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 

New adventures and not so new, but equally great companion!

Dear Family, 

Remember when I told you I was coming to be with Hermana Lopez?? So I get off the bus and my new companion, HERMANA DOTE, came to get me! They all heard wrong on the telephone and it got passed to me as Hermana Lopez.. hah. We don´t even have an Hermana Lopez in the mission! ja! 

It is so good to be with Hermana Dote again! It feels like we weren´t even apart ever and we just picked up back where we left off! We´re already friends and we already know how to teach well together so that made the transition super easy! 

Our area is BEAUTIFUL! Freezing cold and right next to the mountains! The fruit here is super good, so I´mma eat good this transfer :) The members in the branch are incredible and all the young women love us! The dogs here are kind of nicer.. but still scary. It´s a more rural area, but still nice and there aren´t too many bugs so we´re good there too! :) 

Unfortunately, the internet in our area is realllllly stinky... so sorry but I won´t be able to send pictures this transfer... I´m going to go print them out so you might get some in the mail in 2 months! ja.... sorry...... 

We´ve had a lot of meetings this week so we had to travel 3 hours back to Mendoza and then an hour to another meeting in Tunuyan. So I haven´t gotten to know everyone we´re teaching this week.. but we should have more time this next week!

We teach primary in our branch because there are not enough people to do it. ha. But it was sooooo fun! 

Fast and Testimony meeting was amazing! I felt the Spirit so strong and the Saints here have incredible testimonies! The church really is the same everywhere and it really is led by Jesus Christ, himself! 

I´m so glad to hear that the Temple Dedication and Cultural Celebration went so well! I´m so proud of my family! Thank you for being such a good example to me! 

Well, I love you all and I LOVED your letters this week! I am printing them all out and I just sent some letters home on Friday! Hopefully you get them soon! 

I´m glad you got my Tang! It´s wayyyy better than what we have in the States! ha. I love it! 

Love you love you love you!!!! Thank you for everything! 

You´re in my prayers!

Your missionary,  

Hermana McKenna Lawrence 

Yay for more surprises!

Dear Family, 

This week has been nuts! On Tuesday, I got almost the worst sunburn of my whole life. Then Thursday, surprise! We wore scarves because it was freezing cold and raining! We had to unpack all of our winter clothes again! ha. From Thursday till Sunday it was freezing and I don´t think it ever stopped raining. And today, HOT. Again. 

We came home soaked every day, but I had fun because I got to wear my cute rain boots :) There was absolutely NO ONE on the streets and when we knocked on doors, no one wanted to let us in because we were sopping wet! They told us "go home, you´re going to get sick!) haha. 

One lady, Neli, told us that the Lord has seen the sacrifice we´ve made, and we were good for the day. ha. My companion and I later talked about the sacrifice the Savior made for us and how what He did was way harder. ha. So we worked even harder the rest of the night. :) We didn´t see a ton of success, but we know the blessings are coming! 

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! My birthday was great! And so was this week! 

On Monday, we got locked in the chapel with the Elders from our zone and had to wait a couple of hours for the Bishop to come let us out. ha. But Tuesday, we got back to work and worked hard! 

Apparently, mission birthdays are to get fat. In district meeting, we had facturas, at lunch, we had a huge plate of Peruvian party food that they only make for special occasions, my companion bought me ice cream, an investigator gave me coke and cookies and then lunch on Friday was another celebration with cake! ha. My diet starts today. 

But my birthday was really great! We worked hard, arrived at our apartment exhausted and satisfied :) and sun burnt. 

Miracles of the week: 

- the other day we met this little girl in the street. Her name is Sofia and she is like 7 years old. She stopped us and said, Hey what are you doing? So we told her we were missionaries and she said she loves to help the Father in her Catholic church! She told us she believes in God and Jesus Christ and we asked her where she lived. The next day we stopped by and met her mom, Antonela who is pregnant with another one :) She was super excited to meet us and so grateful that her daughter stopped to talk to us in the street. We have another lesson with them this week! :) 

- on Wednesday we walked a ton and hardly found anyone. We were on our way to visit a Potential Investigator when my companion said wait. We stopped in our tracks and around the corner came this lady and her daughter. We talked to them and 30 seconds into the conversation, the cars in the street we would´ve just crossed, crashed. The Lord really protects His missionaries! The lady´s name was Cristina and she told us that she was a member and wanted to take her 9 kids to church, but didn´t know where the church was in her area. She´s not in our area, but I know the Elder´s will take good care of her where she lives :) 

Yay for miracles! 

