Week #7 - IN ARGENTINA!!!

The girls from Provo MTC saying goodbye at the Buenos Aires Temple.

(Thanks to Courtney & Jill Shumway for sharing this picture.)

Wow. What a week.

We spent over 24 hours traveling to Posadas. We took a bus to the train station and then took that to the SLC airport. It was so fun to spend so much time with all of the missionaries.

We flew to Atlanta, Georgia and spent almost 6 hours in the airport. It was SO good to hear from you mom and dad! I truly miss your voices so much. It has been so long and I wish that I could call you every day just to tell you about my crazy adventures.

Well, I do not want to waste all of my time with talking about traveling so I will skip to Argentina!

I AM IN ARGENTINA!!!!! So crazy.

On Tuesday and Wednesday night we stayed at a hotel with two sisters that are about half way done with their missions. On those two days we had to get more stuff done for our passports for Paraguay. Cool thing, our mission is in Brazil as well!!

We found out our companions on Thursday and I am with Hermana Moreno from Ecuador. She. Is. Darling. She has helped me with my Spanish so much. Our area is Barrio Jardin 2 and we are still in Posadas. I am so glad to be staying in Argentina, because if I was in another country I would have to learn either Guarani or Portuguese. SO many languages. So, just letting you all know I will be learning two other languages as well.

I am in Posadas which is not at all what I was expecting. There is not one paved road within 15 miles and every single day I have mud up my legs. There are dogs EVERYWHERE. If you ever come here, do not try to pet them. I have learned the hard way. 2 dogs have attacked me already! haha, it is okay though I am alive and well!

So far we have taught and contacted so many new people. The other day I contacted 2 people all by myself! yay!! It is so hard speaking Spanish because they all talk so fast and with a crazy accent! It is truly so beautiful though.

The ward has about 100 people in it, it is the second biggest ward in the whole mission! I was asked to speak on Sunday, so I did. Everyone came up to me after and said that my Spanish sounded good, but I know I probably sounded crazy. It is okay, as long as they know that I love this gospel and Jesus Christ, I am happy. 

 

We have been teaching a teenager named Tamara and we will be asking her to be baptized on Thursday. I absolutely love teaching her. She is so open and receptive to the gospel. It is so fun to teach people like her.

I already love it here despite the face-sized bugs.  It is an experience that i will treasure for a lifetime. This is by far the hardest thing I have ever done, but I don´t want to be doing anything else.

Why would I want to give up about 2 years of my life to get attacked by dogs, see face-sized spiders, and learn more than one different language? Because I want people to live with their families for eternity. I think I can kill a few spiders for someone´s eternity and for people to have their families for forever. I love this work and helping people everyday.

Thank you all for your love and support!

Hermana Murphy

 

Hannah sent a few other short emails and here are some things she shared in those:

• We live in the safest and nicest place in Posadas. We live behind a ward members house and it is locked up nicely. Oh. I wish you could meet some of these people. They seriously have hearts of gold.
• Okay. All of the kids are obsessed with me because I am a blonde. It is so cute. They all come to my and kiss my cheeks and pull on my skirt. I love it!
• CRAZY STORY!!  We were eating lunch at a members house and this lady said, you are from Oregon? Do you know Hermano McKeehan?  YES, the one that was in our ward!!
  crazy huh? They served together in Cordova Argentina!  It’s a small world in Argentina too!  (I just sent a message to Sean McKeehan to see if he in fact served in Argentina.)
  Also.........Hannah did not include any new address information so I assume that just sending her email or using dearelder.com is the best way to reach her as of right now.  Also.......no pictures this week!  Sigh!