritually. That is how we should be at all times. We should strain our ears towards the voice of the Spirit, for He will guide us in all things, but He speaks in a still, small voice in a world full of distractions. 

Also, while we're on the subject of general conference, can we just talk about Elder Costa's talk? I LOVED IT! It was literally a talk just for investigators!!! AHHH! And he's from Buenos Aires which means he's cool. By the way, for all those wondering, no I don't have an accent like him. I've been gone 15 months, I still sound like a Utahan.

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

Chivilcoy Week 10! Temple!

Hola amigos!

This week was great! We went to the temple! The Hermanas had a baptism! Life is good! Because we went to the temple we weren't in our area a lot this week because our zone is out in the boonies (that's a phrase, right?) so we travelled Wednesday afternoon, went to the temple Thursday, and came back Friday morning. 

We visited Aida, the grandma of the recent convert of the hermanas, and I just love her so much! It was her 89th birthday on Thursday so when we went on Wednesday we brought her a little cake that we had made and she was so happy. 

Also, the members here are so great! Especially the recent converts! There's one who is a mailman so we'll see him throughout the day sometimes. Today he saw us go into the store and he was working, but there's a bakery that's right across the street, so he went in and bought something for us and when we walked out we were like "Hey, there's Federico, let's go say hi!" and he handed us the little bag he had in his hand and said "Something sweet to pass the morning!" and left because he had to keep working. It was the best thing ever!

Something we're doing as a mission right now is reading the Book of Mormon in 60 days! It's great! We just started and I would love to invite all of you to join in! If you want to do it, my mom has the schedule and everything. It's great!

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

Kaitlin and her companion tree?

Buenos Aires Argentina LDS Temple

Kaitlin and Hermana Loderup with some people.  

No Idea
It's food

The Temple in the rain

** Kaitlin didn't provide any explanations with her pictures, so I guessed.

Chivilcoy Week 9! Members are the best!

Hola amigos!
¿Cómo están todos? Well, Hermana Cheever is doing great! Loving the mission, loving Chivilcoy, loving life!

I love working with members. A few weeks ago the investigator of the hermanas, Fernando, gave us a referral of his sister, Marcela, who lives in our area. We had contacted her, but she was busy. After Fernando's baptism on Friday he was asking us about her and said that the next day he was gong to go over to her house to help with some things and invited us to come meet her then. We passed by and she is great! Fernando hadn't told them that he was getting baptized, so he told them there that he was getting baptized and would be confirmed the next day in church, so they came to church! Also, his parents who live in campo came to church and they agreed to meet with us when we go to Marcela's house! It was so great! 

Also on Friday Cesar, the recent convert of the elders, accompanied us to a lesson with Fabricio and after he told us he wanted to introduce us to the grandma of Juan (the recent convert of the hermanas). So he told us where she lived and we went over there and she is so great! She's 88 years old and can't get around much, but she said if someone brings her, she'll come to church! She also accepted a baptismal date! She is so great!!!! 

This has really strengthened my testimony of working with the members. Even when it's just letting them see that we're good, obedient missionaries, they give us the names of their family and friends, sometimes without us even asking. 

As far as the rest of the work goes, it's going pretty well! We've been doing lots of follow-up with the investigators we found last week and we found a few really great ones this week too. Last week I talked about the three moms that we found that one had lost her pregnancy. Yesterday we taught them the Plan of Salvation, and they loved it! They were so intrigued and as soon as we finished explaining one part, they'd be like "okay, so that's where we came from, now why are we here?" "Okay, that's the purpose of life, now for what we've been waiting for. What happens after this life?" They are so receptive in this moment! I think we truly found them in their perfect moment.

This week we're going to the temple!!! I'm so excited!
Well, that's all for this week! I love you all!
-Hermana Cheever

Chivilcoy C Week 8! News everywhere!

Hola amigos!

This week was phenomenal! (Is that spelled right?) We found ten new investigators! That's right folks, 10! And we've got 4 investigators with a baptismal date! 

Three of those we found this week are 2 sisters and their sister in-law. They are so great! They started to cry in the lesson and then when we taught them how to pray and asked who wanted to end the lesson with a prayer they decided to all 3 take turns and do a prayer each! It was so great and special! 

Our investigator, Fabricio finally came to church! We went to Bragado to do divisions and that was great! There are some really amazing sisters in this zone! I'm doing great! See y'all in 3 months! (not that I'm counting, I'm just aware of the date!)
Love you all!

-Hermana Cheever

Chivilcoy C Week 7! Una Locura!

Hola amigos!

Alright! Here's a quick update of the last two weeks. Transfers came! Hna Loderup stayed here with me! She totally thought she was going! She had her suitcases packed, said her goodbyes at church and everything! Then, Elder Montoya called Sunday night to give us transfer news and it turns out we stayed together! Our apartment was crazy on Monday though! It was carnaval and all the people in our zone who were being transferred had to travel and there wasn't much space on the buses so instead of travelling with their companions, the hermans got to chivilcoy and the ones who were being transferred continued on the bus and those who weren't came and stayed with us! We may as well have had transfers in Chivilcoy instead of Ramos Mejía there was so much going on and so much confusion!

We had to travel to Ramos Mejía as well to go to our mission council meeting since we're the sister training leaders and well, thanks to carnaval, there was no space on the buses for monday or tuesday and we were all going crazy! The zone leaders were calling like every hour, the assistants as well, our district leader quite a few times. The phone was going crazy! We ended up finding like a little shuttle thing and going in that to Morón then in train to Ramos Mejía. It was locooooo!

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We taught Fabricio. We taught Alfredo. They're both learning and progressing nicely. Well, except that neither of them came to church! But you know what, they're going to come this week, because they need to.

I love you all!!

-Hermana Cheever​

My Companion and me

The people in the little bus from President Robertson's house
to the offices after our meeting Wednesday!