Confession!

Dear Pinterest, I know this letter may be a little pre-mature (since we only met a few short weeks ago), but I can't hold my feelings back any longer: I love you! I thought I lived a happy, Martha-Stewart-Magazine-filled, blog-stalking life until I met you. I can't concentrate now because I'm always thinking of you! Real Simple articles seem dull, Rachel Ray doesn't have the spice she used to, and even "Say Yes to the Dress" is a yawn. I find myself dreaming of what I could do with 5 pounds of pony beads and my old socks. You've opened my eyes to a world of glue-guns, bleach-pen designs on t-shirts, and DIY palet furniture. My life is forever changed by you, Pinny (I hope pet names are okay with you...) Can I tell all my friends and family members about you? Circle one: Yes / No. With fond devotion, Lauren

I'm in LOVE...

Christmas Cheer!

So, I just recently realized that the local radio station has started playing non-stop Christmas music! Can I just say...BLISS! It's been too long!

My triumpant return to blogging!

I know, I know...I've been home for a month and this is my first blog post...it's all the pressure I tell you! The return-to-blogging-post has to be memorable...I mean, after 18 months of spiritually-filled and adventure-oozing posts from Argentina, my real life is....well...just real life again in all it's beauty and glory. So, with no further delay, here's what real life is like for a RM: Highlights from the past month: -1 week in Maui on the beach showing off my great Argentine figure (18 months of oily pasta and fatty meat makes for a great "beach bod") - 7 days in Washington, DC -Dory and Nemo painting on Paije's bedroom wall -1 tour through the White House -3 days with a bad stomach bacteria -9 days in New Hampshire -36 hours in airplanes in just under 4 weeks. I've been through 3 full body scans and 1 pat down, and only one bag has been opened/brokened/inspected... -16 credits registered for at BYU -11 hours slept on average during my first week home. Oh, the sweet delight of sleeping in! -0 talks in church (hahaha!!!!) -1 new nephew! Welcome to the world Krohn Baby Boy #3

Final note:

I guess I will just see you on Wednesday morning. I can't wait to see you all! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!! Hna. Pelton

Word of the Week: despedirse (to say goodbye)

This was a full week with lots of memorable events. Event #1: road trip to Mendoza…again. Yes, we had to unexpectedly go to Mendoza again this week. This time, so I could update my visa information so the church doesn’t get fined when I leave the country next week. Essentially, I, with about 5 other elders, stood in lines all morning in order to get our fingers printed and to sign on a few dotted lines. It was a very weird day though because Hna. Goddard stayed in the office with the mission nurse while I left with all the elders. I felt so lonely not having my companion there to chat with and make random comments and laugh with. It was a real wake up call for me and what life will be like in the next few days….weird! Event #2: Final interview with President Avila I was so nervous for this final interview. I had no idea what to expect. I wrote my final little paper about my mission experience, but had a really hard time putting into words what this past year and a half has meant to me. As I sat with President Avila, he shared some counsel with me and then asked me to share a powerful experience I’d had on my mission. I was a little caught off guard—there have been so many, yet so few—but as I calmed down, the spirit whispered to me which experience I needed to share. Now I can see that I needed to share that experience for my own benefit and not for that of President Avila´s. The spirit testified to me, as I shared my experience, that I have done enough, that I did my best and that the Lord accepted my service and sacrifice. Everything President Avila said to me was exactly what I needed to hear so the spirit could confirm and testify to me of my role as a missionary and to cast out the doubts and worries I had about my weaknesses in serving Him. I felt completely saturated in His love, as if I were a small child wrapped up in the arms of their perfectly loving father. I sobbed as the interview ended and President Avila just looked at me with a big smile on his face and said, “You haven’t even been released yet. You can still go out and be a missionary.” He told me that there are lots of emotions when you end a mission—that might be the biggest understatement of the century!! About every 5 minutes I flip-flop between being excited to go home and sad to leave Argentina and the people and culture I’ve grown into. It will be rough to leave, despite however excited I am for the next chapter of my life. I’ve waited my whole life to serve the Lord by being a missionary and here I am, at the end of that dream. It’s sad to see that dream end, though I trust that the Lord has great things in store for me and my family. What a blessing it has been for me to have such loving and supportive parents and family members who helped me keep going, even when I felt like there was nothing more to give. Thank you. Event #3: Zoe’s baptism! Yesterday’s baptism was PERFECT! Not one hiccup! Like usual, we were running on Argentine, Mormon Standard Time, so nobody showed up (including Zoe) until about 6:20 or 6:30, when the baptism was scheduled to start at 6pm. Hna. Goddard and I started filling the font with the lovely San Luis famous green water (when the fonts are filled, the water is an algae-ish green color….yes…Zoe didn’t want to get in it at first.) and then we went back to our apartment to pick up the goodies we’d made to share afterwards. We had a good little group of members, including quite a few primary kids, of about 20 people. Marcela (Zoe’s mom) had tears in her eyes the whole meeting. Zoe was quite nervous and wasn’t her normal bubbly self, but everything worked out just fine. She practiced with Elder Evans before getting into the font, which helped calm her nerves. All went quite smoothly in the end. After Zoe finished changing and came back to her seat, 4 cute girls from the primary stood up and sang a surprise song about the Holy Ghost before Zoe was confirmed. It really hit me of the simple truths that we learn as we listen to children singing. Their testimonies seem almost more pure as they valiantly declare through song eternal truths that, we, as adults, are likely to ignore or downplay. Their song invited the spirit into the meeting with more power. As I sat there during the meeting, trying to soak up every last ounce of the experience and the spirit, I was sincerely touched by the warmth of the spirit that filled the room and my heart. It has been a long time since I’ve been to a baptism where, right afterwards, they are also confirmed. Being that Zoe got baptized on Sunday (since it was her birthday), the bishop let her get confirmed right after. The spirit was so strong in the room after. Everyone was perfectly still and quiet as they respectfully uttered their “amen” in agreement. I was so impressed by the power of the influence of the spirit in filling the room, but most impressively, as it filled my heart to overflowing. The miracles continued. After the closing prayer, we brought out our yummy goodies and started snacking and laughing and having a good time. Between spilled soda pop and crushed potato chips, Reuben (Zoe’s non-member father), leaned over to me and asked me where he could get a copy of the movie we watched while Zoe was changing. We had watched a few segments of the Special Witnesses of Christ video the church did quite a few years ago with President Hinckley. Reuben just looked at me and said, “I just watched a few, but it kind of left me hanging.” We lent him the copy we had brought and he gratefully accepted it with the promise to watch it and promptly return it. It was so sweet to see his support and love towards Zoe, especially since he is not a member. The Lord has been working wonders in this family recently. Reuben will get baptized. I’m so glad I listened to the spirit who whispered the name of that movie so the spirit could testify to Reuben and soften his heart that much more to accept the Restored Gospel in the appropriate moment. Reuben, after all was said and done, came up to Hna. Goddard and I and shook our hands and repeatedly thanked us for the change we had inspired in his family. He told us that we had done wonderful things in helping his family and that he would be eternally grateful for what we did for them. I was so touched. They are small moments like that which make all the pain and discomfort of a mission worth it. As I stood there, all I could say to him was that it was our privilege to be a part of the process and to have been welcomed into their home as other family members. The spirit whispered to me of the Lord’s work in changing this family, and not of my own strength. I truly felt like we did nothing, that the spirit worked through us even when we weren’t conscious of it, and converted this entire family and helped them be one step further along the path towards an eternal family It’s overwhelming to think that this might be my last official letter home as Hermana Pelton. There are so many things in my heart that I want to express, yet I find myself without words. I recently came across a quote that was shared with me while I was in the MTC. When I read it, I felt as if it perfectly expressed what I feel right now, as I look back on the past year and a half of my life and the years that preceded this pivotal experience of my life. “I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, or be still. My past is redeemed. My present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low-living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need pre-eminence, positions, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk with patience, am uplifted by prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my gate is fast, my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few. My guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, or let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the cause of Christ. I must go until He comes, give until I drop, preach until all know. And when He returns for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My banner will be clear.” -Henry B. Eyring. I love you all! Hna. Pelton

Word of the Week: “Morcilla” (Blood sausage)

