Week #73 - CHRISTMAS SKYPE

We didn't actually get an email letter from Hannah this week, since we were able to Skype with her for 45+ minutes on Christmas Day.  Here are a couple of pictures taken during our Skype session:

Family Picture:

Hannah and her cute companion, Hermana Ehlert from Canada (They are apparently also know as "Party on Wheels"--a sweet nickname for their duo given to them by President La Pierre):

Once again.........this was our VERY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS PRESENT THIS YEAR!!!

Week #72 - Bye! Bye! Ituzaingo!!

Saying byeto sister Zambrana! :) 

(From Heather:  The first email I received this morning said,

 "MOM -- BIG NEWS- NEW AREA AND MY COMP IS ONE OF MY DEAREST FRIENDS IN THE MISSION!"

 Hannah then said her new companion is one of her best friends in her mission.  It is also her FIRST American companion besides Hermana Wilson in the MTC.)

I had to say goodbye to my sweet Ituzaingo! To be honest, I was a little sad when I received the call that I was getting moved for my LAST TRANSFER. But it’s okay.

As I left the church building, I was so sad because I wanted to keep working with them on reaching their potential! I really saw so many wonderful changes in the last couple of weeks. I love with ALL of my heart Ituzaingo! 

This week I will be headed to an area that is called Corpus Cristi.  I will be serving my last transfer with Sister Ehlert. We are so excited! 

XOXO

Hannah

Week #71 - 21

Well. I feel officially OLD and legal! I cannot believe that I am 21 years old! I still remember my 20th birthday PERFECTLY in the mission. Today was a really great day though... well actually let me start with yesterday! 

We traveled Sunday night to the mission home so that we could go to Iguazú on Monday! (Everyone in my mission that goes home has the chance to go to Iguazú their last little bit of the mission.) ONE WORD: beautiful. Ah. It was one of the most incredible things I have ever done! (Someone let me use their camera but I need to send the pics over. I will figure it out...) but it was so awesome. We had to leave at 2 in the morning on Monday to get there by 8-- it was a long night in the bus but we got there and it was so great!

We finished around 1pm and we started heading back. We tried to get back in time to go to pre-leadership counsel. We went back to the mission home and changed our clothes and ran to the church to finish our leadership counsel. We were talking about lots of things. We came in right at the end so we missed a lot of what they said, but it was okay! After president said that I looked so tired it looked like a truck hit me. Ouch. That hurt more than an actual truck hitting me! haha no it was funny. We were all really tired! haha

That night we had a family home evening with the LaPierre's and then ate dinner and got ready for bed. 

The next day (today) was so fun! EVERYONE greeted me for my birthday and one elder even sang to me in Guaraní! It was so great. I couldn’t even wish for a better birthday present. I just love my mission so darn much. Thank you for all the love and support. I really cherish all the kind words and love that you all sent me! :) 

Week #70 - Two Pictures.........

Hannah had internet issues this week, so no letter :( BUT........two pictures made it through!  Woot!)

And we can now officially say, "Hannah is coming home next month!!"  Can you even believe it??

Week #69 - "Miracles Happen Once in Awhile if You Believe......."

Yeah, I quoted Princess Diaries. It’s okay. I am just REALLY HAPPY! 

Let’s go back a little to when I completed 1 year in the mission. My mom asked me a bunch of questions about the people I missed, the food I like, and how my Spanish is. One of the things that she asked me was about the investigators that I missed the most. I talked about the cute two kids that I taught in Puerto Rico, Octavio & Ruth.

Okay. This is where it gets exciting. On Thursday we had a zone conference. One of the things that happen during zone conference is that we get letters from former companions or from our families. I got one letter that I wasn’t expecting. As I opened it, tears streamed down from my face because in big bold letters it read: YOU ARE INVITED TO THE BAPTISM OF OCTAVIO & RUTH. I wasn’t expecting it. But it sure made me happy. They got baptized. 

I was saddened when I wasn’t able to stay to see their baptism about 10 months ago. Now I feel differently. I am so happy with their decision to be baptized. I have never felt so peaceful. I sure miss those kids so much! It really was an honor to meet those kids and to work with them! When I was there, the branch president didn’t give them permission to get baptized. It made me sad because I could see their potential. With time, the missionaries have worked SO hard to have this day happen. These baptisms were miracles. We believe in miracles here in the Posadas Argentina Mission:) 

Week #68 - Ituzaingo

Okay. Here we go. I am going to tell you a LOT about my new area today. First off, t is SO beautiful. Every night we pass by the MOST beautiful sunsets. 

There are fireflies. dragonflies. horses. frogs. ah, I just love all of the creations of Heavenly Father. He makes so many beautiful things!

