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)

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

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