This week in my studies and observations I have been learning a lot about how much the Gospel blesses families. On a mission, we see so many families every day, some of them happy, some of them not so much. Obviously, no family is perfect and we all have our problems, but it is not a surprise to me that the happy families are the ones who include Jesus Christ in their home life. They read the scriptures together, pray together, and have weekly Family Home Evenings. I know we were blessed with families to help us to learn to do these things. We all have personal problems but we cannot get through them or learn to get through them without our families. And it´s those small and simple things that make all the difference. I don´t have my family with me right now, and as a Missionary, we have time set apart permanantly to read and pray. But I have noticed a huge difference when I do it just because I´m supposed to and when I do it because I remember it has eternal consequences. I know sometimes it seems like no one pays attention anyways, or it takes to long to do it, but I am extremely grateful that we read and prayed as a family before the mission. And I am grateful for the knowledge I am gaining on my mission of how important that was and is for the rest of my life. I know you will recieve blessings as you continue to set aside that time to read the scriptues and pray together. It really is of eternal consequence. :) 

"Y así vemos que por pequeños medios el Señor puede realizar grandes cosas." 1 Nephi 16:29 - sorry I only have my Spanish Scriptures. But it says that through small means, the Lord can bring to pass great things. God works through the small and simple things. But Satan knows that too. And he will do everything he can to get us to not remember those things. 

The Gospel is made of small and simple things, including small and simple blessings. I have noticed those a lot this week. From a little girl stopping us in the street to a cold day, the Lord has blessed us this week, even if it´s not in the way we expected Him to. 

I send my love and prayers your way! And some fun pictures! Love you!!!! 

Hermana McKenna Lawrence 

Yay for Order!

February 3, 2014

Dear Everyone,

This week has been great! This week has been a week of new beginnings!

We went to one of the Elder´s area called Lavalle and had an
asado! (like a big barbeque) My first one! Nobody could believe I
haven´t had one in my two months here. ha. The Argentine´s LOVE asado!
It was super fun and we were able to do some Zone bonding!

On Tuesday, we had Consejo, which is a meeting for all the leaders of
the mission that we have once a month. They talked a lot about how we
need to talk to everyone that we see on the street! Sometimes we
forget about that and just walk fast to our appointments because we
are late. But my companion and I have been on fire this week! We have
been stopping everyone on the street! A lot of them aren´t interested,
but we´ve found some awesome people because of it.

Especially because this is what happened this week. We both had really
strong feelings that we needed to start all over and look for new
investigators. None of our investigators have been progressing and we
felt like we can use our time doing more effective things. It was
really hard to leave them, but I know that they will be more prepared
soon. It took a lot of faith to start over, but we´ve already seen the
miracles!

Last night the Elders found this kid, Maxi, that´s been going to
church in their ward and attending the youth camps and really wants to
be baptized! He lives in our area, so he would go to our ward. They
passed us the referral and we´re going to visit him tonight!

Also, last night the Carballos in our ward invited us over because
their cousin was in town and isn´t a member. She recently lost a child
and was really confused about where she was. We taught about the Plan
of Salvation and told her that her daughter was happy and that she has
the opportunity to be with her again. How blessed we are to know about
God´s plan for us! It brought a peace to the room and she was able to
feel the Spirit and know that everything would be okay. She lives in
Buenos Aires, so hopefully she will be baptized up there soon!

We´ve been doing a lot of cleaning in our apartment and our area book.
(I don´t think either have been cleaned very well in 2 years) We were
scared to start it, but as we have made our apartment and our area
book cleaner, we have felt the Spirit more and we are more receptive
during studies and planning to the promptings and inspiration that the
Lord wants to give us. Now I understand why it´s so important to have
a house of order. :)

We did exchanges this week with the sisters from Mendoza! I stayed in
my area with Hermana Norr from Washington and we talked to so many
people! We saw miracles and had so much fun! And ate some really good
alfajores. (they´re like little cakes)

They have the best junk food here. Alfajores, facturas (pastries),
pizza. And ALL way better than the ones I´ve ever tried in the states.
If there was one reason I ever moved here, it would be for the junk
food.

This week we had a huge miracle with one of our recent converts in the
ward. Magali was baptized in November, right before I got here. But
when the missionary that taught her left, she got super sad and didn´t
want to come to church. We always passed by, but never could find her
and no one from the ward could find her or talk to her. On Thursday
our ward mission leader, Alan, invited us to go visit her. We went and
her mom said that she didn´t want to hear from us, so we sat down and
started sharing a message with her mom. She came out in the middle and
we instantly became best friends! She is the sweetest girl! She
started to share her story with us about why she stopped going to
church and why she distanced herself from everyone. She told us she
didn´t know why she came out, she just felt like she should. That
night she walked to the Bishop´s house to have an interview, and the
YSA group was there getting ready to go to a camp in Uspallata. So she
went home to pack and left with them. Apparently the camp went super
well because 5 of the YSA kids that were inactive left camp, deciding
to go on missions! It was sweet! Magali is coming back to church and
wants to come out to appointments with us this week!