There are great members here. (It is such a cute little branch but I love it! I may or may not have done two musical numbers yesterday in church....don’t get too excited Skyline... it’s not happening... haha!) We have been working a lot with the members this past week. It has been so fun getting to know all of the members. We have the BEST branch president. His name is Presidente Godoy. He is awesome. He works so hard with us. This week as a branch we are starting English class, and we are doing the activity Minute to Win It! I am SO excited! 

We have been working really hard with finding new investigators. It is a lot harder here in Argentina to contact new people so we have had a hard week with new people. In Paraguay you can go to any house and teach anyone. Here, not so much! It has been a hard adjustment but it has been a good one! I love working with the members! 

XOXO

Hermana Hannah

We went to a place in Paraguay that is called Saltos de MONDAY! It was SO beautiful! These are from my fav sista Hermana Dempsey!

Week #67 - Short and Sweet

Hannah made it to her new area in ITUZAINGO, ARGENTINA.........she sent a few pictures, but didn't have much time to write today.  In fact, here is her official message:

"I love you too soooo much! I can't write much today! Just say that my town is cute and it reminds me of a latino version of Manzanita beach!:) It's so cute. haha."

So there you have it!!  Short and Sweet!!

Here are some pictures that Hannah sent today.  ENJOY!!

the parana river!

MY NEW COMP. hna goñi

long story short.... the elders left this area and their landlord was angry so we had to clean their mold filled room.... (we were singing i hope they call me on a mission the whole time:))

we LOVE cleaning the elders apartments!!!!! (Can you hear the sarcasm in her typing??)

Week #66 - Peace Out CDE

All of the pictures today are from a road trip that Hannah took to Brazil!  Enjoy!

Wow! I cannot believe that my time has ended in CDE! It has really been a home for me. These members have treated me like their daughter; I have just LOVED my time here. I will totally miss Paraguay, but I am excited to go to my new area in Argentina. My new area is called Ituzaingó. (& it has a beach. yeah I am excited)

I found out this morning about the changes and I was really excited about changing my area, but also really sad about having to say goodbye to my sweet Silverio. We went over to his house to tell him and I totally started crying. This is the one thing that I do not like about being a missionary! I just love these people with all of my heart!

It will be an exciting week for sure!!

Week #65 - My Longest Investigator.........

I have had such an incredible week! I have a LOT of time in the mission.... (sometimes it’s hard to forget because EVERYONE is telling me every two seconds....) BUT this week was SO good. We worked so hard with the members! I don’t know if I have ever worked so hard with the members in my entire mission. 

I want to share a story of one of my favorite and longest investigators of my life/mission. My sweet Maria Elena. Ah, how I love her. I met my sweet Maria Elena my FIRST week here in CDE... (just to help you imagine how long she has been my investigator.... that was 7 months ago!) but anyways, her son Alex is waiting to go to his mission, so he is helping us a lot. On Thursday we went to teach her, but she wasn’t home! We were a little sad, but we had the time to talk to Alex. 

Alex talked to us about what his mom needs. I told him that he was our key to helping her get baptized; he agreed. We told him that we needed his help. He promised to start reading the scriptures and praying with her daily! I was so happy! 

On Saturday night, we did our usual calls to invite all of our investigators to church. Instead of calling Maria Elena, we called Alex. He said that he would take her to church! 

On Sunday, we were looking and looking for her in Principles of the Gospel and we couldn’t see her! We were a little sad! So, we texted Alex and he said that she was there! .... and we totally didn’t look hard enough because she was right in front of our faces! (how embarrassing right?) 

Later that night, we went to her house to talk to her. We felt impressed to talk about baptism. (This was NOT the first time with her...) the first thing she said is that she still wanted to learn more. we told her that us as missionaries still do not know everything but that it is a lifelong process! We asked her again. She said yes. 

We are happy to work with the members here in CDE

XOXO

Hermana Hannah

Week #64 - La Carpeta de Area

two of my favorite comps.... hna moreno and hna baez.... i love them!

Every week we have a district meeting. Last week I was assigned to give a lesson on the carpeta de area (area book). The area books are REALLY important. It records all of the progress of the investigators and less active families. As I was giving this talk, I spoke of the importance of keeping it clean and organized (one of my favorite topics:-) ) and updating the information every day! 

As I was speaking I decided to talk about looking for references from the area book! We spoke of a few experiences about finding people from the area book. That night Hna Martinez and I decided to work from that book to find new people to teach. That lead us to the Lopez family. The Lopez family was a family I worked with when i first started here... (which was a long time ago...) and they are a less active family. 

We felt prompted to go to their house. When we went, we found out that the family has one son that is not baptized but one who wants to be! As we talked with him and his family, we set goals about going to church and being baptized. He is going to be baptized in 3 weeks! 