As my word of the week might suggest, this was a unique week here in San Luis—to say the least. Hna. Goddard and I had a great cultural fill as we learned how to make homemade alfajores (traditional sandwich cookie with dulce de leche) and then tried some morcilla. The Godoy family is a ward member family that was recently reactived and who recently went to the temple in Santiago, Chile to be sealed as a family. They are really sweet and have huge hearts. Hna. Godoy, is a great cook, so we asked her to teach us of her delicious ways. This week, we went over to their house one evening and she taught us how to make alfajores. Early in the week we ate lunch with them and planned it all out. I love eating lunch with them because we always have the most random conversations. This week, we talked about going hunting and fishing. Needless to say, Hna. Goddard and I learned a whole bunch of new words, particularly in regards to native Argentine wildlife, thanks to the aid of Google Image Search. Thank goodness for modern technology. We also had fun watching them find their house and the local church building on Google Earth. During this fun hunting/animal conversation, the topic of weird foods eating on our mission came up. I told them of how I had never eaten anything weird in the course of my mission, only a little bit of cow stomach in soup. I told them that I wanted to try just a little bit of this blood sausage stuff because lots of people had said it was good. After a few bites, I was done and had had my fill. It wasn’t disgusting, but it was not something I would ever crave in my life. Check that one off of the life to-do list. We also were invited to have dinner with the Serra Family from Amppya (my first area). Hno. Serra is in the stake presidency here and they are an amazing family! They have become another family to me. When we got there, while they were finishing cooking, Hna. Goddard and I taught Martina (their 11 year old daughter) how to play Phase 10. It was just like being at home! We joked all throughout dinner and planned what Augustina and I are going to do (their 16 year old daughter) when she comes to stay in Utah for 3 months from December to February. It was hard to say goodbye to them, not knowing if I will ever see them again. What a blessing they have been to me not only over the course of my mission, but in my life. It’s amazing to think that I’ve lived my entire life until now without knowing these people who have changed who I am. I makes one wonder what other people are out there that we are supposed to meet… This week, Evelyn didn’t do much progressing. She finished reading 1 Nephi and has been praying and asking the Lord if she should get baptized on the 17th, but essentially she has cold feet. She is ready and very prepared, but just too nervous to take the step. To make matters worse, we went by Sunday morning to help her get to church with all her little kids, and she wasn’t feeling good, so she didn’t get to church. We were really sad, but had to remind ourselves of our role as missionaries and the importance of Evelyn’s personal agency. In other investigator news, ZOE IS GETTING BAPTIZED! This has been such a huge miracle! (knock on wood). Last week, Hna. Goddard and I made a study calendar for Zoe to get her exciting for her baptism and to help her feel more personally prepared. I was a little nervous that it wouldn’t work like we wanted, but this week, it worked like a charm! If not better than we had hoped! Zoe has been faithfully reading her scriptures everyday and answering the study question along with each verse. She is excited to share what she’s read with us and her little sister is just as excited and she’s not even getting baptized. I feel like we are a part of their family now. I love it! Whenever we get up to leave, Mia (the little sister) runs over to me, wraps her arms around me and whines saying that she doesn’t want me to go. We then give each other butterfly kisses (with our eyelashes) instead of the usual Argentine beso and then the separation isn’t as traumatizing. J This week was particularly miraculous, not just with Zoe’s progressing, but that of her entire family. Marcela, Zoe’s mother, is a returned missionary who is unofficially married to a non-member man as of the past 11 years or so. She kind of went inactive, but was reactivated by some hermanas last year. Zoe was taught by MULTIPLE missionaries over the past 2 years, and has never been committed to getting baptized (until now that is). Marcela just looked at me this week and told me that the most important thing I have done in my mission is help her daughter get baptized because it has been quite the challenge. Marcela has been telling everyone of the change that has occurred in their family over the past month, especially the change in Zoe. This week, they had a family crisis when they family dog (Balto) got lost when the gate to their house wasn’t closed all the way and she escaped. This is the family dog they bought for Zoe when she was 3 years old and is another member of their fanily. Reuben (the dad) spent all day looking for the dog, he even sacrificed a day of work to find her with no success. When he got back to their house late Friday night after searching all day, he saw Zoe’s scriptures open on the table and sat down and started flipping through them. With everyone asleep, Reuben went outside to the patio and knelt down to pray (keep in mind that he is not a member). He told us how he just cried to the Lord that He guide him to where the dog was, that he would find her alive because his daughters were so devastated by the loss. He told us later that he’s never prayed so sincerely or so fervently in his entire life. With tears in his eyes, as he told just Hna. Goddard, Zoe and I of this experience, he testified that he knows that God answers the prayers of the sincere in heart. The next morning, after praying, Reuben got up and went straight out to look for the dog some more. He ended up by Wal-Mart where a man asked him how he was doing. Reuben replied and told him that he wasn’t doing so great because he had lost a family member and that two little girls were horribly sad. This man offered to let Reuben make an announcement on the radio about their lost dog and within 5 minutes, all sorts of phone calls started coming in. Within a little more time, Reuben found their dog with the help of the people of the community. We were at their house when Reuben brought Balto back home. He came back inside a few minutes later and asked to imterrupt our lesson to share his experience with us. I was so touched by his sincerity, this big man who normally just says hi and bye to us, who impatiently waits for us to finish our spiritual thought when we have lunch with him and his family. For some, this may not seem like that miraculous of an experience, but I know that the Lord heard the prayer of His son and is softening his heart so one day, Reuben will join his daughter in the waters of baptism. The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways. To sum things up, the Lord truly prepares the hearts of His children. Not only has He been preparing Zoe to get baptized now and the hearts of her family members to see such miracles, but He has been preparing me and Hna. Goddard to be effective tools in reaching Zoe when no other set of missionaries could. Everything that has happened to me through the course of my mission and up until now in my life has made me who the Lord needed to be so Zoe could be ready to get baptized. Her mom told us about how Zoe was saying that she wants to serve a misson now and that she’s already planning so she can be spiritually prepared for that step in her life. Woohoo! Love to you all, Hna. Pelton

Word of the week: “esmalte” (finger nail polish)

Yes, for the first time in nearly a year and a half, I painted my finger nails…don’t worry….I only painted them clear, but man was it so refreshing!!!!! I have been feeling so girlie, that I went out and bought a cute little dress as well…woohoo! This was an odd week because Hna. Goddard and I had to go to Mendoza for a training meeting with President Avila and the Assistants as a follow-up training for all the new missionaries (and their trainers) in their second transfer. So, we jumped on a bus early Wednesday morning and rode for 4 hours to then have lunch and a 2 hour training meeting, just to jump back on the bus for another 4 hours. We got back to our apartment around 11pm…lovely! Needless to say, the week was a little off, but Evelyn and Zoe are still progressing along quite well, and that’s all that matters at this point. Hna. Goddard and I had been thinking a lot about Zoe and the situation between her and her parents regarding her baptism. On our long adventure to Mendoza, we had lots of time to think about how to help Zoe and her parents get ready for her baptism. When we got back to San Luis and in communication with Zoe and her mom, we were able to discuss the situation with her mom. When I told her mother that Zie can answer all of the baptismal interview questions and then asked her if she thought Zoe was ready to be baptized, she relied quickly with a straight “no.” I was shocked. We set up an appointment to visit them the following day, and then we started thinking extra hard. We settled on the idea to make Zoe a calendar with scriptures to read every day that relate to the baptismal interview questions. Each day, after completing the reading assignment, she will be able to put a little sticker to mark it off. She loved the idea (as did her mother). We were even sure to ask her mother if she felt like Zoe would be prepared to be baptized in 2 weeks if she did all her tasks on the calendar. She told us yes….WOOHOO! I couldn’t have been more excited! Zoe came to church on Sunday and we even started talking about her baptism with some of the other primary kids! Things are looking good with her! Evelyn was a bit of a rollercoaster ride this week. After her Sunday experience, we were sure she would just slide right into the baptismal font on her baptismal date, but that’s not what she was thinking. We went over to her house Monday night to chat a little bit more about her experience at church, but she received us with a very cold attitude and with quite a bit of scepticism. First, we asked her how she’d been doing with her goal to stop smoking and drinking tea. She just laughed and said straight out that she had smoked with a friend Sunday night and that there was no way she was going to be able to give up her tea because she just didn’t understand why she couldn’t drink tea since it doesn’t do her any harm. I felt crushed, but just reminded her of the importance of praying and having a testimony of Joseph Smith in regards to commandments that may seem difficult for us to understand the Lord’s reasoning. She then jumped in with some questions about tithing (since that was the Gospel Principles lesson in church). She asked if she had to pay tithing, to which we told her no, not until she was baptized. She just laughed and said, “well then, I just won’t get baptized….” I wanted to die. Something had to be wrong…how could she say that when she’d been progressing so well and when she had been raving about how much she loved church!?!?! I was just confused and more than a little bit sad. We left her house a little defeated, but hopefully that she would keep reading in the Book of Mormon and praying like we re-invited her to do. When we went back to Evelyn’s house on Thursday morning, we went having prayed and studied and planned very carefully a lesson specially tailored for her about tithing. I was very nervous, but the spirit helped me stay calm and kept telling me that everything would work out. I just wanted to go and see her as she has become someone so special to me. The lesson started out kind of cold like the one earlier in the week, but I tried to stay cheerful and positive. Within a few minutes, as she was putting shoes on one of her son’s, she started to relate to us about the chapters she had read in the Book of Mormon. I was thrilled! She even said that she stopped drinking tea and that she hadn’t smoked either! It was as if she changed 180 degrees, back to the Evelyn we first met. It was such a relief! We taught her about tithing and she accepted the invitation to pay tithing without any problem. It literally was a miracle! She shared some interesting thoughts with us about her church experience, one thought in particular stood out to me. She told us how “well off” she viewed the members in the church building. Even though surely they were all struggling in their lives in one way or another, she said that everyone seemed happy and like they had a reason to hope. She compared that to the people who are in serious need who go to the Catholic Church to cry and pray and they leave the cathedral just as bad off as when they went in. She didn’t see that at all in the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That really struck me. How perceptive she was in seeing something that is not necessarily a message we share through words, but is definitely shown through our example. What a testimony it was to me of the true importance of our example, even when we aren’t doing anything in particular, we are still sending forth a clear message, just as simply as the way in which we carry ourselves and the bright light that shines through our eyes. We may not recognize it in ourselves, but those who are searching for this light, will be drawn to the brightness that radiates from within us. This week should be a normal week (though in reality, what week is ever “normal”?). I’m particularly looking forward to the Family Home Evening we have planned with a ward family who offered to teach us how to make alfajores! (a traditional sandwich cookie). Woohoo! Thanks for all your love and support. I will see you all in just a few short weeks! Start practicing your Spanish!!!! ¡Los amo muchísimo! Hna. Pelton