This week has been crazy, but we´re excited to start fresh in our
apartment, in our finding,  and with ourselves. That´s the great thing
about the Gospel. We can always start over!

I love you all sooooo much! I am glad everything is going well and I
hope that it continues! We are so blessed! Thanks for informing me
about the Superbowl and relating it to missionary work! ha! I love
getting your letters and hearing how you all are doing! Keep on
keeping the faith and being examples! And have fun with the Mag´s this
weekend!

Love love love!
Hermana McKenna Lawrence

Ps. The message that we shared at the Baptism of Jorge was the
Restoration! It brings the Spirit every time! :) Love you Uncle Larry
and Aunt Laurel! Oh story for you! The other day, I cut a picture of
the prophet out of the Liahona in the kid section and I turned it over
and Uncle Larry´s face was on it! So I turned the page and it was an
article that you wrote! About your dad :) I loved it so I cut it out
and put it in my journal! It was a fun surprise.

I love everyone!

Yay for nuevos miembros!

January 6^th, 2014

This week, Rosa Romero, became the newest member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 2014! Ok, probably not, but she was baptized and confirmed!!!! Yay! After 9 months of taking the discussions, she was ready to make covenants with our Heavenly Father and it was such a great day! She is so happy and ready to start her new life in the Restored Gospel! 

This week was a little bit weird, because Tuesday and Wednesday we couldn´t leave the apartment all day! We studied a lot, took a little nap, and organized/cleaned un poquito. Boring.. But we have seen the miracles this weekend! On Sunday, Monica came to church! She is a former investigator that we have been trying to contact lately. She has never let us in her house to come talk to her, but we could feel she was really prepared. The other day after the baptism, our ward mission leader, Alan and Gabriel, who has his mission call, went to visit some people who they wanted to invite to church the next day. They passed by Monica´s house and she was really stressed trying to find a job because her children didn´t have anything to eat. When they passed by she was on the verge of tears, so they asked if they could say a prayer with her. They kneeled down and asked the Lord for help. Before they could leave the house, she recieved a phone call from a job that she had been waiting to hear from! What a miracle! So she came to church with her 10 year old daughter so excited to learn more and ready to be baptized! She has a date for the  17th of January! Woohoo! 

It´s still hot, but we´re surviving! I think I´m getting used to it! The cold showers help :) 

On New Years, I got up and set my Resolutions for the year! I´m sad I couldn´t make them with you guys, but I took a picture so it looks like I was a part of it! :) 

Things are going really great! We are working hard and seeing the fruits of our labors! We find out about transfers on Sunday! Although I think I´ll be staying here with my companion! :) Yay! 

I love you all and I hope everything is going well with you! Good luck with your trip this week and have so much fun! 

Love love love,  

Hermana Lawrence 

Yay for Summer!

January 13th
Hola! 

This week was soooo great! Another week full of miracles! It´s still super hot and getting hotter, but the Lord is blessing us in other ways! ha. 

First of all, transfer news! I will be staying in my area, Dorrego, but my companion Sister Dote will be leaving. :( But my new companion will be Sister Cox! She came with me in the MTC and she is super fun! She is gorgeous so that means I actually have to do my hair every day. haha! We will both be Sister Training Leaders, so we will be able to do two exchanges at one time! Yay! I am super excited and I can just feel the miracles coming this next transfer! 

The week started out a little rough, like always, but the weekend brings the miracles! On Thursday, we went to visit some less-actives with our Ward Mission Leader, and Daiana who is leaving on her mission in April to Brazil! We visited Hermana Aurora Puebla who doesn´t hear very well so we had to knock about 10 times. We finally decided to call her and she came out in a little bit. When we entered in her house, it was full of smoke! When she came out to open the door, she realized her kitchen was on fire and quickly put it out. She told us that she hadn´t noticed it, and if we wouldn´t have come, she would´ve died! Wow. ha. We shared a short message with her and she felt the Spirit and wanted to come to church! She didn´t come, but everything in the Lord´s timing :) 

Monica, who got the job last week, lost the job a day later, and has been outside all day everyday looking for work. Every time we pass by, her sweet daughter says that she doesn´t know what time she left or what time she´ll be back. But she has a ton of faith and wants to keep coming to church! So please keep praying for her! 

