Yay for being a Missionary!

April 21, 2014

I can honestly say that it is still exciting to get up and start a new day every day! I love being the Lord's servant and I will serve Him forever! 

This week was Easter! But Argentina doesn't focus on Easter as much as it does, the Semana Santa or Holy Week. Most everyone is Catholic so they focus a lot on the dark day of Friday.Friday there was literally no one out side. They don't eat meat all week, only fish, and then on Sunday they have a huge Asado to make up for all the meat they didn't eat in the Semana Santa. haha. Sunday didn't really feel like Easter at first. The talks in Sacrament meeting had nothing to do with Easter and no one even said Happy Easter.. Hermana Barney and I ate chocolate eggs and THEN when we went to our leaders meeting, the leaders had brought back packages and letters from the office, so I got my birthday package with the Easter Eggs in it!!!! Woohoo! Right on Easter! Thanks for making Easter feel like home! Also, I got the debit card, so now I can buy a jacket. ha. Thank you so much! 

This week was super great! Hermana Barney and I are working so hard! We found a ton of new investigators this week, left behind some that weren't progressing and had the baptism of Lourdes! She's 13 and super sweet! The baptism was beautiful and she had a lot of great support from the branch and her family! It was a great weekend! 

I'm so glad that you all had a great Easter! You all look so great and so big! Austin is HUGE! It's getting close to that day and I'm getting all the mixed emotions that come with dying on your mission. ha. Excited, sad, nervous, and overwhelmed. ha. But I know that when the time comes I will be ready. We are coming home more and more exhausted every night because we are giving it our all and we feel so great! 

I know the Lord is helping us in this great work! I feel His hand everyday in the miracles we see and the happiness we see in the people we teach. I love being a missionary and I love teaching the Gospel to everyone I see! I will be sad when it all ends, but right now I'm just loving life! 

The work keeps advancing, the Gospel is truer than ever, and Jesus Christ is my Savior! I know if I follow Him, I will be happy. He lives! For all of us! 

I love you all! 

Hermana Lawrence

Yay for Conference! Boo that there's no more:(

April 7, 2014

Holaaaaaaaaa!!!! 

This week was super great! A lot of stress relieving and now I'm ready to jump up and work hard this transfer! 

Transfer doctrine says that I'm staying here next transfer! With my new companion Hermana Barney! She is from Utah and came out the same time as me! She is super sweet and cute and we will have a lot of fun and work super hard! I'm way excited! 

I'm feeling a lot better! The bruise from my fall is gone, the cold and flu is finally gone, and I'm feeling healthy and happy! I'm even eating apples every day! 

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we were down in Mendoza having fun! ha. Hermana Dote had to do some paperwork for her Visa so we went down Monday night and stayed in the apartment of the Mission Nurse, Hermana Ashby! She is my best friend! She told us stories about her son and her fiancee and tried to set us up with her other son who is in Peru on his mission. ha! 

Then Tuesday, we had Leadership Council with Presidente Avila and all the STL's and Zone Leaders of the mission. It was super great! Gave me more excitement to keep working! We learned a lot about Baptism and how it is a Sacred covenant, and how we need to help our investigators to know that it is a covenant for life! They talked about that a lot in the General Woman's meeting last week too! I loved it! It really is so important! And it feels so good to fulfill our covenants and help others. 

Tuesday night, all the Sisters from the mission came to the mission home and we ate a super yummy dinner and then slept in a hotel! The next morning we woke up, did yoga with the nurse and talked about health. ha. Then we played some fun games and got dressed to start the conference. They taught us about not hurting our companion's feelings, about communication, companionship inventory and later about why we are here and our role as Sister Missionaries. I loved it, learned a ton and we all got to relax and just let out all the stress we had inside of us. ha. I feel like every sister missionary should be able to go to a spa for 2 days in the middle of their mission. No, but seriously, I feel a ton better and I'm so ready to get down to work this transfer! 

Thursday and Friday we worked hard and had some awesome lessons! We had a surprise baptism on Saturday because the Elder's investigator Soledad moved into our area last minute! So she was baptised on Saturday and her daughter, Lourdes,. wants to be baptized next week! woohoo! So we are going by to teach her a couple times this week :) I'll send pictures of the baptism soon! 

Conference was amazing! Sadly, we had to watch it in Spanish, and I didn't understand a lot of it, but it was amazing to see that the same Spirit was there! They are still the words of God and I know that everything they said was true! I can't wait till they are up on LDS.org so I can print them! 

I love you all and I hope that you have such a great week! Keep on keeping on and you are in my prayers always!!!!!! 

Love love love! 

Hermana McKenna Lawrence