Word of the week: ¡Che! (translation: Dude!)

This was an AMAZING week! The Lord truly blessed us this week as we saw miracle after miracle. I’m still so excited about this past week! I’ll start with Zoe. Zoe is an almost 11 year old girl whose mother is a returned missionary and her father is not a member. Zoe has been taught the missionary lessons a bunch of times by a wide variety of hermanas and elders. Her past two recent baptism attempts fell through at the last minute, when the day before, she got cold feet. So, Hna. Goddard and I are taking her on. We talked with her mom to try and figure out what was going on—as if maybe her parents didn’t want her to get baptized or something. In talking with her mom, with Zoe and seeing them interact…we’ve figured it out! Zoe is almost 11, but looks like a 16 year old at least. Her mother is TINY TINY TINY!!!! As a result, she treats Zoe like an adult, or like she should be able to make big life changing decisions without the help or support of her parents. As a return missionary, Marcela (the mom), wants to make sure that Zoe is absolutely prepared for her baptism and that it is 100% Zoe’s choice and nobody elses. The problem is, Zoe is 10 years old! I was chatting with Zoe yesterday while Hna. Goddard talked about books with Marcela and Zoe told me that she just feels a lot of pressure from her mom. In essence, Zoe feels like she doesn’t know enough because her mom keeps telling her that she needs to be preparing. In 10 year old girl mind, the equals knowing more. Zoe is so sweet and can answer all the baptismal interview questions without problems. So, now we are in this awkward position where we need to talk to Marcela and tell her to lighten up on her daughter and to tell her that she thinks that it’s a great idea that Zoe wants to get baptized, rather than saying to Zoe’s response that she wants to get baptized, “well, that just surprises me. You better start working really hard to get ready then…” Zoe is struggling to read that as a loving message. Needless to say, Zoe and I (as well as her 5 year old sister) and I have become best friends. Saturday night, in preparation for her coming to church again on Sunday, we went over and straightened her LONG dark hair (note: her mother took a picture afterwords of all of us, but Argentines aren’t good photographers, and thus the photo has been causally withdrawn). It was a lot of fun and helped Zoe be that much more excited to come to church. Her non-member dad who hasn’t been to church since I’ve been here in San Luis, came to church as well! It was a real miracle! The miracle of the week will be in talking to Marcela and getting her more on our side. Miracle number 2: Evelyn So, Evelyn is so amazing! This week, her kids have all been sick with weird allergic reactions, colds, coughs, etc. which translated into a week of not really reading in the Book of Mormon, except when we went over the visit her. That was kind of a let down from last week, but she took MAJOR steps forward in other ways! We taught her about the Word of Wisdom on Thursday, not anticipating any problems seeing as we’ve never seen any evidence of things that would pose as problems in her home. She first told us about how she loves drinking tea, though that one was rather easily overcome by telling her that she can just drink more mate (traditional Argentine hot drink like tea, but using a grass like herb). Then, right as we were kinda finishing up, she told us that she is a social smoker, but lately with all the medical stresses from her children, she has started smoking more. Thankfully, the most she smokes (from what she told us) is 2 cigarettes a day. As we were teaching at 7pm, she still hadn’t smoked all day, so we told her that we would bring her over cookies the following day if she didn’t smoke for the entire 24 hours. When we got to her house the next day, I was, to say the least, a little nervous, especially when she didn’t come to the door. We called her, and sure enough, she was at home and just didn’t hear us knocking. So, we chatted with her….and…..she hadn’t smoked or drank any tea!!!! We were thrilled. I made sure to cheer extra loud and make her feel a little embarrassed. I was so excited!!!! We ended up chatting for a few more minutes, and she gave us some more details about her life, because, in her words, “we’re friends.” I really feel like Evelyn and I are friends and it’s great! Evelyn was just full of great miracles this week. We got to church early to wait for Evelyn outside, because she said she was coming and wanted to make sure that we would be there. So, we waited outside in the Spring sun. We waited, waited, waited….I started getting really antsy and nervous….and more antsy…..and then…..there she came! (wearing my cute blue blouse with the tie in the back). I was THRILLED! We gave her big hugs and walked her into church. The talks were SO PERFECT, as if we would have told the members what Evelyn specifically needed to hear. She was just beaming after the meeting ended. It was incredible! To make a long story short, after church, we walked her outside and de-briefed for a moment with her and she told us that she just absolutely loved church and the spirituality of it all. She followed it up by saying that she wants to keep coming to church and learning more! We were speechless! We are hopefully going over to visit her tonight! I can’t wait! Needless to say, we’ve been walking on cloud 9 for the past few hours and counting our many blessings! We still have lots more work to do, but the Lord is doing the hard part. This week, Hna. Goddard and I are going to Mendoza for an afternoon for some follow-up info for the new training program. Should be a fun little break from brown San Luis, though it does mean that we won’t be able to see our investigators. I’m just hoping that we can sneak in a trip to Subway for a yummy sandwich… Hope all is well…and things have stopped shaking and flooding in the home land. Love to you all! Hna. Pelton

bodyWord of the Week:espías (spies...in honor of the "spy" pictures we take of things sneakily on the street)

