Week Three!

Hey everyone!

     I hope everything has been good back in the States. This week instead of trying to send this email and reply to everyone's individual emails as well, I read all the emails before hand and noted all the questions and am going to try to answer them all in this email. Everyone asks similar questions and this way everyone will hear from me more. Lucky ducks. Also while here at the CCM I can print emails, so I print what you all say to me each week and read them over and over. So thank you so much for telling me about your lives and the words of encouragement; they mean so much to me.

     This week I got new roommates. Let's just say I am not as close to them as I was the old ones. No major problems, they just are not interested in trying to talk to my companion and I, and did not realize that I could understand everything they say in Spanish, so I heard them talking about us a few times. We are trying really hard to be friends with them but they break the rules and it's just been a struggle. They are leaving this Tuesdaythough because they only stay 2 weeks because they already know Spanish. So we will start fresh next Thursday.

     This week was the funeral for Elder L. Tom Perry and we got to watch it broadcast live from Salt Lake city. I love Elder Perry so much. His last few talks in General Conference have been about eternal families and how grateful he is for the promise that he will be with his family even after this life. I am also so grateful for this promise.

     On Saturday we went proselyting in Buenos Aires, which pretty much means that they dropped me and my companion off in a random neighborhood about an hour away from the CCM with a map and said "be back in 5 hours" and we were supposed to just go out and teach about Jesus Christ. It was so hard. If anyone has any tips on that it would be much appreciated. I cannot tell you how many doors I got slammed in my face. My companion and I worked so hard the whole time but people recognized our nametags and would not even look at us as we walked by and asked how they were. One man did actually talk to us (okay a total of 3 people in 5 hours) for about 5 minutes and he kept saying he already had his religion so we said that is awesome what do you believe? to which he responded some hurtful things about us... anyway I basically just said "I am here in Argentina to teach you about Christ. This is the message that I love with my whole heart. I am only 19 years old and I realize that I still have a lot to learn about the world. There is much I do not know. However, I know that Jesus Christ and His Gospel can bless your life, because it has blessed mine. I know more than anything else that the Book of Mormon and the Bible together will guide your life and bless you." I then handed him a Book of Mormon (which he tried to refuse) and said this is a gift for you. Please read it. And thanked him for a time, wished him well, and walked away. It was powerful.

    On a less serious note, some of the rejections were rather comical. We knoced on a door that had the window open so we saw a lady watching the Simpsons. She answered and as soon as she saw us just said "no time I'm working" hahaha okay can I have your job to watch tv? Also almost everyone here has large fences around their house so you cannot get to their doors, so you have to ring a doorbell and they shout out the window to you. At first it was frustrating, but then I realized it was a blessing because I got a lot fewer doors slammed in my face. Moral of the story if anyone sees any missionaries try to talk to them, even if you're not interested in their message at all. It will make their day.

     At the CCM we teach ïnvestigators" who are actually just our teachers pretending to be people learning about the church. After three weeks we switched, and both of my first two were baptized! And we have had amazing lessons with the new ones this week. It has just been going so good. In one of my lessons we were teaching about prayer. I asked "if God was in the room right now with us, what would you ask Him?" I then explained that we all have the ability to ask Him anything we want or need, and we do it through prayer. I encourage you all to ask yourself the same question and then ask our Heavenly Father in prayer. He wants to hear from you, I promise.

    This week I finished all of my meal about 7 times, which is incredible. When I first got here I had a hard time even finishing half, but now I can finish all of it. It is a miracle. The cooks even stopped automatically giving me smaller portions! I am going to gain so much weight but it is so worth it because the food has just gotten better and better.

    The weather here is indecisive. It has been getting pretty cold because winter is starting in a few weeks, but two days this week it was blazing hot. The humidity here is something I do not have words to explain. I wake up in the morning and my pillow is wet from it, and I go to sleep at night and it never dried. My hair, which is normally naturally very straight, is curly every single day. It is crazy.

    A few funny stories: the CCM President was teaching a lesson on Sunday and he said "I'm going to play you a...a....what's it called? It used to be a film strip?" It was a video. He forgot the word for video and we all thought it was hilarous.

    This next story is a little gross so Mom you might not find it super amusing. In Latin America is is very common to throw your toilet paper into the trash can instead of the toilet. Here we throw it in the toilet but most girls do not realize that because it it different than from where they are from. Our roommates would just throw it in the trashcan, so I explained to them it is done differently here. They did not change. The next night I explained again. Same problem. Finally I gathered them all in the bathroom and pretended to use toilet paper, threw it in the toilet, and then flushed, and explained again. Problem solved. And that is how you explain to Latins to throw their toilet paper in the toilet.

    That's all for this week. It is great to hear from all of you. Thanks for your encouragement again, and I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Hermana Kaylee Marsh