¡Navidad, Navidad! (to the tune of Jingle Bells)‏

Dear Family,

I love being a missionary. I love seeing people show their faith. I love my Savior and I am so grateful for his Atonement. I know that He was "born that man no more may die." I know that the Lord loves you all and that the Atonement is something very personal for each of us. I invite you to think of Him this Christmas season and think of a gift that you can give to Him. I feel so much love for my Redeemer, for my brothers and sisters here in Argentina, and so much responsibility to share this message to all those who will hear it. What an important message that we have to share! As I learn about and experiment more of what Christ really did for me it makes me wonder how my Heavenly Father possibly could have sent me here to be His mouthpiece--to preach las buenas nuevas of the gospel. Wow. But I know that I am not alone. He is helping me every step of the way. I really am seeing things in a whole knew light and through small miracles and learning experiences every day, my life really has been changed. Hna Alvey gave me this quote the other day that very much describes what the mission (and life in general) is like: 

"When you get to the end of all the light you know and it´s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly." -Edward Teller

May you all have a very merry Christmas and focus on the most important things. :) The Lord loves you and so do I!

La hermanita Hill

Sopresa!!!!

Hey family!

How are you? Well, you´re never going to believe it but I bid farewell to Tigre today! Yup, I will be spending the remainder of my days in URQUIZA! Back in cap-i-tal! It was a big surprise and I was super sad to leave Hermana Hualpa and Tigre...she is my only comp that I was only with for one transfer. And Tigre was the only area I was in for less than six months...I feel so unsettled! Haha I´m actually really excited to work my buns off here in Urquiza. I will get to know one more area and get to know more of the awesome peeps here. I love getting into new areas because it´s like a whole new slate and a whole new batch of people who are waiting for this wonderful message of the gospel. So my new companion is Hermana Alvey. She is from Las Vegas and is so great. There area actually four of us hermanas here... we will be with Hermana Kapp and Hermana Sperry, but Hermana Sperry is in the south right now and won´t be coming up until Wednesday so the three of us will be working together for right now. Hermana Kapp is from Mapelton, Utah and Hermana Sperry is also from Utah (Spanish Fork?) and they both went to BYU. Hermana Sperry will be leaving with me to start school as well. So, yeah, lots of craziness! I will be practicing my english with three American comps, that´s for sure :) In Tigre we were seeing a lot of miracles and I am excited to hear about what happens there and see the branch continue to grow. I love this work and am super pumped to see even more miracles here in Urquiza. Love you all a bazillion!

Hermanita Hill

Familia Quispe.  Lucy and Carlos are recent converts and help us a ton.
And Carlos is preparing to serve a mission!

We got to see Milsiades before his baptism at the
stake conference!  Future missionary.

With my new compies!  Hermana Kapp and Hermana Alvey :)

Little White Dress

So much goodness this week! Check it ouuuut.

Romina showing Astrid the font before her baptism <3

With all the fam :)

Romina with her dad, Miguel, and her sister, Astrid.
He reminds me of dad kind of sometimes because
he only has girls and he loves em a lot!

Okay here´s the story of Romina. She goes to church with her friend, Rosita, who is a recent convert. We taught her and she had always wanted to be baptized, but her parents never gave her permission. Last week we felt we should go visit her and talk to her parents again. Also near the area, we had a reference that we needed to contact. We felt that we should go contact the reference first--and it turns out the address didn´t exist. We felt that we should knock all the doors on the block we were at because maybe someone there was prepared. Everyone ended up rejecting us, so we decided to head on over to Romina. Her parents weren´t home because they work a lot, and that was part of the problem of never being able to get permission in the first place. But after teaching her, when we were about to leave, her dad showed up. We began to talk to him and at first he tried to avoid us, but we were persistent and at the end of the conversation, he realized that the best thing he could do for his daughter is to allow her to be baptized. He said he would talk to his wife, which he did, and they gave her permission! On the day of her interview, we brought her baptismal dress to try on. When she came out all dressed in white, her dad gave her a bug hug and just started weeping. It was such a special moment that I will never forget! I love how the spirit softens people´s hearts and always guides us to where we need to be. 

Milsiades

 Okay this kid is so awesome. On Saturday the zone leaders called to pass us a reference of a boy from Paraguay who came up to them on the street asking them where the church is. He said he was from Tigre, so we ended up calling him and inviting him to a baptism that night. He went and he told us about how he had been investigating the church for a long time in Paraguay, but was never baptized because his friends who weren´t members were always telling him that he shouldn´t. Until one day, one of his friends who is a member told him that he need to ask God if these things are true and if he should be baptized. He received his answer and decided he should. Then he moved to Argentina, so he didn´t have the opportunity. He has been here for six months, and never knew where the church was, until he saw the Elders on the street and asked them. And now he is preparing to be baptized this weekend! And he wants to be a missionary!!! And then....we found out he lives out of our area. So it will be other missionaries who will baptize him.....NOOOOO! Haha...but we are really happy that he will be getting baptized and that we got to see this miracle!

Thanks so much for the AWESOME PACKAGE! We are super
excited about our regalitos and Hna Hualpa wants me to tell you gracias!
I have the best family.  Es la verdad.

Hey.

Last Pday we went to Parque de la Costa.
The Lagoon of Tigre.

She's so cute!

Whoever said missionaries can't divertirse?