This was a fabulous teaching week for Hna. Goddard and I. Our area is starting to perk up and we are finally seeing some people progress. Here are the week’s highlights: -Mariela: She is the sister of an active woman in the ward whose oldest son is waiting for his mission call. Mariela has heard from missionaries, but about 8 years ago. She has also been greatly expoused to the church by her sister and her sister’s family. She let us into her home last week and again this week more as a courtesy than a desire to learn. This week, we were really trying to get to the bottom of things and help her see why her sister wanted us to come and visit her. So, we started talking with her and verifying to see if she’d been praying. She then went on to tell us how it would be impossible for her to become “mormon” because her live-in boyfriend is Catholic and not open to other religions. She also said that she doesn’t agree with some of the doctrines of the church, to which I asked her to specify. She told me that she believes that all people, no matter their religion, will be accepted back into God’s presence when they die. We then jumped into the Plan of Salvation with her, of which she’d never heard of. I have never taught/participated in a more powerful lesson about the Plan of Salvation. As I was explaining to her that God loves us as His children, but would cease to be God if He were to let some children back into His presence because they will not be clean. He being a perfectly clean being, cannot permit even the smallest amount of sin. Us, all being sinners, must be cleaned by Christ to be permitted into God’s presence again. God so desperately wants us to come back to Him, that He’s given us all the tools to do so, but we must accept those tools and use them daily (including the scriptures, prophets, church meetings, etc). But most of all, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church with the authority to baptize and therefore cleanse us from the sins we commit. So , if we are baptized in any other church or attend any other church, we will not be clean and God will sadly have to tell us that we are not clean to come into His presence. Mariela sat there speechless, looking at the pamphlet. She had nothing to say. She only said, “well, I’ve never heard about this before.” It was such an edifying and testimony building experience for me as the Plan of Salvation really clicked in my mind and became more of a loving opportunity for us to be clean and earn eternal life with God. Mariela was crying by the end of the lesson. Unfortunately, she is hard to track down, but we are visiting her this week and are eager to build on what we established this past week. Louisa: We were knocking doors Saturday night and got into a home of a young, single mom. She had a friend there who eagerly listened to us. These two young moms just chatted back and forth about all the problems in the Catholic church—how confused they are that you have to pay to have a child baptized when Christ was baptized for free. So, we taught them about the Restoration. Louisa (the friend), then asked us to see the Bible and started flipping through it. She randomly opened the book and pointed to a verse that referred to exactly what we were sharing in that moment. She also shared with us about a reoccuring dream she had where an angelic messanger came to her home, knocked on her door and told her to be to a certain place by 10am. She ran as fast as she could to get there. She got to a big, tall, white buliding, ran in and found hundreds of doors with different names on them. She said that she was confused and didn’t know what door she should go into. She finally found the door where Christ was and she just begged him to let her in because she thought she had arrived late, but he reassured her that she had arrived early. Her dream sounded just like missionaries teaching her the gospel, including the fact that church starts a 9:30 am (just before 10). She too, cried softly as we bore testimony of the true, restored church to her. She instantly knew that she was feeling the spirit. It was an awesome lesson, the only down side is that she doesn’t live in our area…. Evelyn: So, we were able to teach Evelyn multiple times this week and I don’t think I’ve seen someone so prepared to hear the gospel since Monica got baptized in San Rafael! When we got to her house this week, she hadn’t had time to read in the Book of Mormon, so we read a little with her, re-testified, promised her blessings, and re-invited her. When we went back to her house later that week, she’d read to 1 Nephi 10! We were shocked, but what was ever more shocking was how she could remember everything that she read, down to the smallest of details. She told us how she had already noticed that she has more positive thoughts now and that she is more calm and that she can fall asleep more easily now. She said she would have kept reading all night, but wanted to read more for comprehension than just to read it. When we went back and visited her a few days later, she was in 1 Nephi 17. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. We went back on Saturday and taught her about what we do in church on Sunday and even brought over some clothes for her to try on because she didn’t want to go since she doesn’t own a skirt. We played dress up wih her and she was so excited. Unfortunately, something happened and she didn’t make it to church, but we are hopeful for this upcoming weekend. It was quite the miracle though. I asked her if she knows the Book of Mormon is true, to which she replied that she hadn’t prayed yet, but that she was sure that it is. We re-committed her to pray and she easily agreed. We are really excited to keep working with her and help her continue improving her situation in life. It was such a miracle for us this week! After no one progressing for so long, then to have her read nearly 20 chapters in about a week when all we had committed her to read was the introduction! We are thrilled and very grateful! Gyspsies: we taught a group of Evangelical gypsies this week…and even got a few spy pictures while they were crossing the street before we followed them and knocked on their door. It was one of the weirdest experiences of my mission for a number of reasons, but it was particularly weird because they lived in a big, metal warehouse that they hung cloth inside along the walls, and they spoke in some random, d ifferent language. It was so weird! Hna. Goddard and I just left totally confused and dazed. It was cool though. Elders: the hermanas and elders were switched, so now there are elders that work in our ward with us as well. It’s a blast! Elder Evans is now in our ward (he was in my MTC district). It’s cool to see the change that has taken place in him over the course of his mission and it’s nice to see a familiar face. I think those are the best highlights from the week. Things are going well here…it’s been cold this week, but at least there has been plenty of sun. Love you, Hna. Pelton

Word of the week: “ultimo traslado” (last transfer)

This week was a great week to end the transfer and start my last transfer as Hna. Pelton. WEIRD! We discovered an untouched neighborhood in our area, so naturally, we knocked nearly every door and found lots of cool people! We found one woman named Evelyn (about 25 years old) who is a young mom currently suffering from depression. We were able to share the Book of Mormon with her and went back to follow up with her a few days later, but she hadn’t read. We re-testified to her and by the end, she was flipping through the book and telling us how much she hopes she can feel what we feel when we read the Book of Mormon. Yesterday was the obligatory, national elections day (for their president), so church attendance was a little rough because all adults are required to vote in specifically assigned locations and if they don’t, they are fined. The problem then is that you have to stand and wait in line, sometimes for a long time, before you can vote. It was hard to tell people to not worry about it and to just come to church. Hopefully this upcoming weekend will be better for getting people to church. But, back to Evelyn—when we went to her house last night, we had a FABULOUS lesson with her where we went back and explained the restoration to her and how we have the Book of Mormon. It was a very unique lesson for a couple of reasons: firstly, I apparently have arrived…my facial expressions that I did all the time at home have crossed over and apparently I am unknowingly making those faces again. Evelyn just thought I was so funny and just kept cracking up. Someone called her and when she answered the phone, she even told her friend that he/she needed to meet us because we were so funny. She even asked her friend if she could give us his/her address. Hahahaha! It only took me about a year and a half, but I guess I’ve finally become myself as a missionary…in another language. Hahahaha! Ok, but on a spiritual note, I tried to control my funny faces as we taught her and the spirit was really strong. Hna. Goddard thinks that it’s weird to share the First Vision experience (as it, recite the memorized verses), while I think it is the most powerful tool that we have for inviting the spirit into a lesson. So, she glazed over sharing that experience, but I felt that we should really share his words, so I recited it to Evelyn and just was quiet as I finished…for a few seconds. The room was absolutely still. I testified to her about Joseph Smith and the restoration and then asked her how she felt. She just kinda giggled and said that she didn’t know how to describe how she felt, but she felt weird. So, I asked her if she felt peaceful, happy, hopeful, to which she agreed. We then we able to testify to her, right in that moment, that she was receiving her answer that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God to restore the truth. It was a great lesson and a great reminder to me of the importance of the first vision. We also found another young mom named Rosa, who is angry at God because her mother died about 10 years ago. We shared with her a little about the Plan of Salvation, since she had never wondered about where she came from or why she is here on the earth, but she had often wondered what happened afterword. She literally had no idea and no opinion, though being Catholic, she likely believes in the concept of heaven and hell. As we were sharing and testifying to her about what our Heavenly Father has provided for us as a guide for our lives and the kingdoms of glory, she scooted her chair over closer to us so she could see what we were explaining out of the pamphlet better and so she could hear us better over her young son playing in the background. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she told us how angry she has been at God for taking away her mother and how she struggles to believe in the Catholic church. We have an appointment with her tonight and I am really anxious to meet with her again. She asked us if we were going to invite her to church---YES! PLEASE! Her husband was just sitting there in the background playing on facebook and had no interest in listening to us, but she was quite attentive. We also saw great blessings this week in terms of member references! Franco, a recent convert (18 years old) who just decided that he wants to serve a mission, hooked us up with his cousin. We went over and taught Claudia with Franco and it was a great lesson! We let him testify and explain concepts to her, so he could practice and so Claudia could feel the testimony of her cousin. The lesson went really well and when we saw Franco at church yesterday, he told us that Claudia liked the lesson and wants us to come back sometime! Woohoo! Transfers are this week on Wednesday. As of right now, we don’t know for certain what is happening, but I’m 99.9% sure that I will be staying here with Hna. Goddard in San Luis to finish the training program with her and to wrap up my mission experience. I’m excited to stay because I have lots of friends in the ward and the members are finally starting to have more confidence in us. I’ve been trying to be extra happy and extra loving with the members over the past transfer and it’s really paying off! If nothing else, the members seem happier and we are happier knowing that we have a family away from our own family. Not much else to report. Hna. Goddard and I are excited to start a little “bucket” list of things that we want to do together before I go home. For example, each day we are going to draw a “task” out of a jar that will be our challenge for the day. One of these tasks is to find the ugliest dog. Another is to contact someone riding a bike. And yet another is to take a picture of the other companion doing some street contacts. It should be fun and help keep us energetic as the weather is starting to warm up. Thanks for all your love and support. See you all soon! Hna. Pelton

Word of the week: "ejercer la fe" (to exercise faith)