We are also teaching Raquel and her dad Humberto. They are incredible and searching for the church that "fills" them. They´ll find it soon. :) This week we also found Patricia and her husband Santiago! They were out shopping in a store that is owned by a member, and picked up the Liahona that was sitting on the counter. As she flipped through it she asked Hermana Leon where she could get a copy and she got her address and sent us over! Patricia told us that that day, she had been praying with her husband to find the chuch that they should go to with their family! She told us she wants to come to church and she wants to know more! They didn´t come this week, but we´re going back to teach them all this week and I know they will come soon! They´re amazing! 

Everything is going really well! I´m still amazing at how much I can learn each and every day. I feel like I never stop learning! It´s amazing! And my testimony never stops growing stronger. This is the Lord´s work. And it´s our decision to be observers or participants. But participating fills you with a joy that´s indescribable! (ya no puedo escribir en inglés) I love being a missionary! I love who the Lord is turning me into. I love the support I feel from all of you. I love my life! 

How is everything going for all of you? I heard is super freezing cold in the states? Probably not in Arizona, but everyone I meet tells me "oh, you´re from the US? It´s super cold there right now" haha. And I thought, well no wonder I haven´t heard anything from my family because we live in the desert. 

Love you allllllll!!!!!!!! 

Also, some funnies of the week: 

This week I swallowed a bug. It was gross. And I was fasting. 

Every person we talk to thinks we´re crazy for walking out in the heat all day. Every conversation ends with "vayan por la sombra" which means, walk in the shade! haha. I´m getting a little bit tan! But not really at all. 

Good luck with everything this week! 

Love, 

Hermana Lawrence 

Only 360 more Days till Christmas!!

December 30, 2013

Well, my favorite day of the year is passed, and that makes me sad, but the work of the Lord continues to make me happier every day, so I can wait another 360 days :) 

This week was a little different. There weren´t a lot of productive things we would do on Christmas Eve or on Christmas and then we went to Uspallata for the weekend to do exchanges. But our area is going strong and we are looking forward to another great week! (even though Tuesday and Wednesday we have to stay inside all day.. it´s supposed to be dangerous on the streets those days) 

Uspallata is so pretty! It´s an area right in the mountains so the weather was so nice and basically I wanted to stay there forever! There was a lot of wind, but the sun shone right on us.. so I´m a little bit fried. ok a lot. but it´s kind of turning into a nice tan! so that´s good :) We spent the day with Hermana Tirado from Peru and Hermana Norr from Washington and saw so many miracles! In the two days we were there, they picked up 4 new investigators with baptismal dates! They are doing so great and I learned a ton from them! 

Funny experience from Uspallata: We saw a lady sweeping her porch. Her porch was just dirt. 

Friday night was our ward Christmas dinner which was supposed to start at 8:30pm. I´ve learned quickly that Argentine parties last forever! We had permission from our mission president to stay until 11:30pm and they didn´t even start the activity until 11! ha. so we stayed for a half an hour and then went to bed. Who knows what time it ended? ha! 

There are supposed to be a lot of fireworks at midnight on New Year´s so we are excited to watch them from our little balcony! :) 

Rosa is a different person! She is so ready for baptism and she can´t wait for this Saturday! She will have a baptismal interview on Thursday and Saturday she will baptized! Yay! She has such an amazing spirit with her and she is so ready to start her life clean and serve Jesus Christ! I´ll send pictures next week! :) 

Something I forgot to ask when I was in Vallejo: There was an Elder in my district named Elder Contla and I KNOW I know him from somewhere! He said he used to live in Gilbert when he was little. They lived in the ISLANDS! and I said, I lived in the Islands! Do we know the Contla´s or did I have a friend named Zach? Because I think that´s where I know him from. haha. Random. 

Anyway, things here are going great! It was sooooo good to see you all this week! I absolutely loved talking to you and getting to see your faces! You all look so great and I know miracles are happing at home! I hope things continue to go well! I will continue to pray for you every day! Thank you so much for your strength, your examples, and your love! I love hearing from you every week and I promise to be better at writing details :) 

This week I have gained a stronger testimony about the love Heavenly Father has for everyone of us. In every lesson we have taught, I have been able to feel the love that God has for every person we teach. We were with all these people before this life and we are all here for the same purpose: to be able to live with Heavenly Father again. Heavenly Father wants me to get there, and He wants me to help all these people here get there. I can´t let my selfish desires get in the way of that. I always think about how hot I am, how I need water, how I need food, but these people need the gospel, and that´s way more important. I love these people and I know that the Lord will help me forget about myself so that I can help them more. :) 

I love you all and I hope you have a great New Year! Happy 2014!!!!! 

Con amor, 

Hermana McKenna Lawrence