We are so excited to be working with this family and to be finding new people to teach. It really was a testimony builder about the area book! 

Another note... on Thursday I received my TRUNKY PAPERS! :( which means I am coming home soon. I cannot believe it. I totally cried all day on Thursday when I got them. 

TRUNKY PAPERS.... (AKA means i am coming home soon..... eeeep) 

XOXO

Hermana Hannah

 

My zone 

pics of me and my zone and me making pancakes.
(yes, you can put it on my blog... hahahaha) 

we made lunch 

Week #63 - MILARGOS

Today was such a happy day! We just went to a place in Paraguay (one of the world’s largest dams) and it is called Itaipu! We were able to cross into Brazil a little so it was super fun! 

This week was a good week. We worked hard in our area and we were able to meet a bunch of new people. Okay, I am going to give you all a flashback... My first week with Hermana Martinez we met a part member family! We were walking through an unknown part of our area and we came across a sweet 13 year old girl named Prianca. She talked with us and was super friendly. She said, “I think you need to talk to my mom.” So, we followed her to her house. 

Her mother greeted us and said, “HOLA ELDERES!” and we just laughed and told her that we were HERMANAS. Moments after, she told us that she had been baptized about 12 years before. We then go into her house to talk with her and her children. She explains that they stopped going to church because they were always so busy working, not because something bad happened. 

As we talk with them, we were filled with so much love! We just love that family!! About one week after... we find Prianca in her house and her little sister Milargos came.( Milagros means miracle in Spanish... just to let you know.)

As we were teaching about the BOM, they both had desires to read more and to learn more about it. They were both so excited! Milargos said that she was going to take her BOM to school to read with her friends. Looking back on that day, we realized that we found that family from the spirit. We just found them as we were contacting and meeting new people. We were so happy and we did realize that is was one milagro in our mission and in our time together!

Week #62 - CONFERENCE!!!

I always say this but I am pretty sure conference is like Christmas here on the mission. I was really blessed to have my SECOND conference here in CDE. Everyone was like, “Hermana Murphy.... how much time do you have here???” YEP. I am basically a member. (But guess what?? I LOVE IT!) 

My favorite talk was the one about the love of a mother. it made me really nervous to be a mom.... but it just made me miss my own mom so much more. But I thought it was so sweet and so true. Then I thought about the talk by Elder Nelson (I am oh so sure all the sister missionaries in the world are talking about this talk....) which I loved. It really made me think of the value of us sisters here in the mission and in the church! Often he said, “We need women who.....” and it is so true! We have so much to give. 

I really thought about the importance of keeping the commandments and being a good disciple of Christ this week. This conference has really made me think about how I can become better and change my life! I know that we have a prophet today that guides us and directs us. I believe in Him and his words. 

Week #61 - Changes & Service

MY NEW COMP HNA MARTINEZ FROM URUGUAY!!!

What a week! We had changes and I am training again here in Ciudad del Este! I am so excited to be staying and training. I love it. I had to say goodbye to my BEST friend Hermana Baez and it was really hard for me... I really miss her right now. This is one of the hardest things about the mission for sure, but I am a happy camper!

This week we have been doing lots of service. There is a 81 year old member in my ward who rides his bike to church every week, (yeah I know he’s awesome) got in an accident and he broke his collarbone. We have been over at their house a lot this week to help them clean and sing them hymns.

Also one of the less active members we teach is a lady named Ursula. She is a really sweet lady. Last week, her 38 year old son passed away. It has been a really difficult time for her and her family. We have also been going to her house to help her.

Something that people might not know is that we are also here to help the members. I have a lot of time in this area and I have really grown to love these people. My heart hurts for all of the sad things that are happening with these families, but I am happy that I am here to help them feel better!

One of the quotes I love that my mom sent to me is by Elder Nelson, he says, All missionaries, younger and older, serve with the sole hope of making life better for other people. This is my goal as a missionary. I am trying to help them feel better as they struggle to find relief.

I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can help us with whatever problem we might face. I know if we just come unto Him, He will help us. My invitation to you all is reach a little farther and help other people. Do it. You will feel happier! I promise you!

XOXO

Hermana Hannah

Chilean elder greetings :)

Added note from Heather:

Hannah still looks amazingly happy and MAN is her hair getting long!  I know that she has even cut it on her mission.  As of Wednesday, Hannah will be out exactly 14 months.  SO CRAZY.......Still so darn proud of her and excited to read her email's each Monday!!  AND.....even more excited that she has managed to get some pictures sent to us even though her camera was stolen.  Happy Day!  Enjoy!  XOXO

Week #60 - I Will Try Your Cake.........