This week has been beautiful here in San Luis, with warm weather and nothing resembling winter, even in the slightest. This week was a little frustrating in regards to our investigators; we are teaching great people, but either we can’t find them, or they are just not progressing and keeping up with their commitments. This week, Hna. Goddard and I tried a different tactic and tried to have an extra focus on the people we have recently found and taught and on getting them to progress. Unfortunately, we didn’t see many fruits from our efforts. We all seem stumped, as do our leaders, so we are just pressing along and trying to make the best of the situation and at least do our part. This week was zone conference and President Avila came here to San Luis with the assistants and taught us about how to study effectively for our investigators and how to get the members excited to participate in the work. It was a filled day; I felt like the Lord greatly answered my recent prayers about how to help our area perk back up. Hopefully this week, as we are able to apply the things that we were taught, we will see some fruits of our efforts. Last Sunday, a woman from the ward came up to us after Sacrament meeting and pleaded that we go and visit her very inactive son and his non-member wife because they are currently having marital problems. When we finally tracked them down and found their house, we were surprisingly greeted with open arms by the non-member wife. Celeste has apparently been taught by a number of missionary companionships, but is not quite convinced. She is very sweet (reminds me a lot of my sisters because she’s about their age) and loving and looking for help as she is struggling to make some life changing decisions in regards to her marriage and the future of her two young daughters. We taught her about the strength we receive as we commit ourselves to the Lord through baptism and the great counsel we receive through the Lord’s words. When we visited her just a couple of days later, she hadn’t kept up her commitment, but recognizes that it is something she wants, but that she must motivate herself to do it. We got her all excited to come to church, but even though her mother-in-law went by to pick her up, she didn’t come. We were really disappointed because she has family and friends who are members and she’s gone to church before and now more than ever, she is looking for spiritual strength, yet she didn’t come. We were really sad, but knew that we had done our best to teach her by the spirit and commit her to act. We have an appointment with her tonight, so hopefully we’ll be able to reach out to her and figure out how to help her reach her personal spiritual goals. This week, as I was studying about Celeste and about the questions and doubts she has, the spirit enriched my understanding about the principle of faith. Faith is a principle that has way more depth and much more significance and power than I tend to give it. As I was thinking about faith and the way the prophets describe faith, mainly that we must “exercise” it, I thought about what that word—exercise—really means. Let’s see, what first comes to mind when someone says “exercise”?: tired, work, muscles, effort, consistency , charts to track your progress, etc. Now if we take those same ideas and apply them to faith, we get a little clearer perspective of what faith entails in order to have power to move mountains in our lives. The word exercise would suggest that, just like physically exercising our muscles builds muscle, actively exercising our faith builds more faith. If we are exercising our faith well and effectively, we will be tired at the end. But, just like our physical bodies, our spiritual bodies bounce back. We may not notice that we have more strength the next day or even a week later, but as we consistently exercise and make faith a habit in our lives, we will be able to look back one day and we will recognize that now we have more faith “strength” than we had before. But it won’t be easy…we will betired, but we will be able to chart our progress over the weeks as we consistently set our mind to the task and dominate our natural fears and disbelief. Next week is transfers, and we are 99.9% sure that Hna. Goddard and I will stay companions here in San Luis, since the new training program is 12 weeks long (or two transfers), but there is always that random chance that things get mixed up, though, it’s probably not likely in this situation. Hope all are well and happy at home. Thank you so much for your love and support, especially in these final weeks! Love you, Hna. Pelton

Word of the week: Sentir sabores (to taste flavors)

Yes, I am happy to report that I have recently restarted to taste my food....thank goodness! It's quite the cruel joke to be a missionary in a foreign country and not be able to taste all the food you are eating. I am happy to report, that in celebration of this happy ocassion, Hna. Goddard and I went to "Candilandia" and bought $1 worth of candy to eat....since I could taste it! YUM! I still have an annoying cough that is lingering with me....but at least I can taste again! This week was a great teaching week! We were really focusing on asking good questions and focusing on the person rather than just on the lesson. This new training program for the new missionaries has been great for me and my personal growth as a missionary. I find myself trying to be a better quality missionary and focusing more on "being" a misisonary rather than just "doing" missionary things. I put my trust in the Lord especially this week knowing that He would give us the people to teach so we could put into practice what we've been working on this week during our companionship study. The week started out kind of slow and difficult because we couldn't find our investigators, but the Lord greatly blessed us as the week went on! We taught some AMAZING lessons this week, probably by far the best lessons that I've participated in over the course of my entire mission--the Spirit was present and very much so directing the lessons, the words that we said, and the love that we showed. It was all so perfect, like it had come off of a missionary training video! They were great experiences personally and to show to a missionary new in the field. Unfortunately, the people we taught these great, spiritual lessons are clinging to their Catholic traditional backgrounds, but at least we know we did our part and that the spirit testified to them of the truthfulness of what we were saying. It will all work together some day. In one particular situation, we were knocking doors right before the lunch hour (which is the WORST time to knock) because our appointments fell through. We weren't having any luck, until a man let us in to his home. He was kinda awkward and really was just being polite in not slamming the door in our faces, but didn't seem to have any interest in the message we were offering. We sat down and, while trying to be friendly and nice (coughing along the way), we found out that he is recently divorced and lives now with his sister and his kids come and visit him every once in a while. We started teaching him about the Restoration, but it was a very one sided lesson--we may as well have been teaching a cardboard cut out of a man. Thankfully (and I say thankfully in this situation only because it helped us fix the lesson), the phone rang and Sergio went to answer it. I looked at Hna. Goddard and just made this weird face at her like "this lesson is useless! we're not getting to him and I'm not really feeling like this is a very inspired lesson." So, I started looking around his house, trying to think of what we were going to do to save this lesson so it wasn't just a number in our agenda at the end of the day. I noticed that he had a big Bible sitting on a bookshelf in the corner of the room. When he came back and started listening to us again, I asked him about his Bible and if he likes reading the Bible. From this, a number of follow up questions came into my mind and within a few minutes, we had discovered that he stopped going to the Catholic church because he didn't feel anything when he went. He told us how he didn't feel elevated or uplifted when he went to church, so he felt that it was a waste of time and started looking for those fulfilling feelings in other means. He brought out a self-help type book that he's been reading to fill that need in his life. The lesson changed in that moment and the spirit started working very powerfully. I've recently come to discover that when I'm teaching with the spirit, new analogies and examples come to my mind. It's very opposite of who I am and my usual way of teaching (ie: preparing, practicing, thinking things all the way through...not coming up with things on the spot). But in this moment, a great analogy came into my head and it fit perfectly into the lesson and really helped Sergio understand the point and doctrine we were trying to teach him. Here's what the spirit whispered to me (maybe because I've been sick for the past week). -Why do we go to the doctor or the hospital when we are sick? Aren't there lots of sick people there? People that have worse illnesses and problems than we have? But we go to the doctor anyway because we know that the doctors have the knowledge, tools, and the "right" to help us get better, to operate on us when necessary. When I'm really sick, I don't go to the man down the street and ask him to operate on me or give me medications because he isn't authorized to treat people medically and he doesn't have the tools to treat my specific illness. Despite all the diseases floating around in the hopsital, I'm going there because I know that I can trust the doctors because they have received "permission" (for the lack of better wording) to treat people and their different illnesses. Spiritually, we are all sick--some have spiritual illness more grave than others. Like when we are sick, we aren't going to go to same random man down the street to have him heal us (physically or spiritually)....we are going to go to the hopsital, or in the case of a spiritual illness---the church building. We need to go to a place where there are people who have "permission" or the "right" to operate on us spiritually so we can be truly healed. Even though there are all types of spiritually sick people in church, we take the "risk" and go anyway, knowing that the potential cure outweighs the potential illnesses we could catch. The church is a hospital for the spiritually sick. There is no better place to go to be spiritually healed than where Christ is the head doctor and surgen. Like Christ himself proclaimed, He didn't come into the world to save the healthy, but to heal the sick and aren't we all sick spiritually as sinners? I testify that the Lord will enlighten our minds and edify us (D&C 59:20), both those we are testifying to and to ourselves. The Lord will truly give us the words to say in the very moment if we seek His help and are seeking to reach the needs of His children. He truly knows the thoughts and intents of all His children. We ended up sharing the Book of Mormon with Sergio and as we went to mark a part for him to read, he got up, walked over to his bookshelf with the Bible on it and brought back an old copy of the Book of Mormon that apparently other elders had left with him years ago. He told us that other missionaries had left it with him, but it wasn't the right moment in his life, so he never read it. He told us that maybe what he was looking for was in the Book of Mormon and pushed his self help book aside and told us that he would read the Book of Mormon. When we focus on the needs of others, and seek the guidance of the Lord in knowing what to say, having full confidence that He will give us the words to say, He enlightens our minds and we all leave edified. Hna. Goddard asked me where I came up with analogy after we left Sergio's house and were talking about how the teaching went, and I just looked at her and told her that I had no idea, that it had to have come from the Lord because I had never used an analogy like that before and it had never occurred to me before, only in that precise moment, when I asked the Lord to help us save that lesson and help Sergio. It was an amazing experience and very humbling. So, one of the great things about training is that I get to rediscover all the cool, quirky things about Argentina! Just a couple of days ago, I was explaining to Hna. Goddard the process of turning on the hot water to take a shower in the morning. (note: it's been less than 0 degrees here the past few days...so this information is vital). I thought you all might get a kick out of it....ENJOY! 1. Turn on the kitchen sink to the "hot" position. (this helps so more gas flows, making it easier to get the little pilot light to ignite) 2. Light a match. 3. Simulaneously, put the match into the water heater (pilot light opening) and turn on the gas valve below the heater NOTE: because the water heater is located next to the drafty window in the kitchen, there is usual a draft that blows over where you need to light the pilot light in the heater, so, I usual light a candle and leave it on the counter so I don't have to keep relighting 10,000 matches in the process of lighting the heater when the matches get blown out. CAUTION: If the match gets blown out before the pilot light ignites, TURN OFF THE GAS VALVE! If the gas valve is not turned off in this situation and the hot water is left on, gas fills the water heater and in the short amount of time it takes you to light another match and put it in the heater, you will get an explosion....we don't want that. 4. When the pilot light ignites, go to the shower and turn on the hot water. 5. Go back to the kitchen and turn off the kitchen sink so the hot water starts flowing to the bathroom and not to the kitchen sink. 6. Go back to the bathroom, and with a set of pliers, turn on the cold water (since there is no nob for the cold water control) so you don't get burned by the hot water. 7. Don't forget your flip-flops....who knows what that black stuff is growing in the "grout" between the tiles....Hna. Pelton has been on her hands and knees to scrub those tiles and those black slotches don't go away....better be safe than sorry and get out those flip flops. 8. Oh yeah, and when you are done in the shower, leave the water running because if you turn the water off, the little pilot light flame might blow out (since there is that annoying draft from the window) and then we will all die from natural gas!!!! haha...not that dramatic, but the apartment will start smelling a bit like gas within a few minutes. But, if you are the last one showering, turn off the hot water and the cold water (using the pliers again) and then go to the kitchen to turn off the gas valve so the pilot light goes out, 9. Enjoy being clean for the next couple of hours before you go outside and get all dirty again! :) Repeat tomorrow Alright, not much else to report. Taught an elderly couple and adopted them as my Argentine grandparents. Juan cried as he prayed and thanked the Lord for sending him 2 people that we a great relief to him in his stressful life. He had to stop praying because he was too emotionally. I just squeezed his arm and told him that that's why we had come to his home to chat with him and his wife. With wet eyes, he set his hand on mine and just smiled at me. It was such a sweet moment. Love is definately a fruit of the spirit. I have no idea why I asked them if we could adopt them as our Argentine grandparents, but when he started crying, I realized that maybe that's what he needed in that moment, more than anything else we had shared with them. Maybe he just needed to feel the love of the Lord in his life. It's amazing the instant love I feel for people we teach sometimes. It's almost as if I'd known these people for years. That might have been one of my favorite lessons I've ever taught....I felt like the missionary I always dreamed of being. It was a weird and humbling realization. The Lord really does shape us if we set goals with Him. Until next week....Chau! Hna. Pelton

