Chivilcoy C Week 1!

Hola amigos!
I'm doing very well! My new companion is Hermana Loderup from Austin, TX. She has 6 months in the mission and she's great! I'm super excited to see what this transfer has in store for us! This week we biked. a lot. The hermanas of Chivilcoy A had a baptism on Saturday and Juan (the man that was baptized) is so great! He was so prepared! The Lord is doing great things here! 

We have a few investigators that I've heard are really great. I haven't met a whole lot seeing as how I've only been here for a week and Sunday after church we had to travel to the offices and got back yesterday at 9 pm. 

Yesterday! I had the opportunity to be in a meeting of leaders of the 4 Buenos Aires missions and also the MTC missionaries with Elder Stevenson! It was so great! We all got to go shake his hand and his wife's and also the area presidency and their wives. It was amazing to be in the presence of an apostle of the Lord! I know that the Lord knows and loves each one of His children and that today He speaks to us through living prophets and apostles! One thing that Elder Stevenson said that I just loved was "One of the beautiful parts of missionary work is to have a companion and find unity in your companionship." It is so true! Unity brings miracles! 

Anyway, gotta go! Love you all!

-Hermana Cheever

Ituzaingó 1B Week 18!

Hola amigos!
I'm doing great! I'm super excited today because well, tomorrow's transfers and I'm going back to the countryside as a Sister Training Leader! I am so excited. I know that every companion, every STL and every experience I have had on my mission will help me in this and I just hope that I can serve the Lord and the hermanas in the zone of Chivilcoy with all I've got to give.

Anyway, as far as Ituzaingó goes, we've got a baptism next week! Daniel is going to be baptized! Also yesterday, Marina and Emmanuel came to church. They really love church and that makes me really happy! 

I hope you're all well! Sorry it's short, I don't have much time!
-Hermana Cheever

Ituzaingó 1 Week 17! Lots of Walking!

Hola todos!
How is everyone? I'm doing great! You wanna know something? On divisions on Friday Hermana Wheatley and I walked 7.4 miles. And we walked less than Hna Mughal and I usually walk in a day!

As far as our area goes, well, it's hanging in there pretty well. We have Daniel who has a fecha for the 21st and he is super excited for that. We are planning to see if we can have his interview this weekend!

Then there's Liliana with her fecha for the 28th. We've basically already taught her everything but I think 3 points of lesson 5, but we can start reading in the Book of Mormon with her or something to keep building her faith until her baptism!

Marina's fecha fell!

We also found a new investigator this week named María. Well, in reality I found her with Hna Gioppo in divisions last transfer, but then we couldn't find her again! It just turns out that there were a bunch of things that had happened in the family and now we found her again and we've started teaching her! She has a fecha for the 4th of February.

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

Ituzaingó 1 Week 16! One year down!

Hola amigos!
That's right, I've got one whole year in the mission!

I'm doing really well this week! Remember Daniel, that man I talked about like a month or so ago that's a Messianic Jew? Yeah, well we finally had contact with him again and he's getting baptized on the 21st of January! 

Also we finally found a former investigator that lives super far away that Hna Poblete and I had searched for a few times with no luck! Aaaaand he accepted a baptism date for the 28th! He's actually great! He's 20 years old and the missionaries first taught him when he was 16 so he's had contact with missionaries for about 4 years. He's super sincere and really wants to be baptized and knows what we teach him is true. 

We saw a few other miracles this week too thanks to the heat that makes me sweat buckets on my face. People take pity on us. On Saturday it was really hot (like the thermal sensation was 42 degrees Celsius. That's like 110. With humidity.) and we knocked on this door and a man came out and saw us and just said something like "hey do you want to come in for a few minutes and sit down and drink a glass of cold water? My wife and were just in the back swimming, come on back and meet her and you can take a little break!" So yeah, we taught the Restoration to him and his wife and now we have an appointment for this Saturday too! Miracles do happen!

Anyway, I hope you're all doing super great! The gospel's true and God loves you!
-Hermana Cheever

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.