Well, I am here another transfer! That means I will have 5.5 transfers here in CDE. I just love it here and I have some progressing investigators so I am excited! I also will be training again! I am going to be a mom for the third time!!

We have goals in the misión to contact a ton of new people! (I have been talking about that a bunch over the past couple of weeks...) and we are trying to come up with creative ways to contact people. Just in case you don’t know.... all of the sister missionaries here love clothes so we have been trying to use that. Practically every neighborhood has one house of used clothes here so we have been trying to us that to contact. (We are not allowed to shop during the week but we use it to get into the house haha) It has been working!

2 weeks ago we met a sweet lady named Graciela. She has 2 daughters and her boyfriend lives with her. (They still are not married yet) we taught her the first lesson and she loved it. She told us without us asking anything that she wants to get married to receive the blessings. I told her that we wanted to teach her whole family together and she said that there was NO way her husband would listen...

.... 5 days passed and we went to talk with her & her husband was there!! We invited him to talk and he said yes, but that he never wants to go to our church because it is far from his house. We explained about everything and he was listening very carefully.

I related it to a cake. I said that we will never know if the cake is good unless we try it. & then I bore my testimony.

He said, I will try your cake. I want to go to your church.

It was one of the most powerful teaching experiences that I have had in my misión. I am so excited to continue teaching this family. I love this góspel!

(sidenote: sorry some of the words are in Spanish.... the computer is doing that... haha)

XOXO

Hermana Hannah

Week #59 - Brazil, Consejo, no camera

No mom wants to wake up to a one sentence message like this from her missionary daughter:  

"... hi.... no pics.... someone robbed me:( i will explain later but no one hurt me. it's okay! i am happy!"

I had to wait 6 hours and 46 minutes to receive this next message.  I am much relieved and thankful that everyone is okay........looks like pictures may be few and far between for the rest of Hannah's mission, but that's okay.  She said she'd try to "mooch off her comps" for the last four months.  haha!

Well, this was one of the FASTEST weeks of my whole mission. I feel like it went by in 3 days!

This week one of our main focuses is to find new people to teach. We are working on finding new people. We still feel like it is awkward sometimes contacting so we come up with some games to do. One of the things we did was we picked a random name and decided that we were going to find that person. We picked the name Gabriel. After we picked the name we went on a hunt for Gabriel. We found a perfect house. The doors were open & there were little kids outside so we contacted it!

A woman came to the door. Her name is Selina! As we were contacting her, we asked for Gabriel! Not expecting to find him, she said, ``Gabriel is right here! `` He was her neighbor! Right as we turned, we noticed that he was leaving. So we decided to talk to her & her family! It was such a great experience and we were able to teach them about the gospel!

Now I will share a sad story of the mission! This week I went to a counsel meeting in Argentina and we had to leave all of the bags in a different room and during that meeting someone came in and robbed me and all of the sisters. They sadly took all of my money and my camera! But nothing else and we are safe, so everything is okay!

Today I was able to experience one of the most wonderful things about my mission. 3 countries! I was able to go into Brazil, Argentina, & of course Paraguay! I have pictures somewhere of the 3 fronteras so I will try and send it! I love my mission. I am so blessed to be here. It truly is the best! :)

Week #58 - Be A Witness

zone conference!

Last week we went to a multi-stake conference and it was a broadcast from Salt Lake to all of Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina. We learned about the importance of being a witness of Jesus Christ. When we were baptized, we promised to be witness of Jesus Christ in all times and in all things and in all places. One of the men that spoke said, ‘‘Being a witness of Christ is being a missionary.'' I just love that.

I have been a missionary now for almost 14 months and I can really say that it is the truth. A witness is someone who shares what they believe with all people. I want to extend the invitation of being a witness and sharing your testimony with your friends.

This week we started teaching a man that could be the twin of hno Silverio. His name is Marcelo and he is a shoemaker. He is 69 years old and we met him contacting his neighbor Tati. We were teaching his neighbor and we were waiting for her to come and let us in, but she wasn’t home.

.... He told us that she wasn’t home. We started talking to him and he said, “I want to learn more about you.” His first question was why are we called Mormons? It is one of my favorite things to answer! We started talking about the Book of Mormon and gave him one, and of course invited him to read it. He read it & he is reading it.

I know that was a little miracle of Heavenly Father. I know Tati wasn’t home for a reason. I believe in the miracles of Heavenly Father.

I HELD A BABY PUPPY.... actually i do this everyday but i am happy

hna baez is a cutie!

this is the tallest hna villanueva will ever look hahaha

this is a portland pic! elder hutchinson is from sherwood! he is so great!

elder hutchinson, elder christenesen, elder graves, me, hna finlinson! some of my very best friends

zone conference!

the sisters!!!!