Word of the week: "estoy resfriada" ("I have a cold")

Yes, it happened...I got a cold! Despite what the members at church think, it has nothing to do with my liver, it's not because I go outside without a jacket on, and I don't need a doctor to tell me that I have a cold. Argentines are so funny when it comes to medical concerns, however big or small the situation, it may as well be front page news! The most common assumption for ANY illness (including headaches, stuffy noses, and sore throats), is a problem with your liver....where that idea comes from has left me boggled for the last 16 months and still confuses me! From my limited understanding of human anatomy, in no way is my nose connected with the function of my liver....correct me if I'm wrong. It sure makes for some funny conversations and words of advice from members at church trying to help me get better...hahaha. Nothing that anyone has suggested has made even a dent in my symptoms. I'm convinced that the bugs here can smell American missionaries and they go right to them! I've never had such a bad cold in my entire life! I'm coming to learn how to recognize what foods I'm eating without being able to smell or taste them. It's an interesting human experiment, though I'm ready to start tasting my food again! Even though we had to spend a couple of miserably boring days in our apartment this week, we found lots of great people to teach! Yoanna, the young mom Hna. Cuello and I found a couple of weeks ago is so great! We've gotta get her to church because she wants to get baptized! I feel really connected to her for some reason; her kids come and just sit and play with me like I've been their family friend for years. It's so fun, though they were sick this week (along with nearly all of our investigators, leading to our inevitable house arrest days this week). When Hna. Goddard went and taught her this week, we talked to her a little about what she'd been reading in the Book of Mormon. When we introduced the Book of Mormon to her, I felt inspired to share a few verses from the story of the Brother of Jared, which I had just been reading that morning. In the beginning of the book of Ether, we read about the difficulties that the Brother of Jared and his family had in traveling via boat to the American continents. At the end of chapter 2, we read about how their boats were constantly being blown by fierce winds and crushed under huge ocean waves over their entire journey. But, every time they called on the Lord, He brought them forth from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the water. As we continue reading, we learn that the winds and the storms never stopped beating upon the Brother of Jared and his group, but those same winds that appeared to be destroying them were the force leading them to the promised land. I shared with Yoanna about how in life we often feel like those boats--tossed to and fro, being crushed by huge waves of problems, conflicts and discouragement. But just like the Brother of Jared, as we call diligently upon the Lord, He will save us every time and bring us back to the surface so we can catch our breath before the next wave breaks over us. And before we know it, those powerful "winds" and harsh challenges and difficulties that seem to be more than our little boat can handle, lead us to the promised land---to a better place in our lives. I've been thinking a lot about those 3 little verses that are just packed full of hope-filled doctrine. As I shared this insight I'd gained with Yoanna, she instantly connected to it and when we went back to talk to her this week, she told us how she had even shared that story with her boyfriend because she loved it so much. The spirit truly guides us if we listen and don't desregard His influence. Hna. Goddard and I also found a great new investigator that seems really promising! His name is Fabio (yes, like the soap opera man, but this Fabio looks nothing like the one you're thinking of.) He is recently divorced and looking for a change in his life. He works nearly constant hours as a security guard. We taught him by his fence because he lives in a one-room apartment by himself, yet it was a great lesson. He seemed to understand everything we were explaining and caught right on with the concept of the Great Apostasy and the subsequent religious divisions that resulted. I'm really excited to help him understand more fully the blessings that are awaiting him in the Church of Jesus Christ. Hna. Goddard and I found some other great people, so we should be busy this week trying to visit them all. Woohoo! Blessings! Now we just need someone to start progressing, but the Lord will help us according to His timetable with that one as well. In other fun news, while Hna. Goddard and I were walking around Saturday night, someone who was driving passed us, rolled down their car window and started talking to us. I've subconciously learned to ignore such things, because after the fact, you always wish you had. This time, they persisted, so I turned to see what they were talking about and to whom they were talking (because we were walking in the busy area of the little city). To my great surprise, it was a family that I visited and taught MANY times in my first area over a year ago! I was so shocked! They pulled over and we just started chatting, laughing and hugging! Ivan and Carina just laughed at each other and kept saying, "Look how she talks now!!!" Haha...yeah...I know....I didn't talk too much when I got here....I tried though! Hahaha. It was such a blast from the past but such a tender mercy from the Lord; even though I'm in the middle of a foreign country where nobody speaks English and no one knows who I am, a family that is basically my Agentine family pulls up. Apparently they had seen us walking, but weren't sure if it were me, so they turned a couple of corners to get a closer look! Haha! They were insistent that we come and visit them :) It's nice to know that I have real friends here in Argentina. Next week, when I write, I will have less than 2 months left in my mission....weird. Lots of pages still to write in my mission book, but I've finally reached the final chapter. Keep reading, surely the Lord has more in store for all of us! Love you, Hna. Pelton

Word of the Week: “Panty Medias” (tights/nylons)

This was a unique week for many reasons. First, Hna. Cuello and I went to Mendoza and spent a couple of days there before she got on the plane to go home to Buenos Aires. Before she left though, we had dinner with President Avila and his family in his home. It was so nice! President Avila is here in the mission with his wife and 3 of his five children, the oldest of which are two, teenaged girls, so, needless to say, we talked about the recent good movies, Twilight, and EFY. It was so fun to be in a family setting with people more American than Argentine. It was so fun! I got to help them cook dinner and get things ready while Hna. Cuello met with Pres. Avila. It was quite the privilege for me to get a one-on-one with the President’s wife and his daughters. It was so fun! Hna. Cuello and I had fun making waffles for all the incoming missionaries the morning after they got here to Mendoza. Waffles aren’t common here, but latins just love them! So, we made some syrups and lots of waffles to feed everybody in the office. It was so delicious!!!! I can’t even remember the last time I ate a waffle! Hna. Goddard, my new companion, came on Tuesday night and since Hna. Cuello and I were staying in the mission office over night, we got to meet her and get to know her a little bit before we were “formally” introduced. Only 4 American missionaries came in, and Hna. Goddard was the only hermana, so it was obvious who was going to be companions. The best part of the day was lunch with Hna. Rastelli (the wife of one of the men in the mission presidency). She always cooks for these sorts of events in the mission and, by now, has come to recognize me (because I’m always trying to help her…so she gives me an extra dessert and because I’m just used to always helping in the kitchen!) She told me that my accent has gotten lots better and that I speak really well now, even from just a few months ago. I sure hope I’ve gotten better after nearly 6 months straight with latin companions! She made delicious ravioli with red and white sauce mixed (try it, so YUMMY!!!) After lunch, the eight of us missionaries participated in a training meeting with President Avila and the two assistants. The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Apostles have recently released a new training program for all incoming missionaries. It is a 12 week program (meaning the trainer and the missionary are together for 2 transfers) and each week, you study, essentially, one of the chapters from Preach My Gospel. We have an extra hour of study time every morning to really go into depth and to do some one-on-one training and practices according to the specific needs of the missionary and the investigators in the area. It is truly an inspired program. I feel like I’m probably benefiting more from the program than Hna. Goddard! The program also outlines specific “tasks” to practice during the week so that by the end of the 12 weeks, the new missionary would be prepared to train another new missionary if it were necessary. It is a program geared towards helping new missionaries be full, actively-participating missionaries from day 1 in the mission field. We are still adjusting to it, but it seems great! After the training, Hna. Goddard and I scored a ride in the mission van with the Assistants and one of President Avila’s daughters back to San Luis, rather than taking the bus. The following day, we had a FABULOUS meeting with President Avila and his family, in order to meet them and get to know them, since they are still new in the mission. President Avila is very loving and sincere and has a great laugh that makes you smile on the inside. He is quite different from President Lindahl, but a great leader for the mission. I’m excited to work with him and his family over the next few months before my mission ends. In terms of teaching this week, we were greatly blessed to find investigators and new people to teach, even though we only had a shortened week to work. We found one woman who the elders taught last year a number of times (though there is no record in the area book). I had talked with her sister in the street, and when we went over to her house, she let us right in without hesitating. She told us of the great experience she’d had the past year in listening to the missionaries. We visited her another time during the week as well and got to know her better and about her situation. She seems to be more concerned about her sister’s spiritual welfare than her own, so we will have to be more direct in teaching her this week so we make it clear that we are there to teach her and we can help her sister in another moment. She is really friendly and has a very loving heart. She even whipped out her Book of Mormon when we got there the first time. It was a great first lesson to introduce Hna. Goddard to missionary work in Argentina. Leonela, our other investigator, is coming along slowly. We are really trying to work with her to help her understand better about the Priesthood and the authority of God. As a result, I’ve been studying lots about the Old Testament prophets and the prophets of the Book of Mormon. My testimony of prophets has been greatly strengthened and I am able to testify with more clarity and assurance that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that President Monson is His chosen spokesman during this day and age. Winter has really moved in here to San Luis over the past couple of days, so I had to go and buy some nun tights so my legs don’t freeze. I compensate for the nun tights by wearing earrings or really colorful shirts so people don’t think I’m a nun since I’m sporting their tights! Hahaha. Love to you all! Enjoy the summer weather! Eat some yummy BBQ hamburgers with bacon for me! Hahaha Hna. Pelton

Word of the Week: ortiga (stinging nettle)

This has been a crazy week with Hna. Cuello getting ready to go home to Buenos Aires and with me getting ready to train again. Needless to say, we kept busy, walked a lot, and got into lots of doors, unfortunately, our investigators seem to have disappeared---though it doesn't help that it's the American Soccer Cup right now and everyone is invested in watching soccer and not so much worried about their eternal salvation. Maybe we should use it as our door approach--"Hey, who's playing? Can we come in an watched with you? We brought a "treat" to share with you..." and then we can start in on the Book of Mormon. I'm starting to like this idea more and more as I think about it. Hahaha. This week was the second Argentine independance day on the 9th, though no one even remembered why they had the day off from work. (the 25th of May is when Argentina declared independance) and then on the 9th of July they signed their version of the declaration of independence, though I've heard multiple versions about what the 2 days represent. They don't do anything here to celebrate, but like I said, they have the day off. At least once or twice a month they have a holiday, so most people don't attach any significance to holidays any more because they come around so frequently! Hna. Cuello and I made empanadas to celebrate (thanks for the taco seasoning! it made for great empanadas!) She said that they were way better than the ones you can buy and that I folded the edges better than she does and she's Argentine....I felt pretty good after that. So, have no fear--Empanadas will be made at home! They were delicious if I do say so myself! We did see some awesome miracles this week! On Thursday, we went to a neighborhood where we haven't worked hardly at all because the other hermanas worked there a ton. We went and within a few hours, we had gotten into over 5 homes and taught 14 people. IT WAS AWESOME! lots of short lessons, but here, it's about getting into the door! Friday night, we went to visit a less active family where the wife is active but her husband and 5 sons are all inactive. We went over to watch the Joseph Smith movie with them since I recently got a copy of it in Castellano. At first, they were just watching it, but by the end, the spirit had filled their home! I haven't felt the spirit that strong in a home in a while...it was incredible! Afterwards, Hna. Cuello and I bore testimony about Joseph Smith and the living prophets and it was like I was testifying to myself. I've been studying Elijah the prophet this week because we're having a hard time getting people to understand the line of authority and the Priesthood power that was lost in the great apostasy. It's hard here with all the Catholics who believe that Peter passed the Priesthood to the pope. So, I decided to study more about the ancient prophets in the Bible, starting with Elijah. As I watched the video of Joseph Smith, I realized that his experiences were almost exactly the same as Elijah's in terms of what types of miracles he performed. On top of it all, it was like my mind clicked and my understanding was deepened. It was a very powerful experience for all of us; you could see it in their face and could feel it in the stillness of their home. It was incredible. The other miracle came Saturday morning when Hna. Cuello and I were cleaning through our ward list and had planned to pass by some less active members. Out of all the names we put down, one woman was home, but she really had forgotten everything about the church and was really distracted and not too interested in re-learning. We had a few minutes before our lunch appointment and one more address to check out, so we went. When we got to the door, we realized it was a door we've knocked multiple times, but have never gotten into. This time, a young woman came to the door and let us right in. I don't know that we even said our names or who we were; she just let us in. Yoanna welcomed us in and let us sit down while she went to tend her 2 small kids that I had just woken up (yes...it was about 12:30 in the morning...). While we helped her sweep and clean up her home, she told us about how she had gotten pregnant at 19 and had her daughter, then got pregnant a few years later with her son, but her then boyfriend left her for another girl before Yoanna had her baby. She then told us about how her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend put a curse on her because she was jealous and how weird things have been happening in her life and home since then, including the refigerator door randomly falling off it's hinges....weird. Anyway, she then looked at us and asked us if we believed in things like curses and "a dark side" to which we replied that Satan exists, but God is more powerful in every regard. We then told her that we had a book that she could read and that would help protect her and her family by bringing more of the spirit of God into her home. We then taught her about the Book of Mormon and her eyes just lit up! It was awesome. The best part was that I had been studying about the Brother of Jared in the morning during my personally study and felt particularly impressed to share with her the personal insight I received while studying. She loved what I shared and completely understood and said that it was beautiful. I shared about how just like the Brother of Jared and his family were constantly tossed upon the waves of the seas and were driven under huge waves, the Lord always rescued them and brought them back to the surface when they cried out to him. Even though the winds never stopped tormenting them, in the end, the winds are what lead them to the promised land. In our lives, it's the same: the challenges never stop blowing and often times we feel driven beneath huge waves, but as we cry out to the Lord, he will rescue us and bring us back to the surface so we can catch our breath. But the big picture is that the challenges and the winds of life always drive us to a better place in the end--whether that be spiritually or emotionally or temporally, our challenges lead us to the "promised land" in this life and the "promised land" of eternity in the celestial kingdom. Yoanna tapped right into and loved it. I feel like it really sparked her interest to read. I can't wait to go back and visit her. She told us how last year, when she was in her mom's house in another part of the city, she met some sister missionaries, but had no interest in listening to them. She listened to their prayer, but nothing more. A few days later, she found a great job. She told us how just a few days before she was talking with her new boyfriend about these missionaries she met and how it had been a miracle that she found work right after meeting them. She said that she was looking for sister missionaries but didn't think any visited her neighborhood and then we appeared at her door. The Lord truly knows His children and prepares them over time because now, Yoanna wants to listen to us because she's seen miracles from the Lord as she listened to the missionaries that one time over a year ago. Gotta run! Talk to you all next week. Thanks for all your love and support! Hna. Pelton This has been a crazy week with Hna. Cuello getting ready to go home to Buenos Aires and with me getting ready to train again. Needless to say, we kept busy, walked a lot, and got into lots of doors, unfortunately, our investigators seem to have disappeared---though it doesn't help that it's the American Soccer Cup right now and everyone is invested in watching soccer and not so much worried about their eternal salvation. Maybe we should use it as our door approach--"Hey, who's playing? Can we come in an watched with you? We brought a "treat" to share with you..." and then we can start in on the Book of Mormon. I'm starting to like this idea more and more as I think about it. Hahaha. This week was the second Argentine independance day on the 9th, though no one even remembered why they had the day off from work. (the 25th of May is when Argentina declared independance) and then on the 9th of July they signed their version of the declaration of independence, though I've heard multiple versions about what the 2 days represent. They don't do anything here to celebrate, but like I said, they have the day off. At least once or twice a month they have a holiday, so most people don't attach any significance to holidays any more because they come around so frequently! Hna. Cuello and i made empanadas to celebrate (thanks for the taco seasoning! it made for great empanadas!) She said that they were way better than the ones you can buy and that I folded the edges better than she does and she's Argentine....I felt pretty good after that. So, have no fear--Empanadas will be made at home! They were delicious if I do say so myself! We did se some awesome miracles this week! On thursday, we went to a neighborhood where we haven't worked hardly at all because the other hermanas worked there a ton. We went and within a few hours, we had gotten into over 5 homes and taught 14 people. IT WAS AWESOME! lots of short lessons, but here, it's about getting into the door! Friday night, we went to visit a less active family where the wife is active but her husband and 5 sons are all inactive. We went over to watch the Joseph Smith movie with them since I recently got a copy of it in Castellano. At first, they were just watching it, but by the end, the spirit had filled their home! I haven't felt the spirit that strong in a home in a while...it was incredible! After word, Hna. Cuello and I bore testimony about Joseph Smith and the living prophets and it was like I was testifying to myself. I've been studying Elijah the prophet this week because we're having a hard time getting people to understand the line of authority and the Priesthood power that was lost in the great apostasy. It's hard here with all the Catholics who believe that Peter passed the Priesthood to the pope. So, I decided to study more about the ancient prophets in the Bible, starting with Elijah. As I watched the video of Joseph Smith, I realized that his experiences were almost exactly the same as Elijah's in terms of what types of miracles he performed. On top of it all, he was like my mind clicked and my understanding was deepened. It was a very powerful experience for all of us; you could see it in their face and could feel it in the stillness of their home. It was incredible. The other miracle came Saturday morning when Hna. Cuello and I were cleaning through our ward list and had planned to pass by some less active members. Out of all the names we put down, one woman was home, but she really had forgotten everything about the church and was really distracted and not too interested in re-learning. We had a few minutes before our lunch appointment and one more address to check out, so we went. When we got to the door, we realized it was a door we've knocked multiple times, but have never gotten into. This time, a young woman came to the door and let us right in. I don't know that we even said our names or who we were; she just let us in. Yoanna welcomed us in and let us sit down while she went to tend her 2 small kids that I had just woken up (yes...it was about 12:30 in the morning...). While we helped her sweep and clean up her home, she told us about how she had gotten pregnant at 19 and had her daughter, then got pregnant a few years later with her son, but her then boyfriend left her for another girl before Yoanna had her baby. She then told us about how her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend put a curse on her because she wasjealous and how weird things have been happening in her life and home since then, including the refigerator door randomly falling off it's hinges....weird. Anyway, she then looked at us and asked us if we believed in things like curses and "a dark side" to which we replied that Satan exists, but God is more powerful in every regard. We then told her that we had a book that she could read and that would help protect her and her family by bringing more of the spirit of God into her home. We then taught her about the Book of Mormon and her eyes just lit up! It was awesome. The best part was that I had been studying about the Brother of Jared in the morning during my personally study and felt particularly impressed to share with her the personal insight I received while studying. She loved what I shared and completely understood and said that it was beautiful. I shared about how just like the Brother of Jared and his family were constantly tossed upon the waves of the seas and were driven under huge waves, the Lord always rescued them and brought them back to the surface when they cried out to him. Even though the winds never stopped tormenting them, in the end, the winds are what lead them to the promised land. In out lives, it's the same: the challenges never stop blowing and often times we feel driven beneath huge waves, but as we cry out to the Lord, he will rescue us and bring us back to the surface so we can catch our breath. But the big picture is that the challenges and the winds of life always drive us to a better place in the end--whether that be spiritually or emotionally or temporally, our challenges lead us to the "promised land" in this life and the "promised land" of eternity in the celestial kingdom. Yoanna tapped right into and loved it. I feel like it really sparked her interest to read. I can't wait to go back and visit her. She told us how last year, when she was in her mom's house in another part of the city, she met some sister missionaries, but had no interest in listening to them. she listened to their prayer, but nothing more. a few days later, she found a great job. She told us how just a few days before she was talking with her new boyfriend about these missionaries she met and how it had been a miracle that she found work right after meeting them. She said that she was looking for sister missionaries but didn't think any visited her neighborhood and then we appeared at her door. The Lord truly knows His children and prepares them over time because now, Yoanna wants to listen to us because she's seen miracles from the Lord as she listened to the missionaries that one time over a year ago. Gotta run! Talk to you all next week. Thanks for all your love and support! Hna. Pelton

Word of the Week: hilo dental (dental floss)

Yes, there is a story with this “word of the week”…I finally started the habit of flossing my teeth! Woohoo! I know I’m a little late in my life to start this habit, but hey, I’m paying back my bad-debt-habit by getting my companion to floss her teeth as well! Hahaha. Yay for starting good habits in the mission…it has only taken me a year to get on that bandwagon. This was a great week filled with some very personally strengthening experiences. At the beginning of the week, we were knocking doors by the shopping center here in San Luis in the morning. We knocked a few doors and crossed to the other side of the street to knock some doors on the other side of the street. As we were knocking some doors on the other side of the street, a man approached his house having just finished grocery shopping and looked over at us from the other side of the street (where we had just been knocking) and asked us what we needed. I crossed back over the street and started talking to him and asked him if we could share a message with him about Jesus Christ. He welcomed us right in, surprisingly. We taught him about the Restoration and he just ate it up! He even asked us to be baptized and to come to church with us! It was quite the miracle! Unfortunately, we can’t find him now. We’ve gone back by his house multiple times and he is no where to be found. There is always hope for this week! We also taught a woman (Veronica) who is Catholic and lives in some old abandoned homes. She used to teach the Catholic “classes” before people get “confirmed” in the Catholic church when they are teenagers. She is a strong believer in the Virgin Mary and all the saints. We taught her about the prophets and Priesthood authority, but she just didn’t seem to get it. She believes that Peter passed on his priesthood authority to the line of popes before he died, yet she has no idea what the name of the man he supposedly passed that authority. It just got funnier to us when she told us how she once asked one of her Priests or “leaders” in the Catholic church why Mary wasn’t able to convert the water into wine at the marriage ceremony where Christ performed His first miracle. Her Priest friend told her that it was because only God (or the godhead) have power to perform miracles and Mary didn’t have that power. Doesn’t that sound a lot like the Priesthood? We tried to make that connection for her, but she wasn’t getting it. She was quite shocked and almost offended when we comment about how Mary had other children and had a normal life after giving birth to Christ. She looked at us and told us that we were wrong. So, we defended ourselves a little bit by telling her that in the Bible, it says that Christ had siblings, suggesting that Mary had given birth to other children. She was sure that we were using a different Bible, so she brought us her Bible and we found the verse in John 6:3 where it talks about Christ, the capenter, son of Mary, and brother to x, y, z (I can’t remember their names right now.) She read and re-read the verse a few times, underlined it and marked it and then looked up at us and said, “well, you’ve just opened up a whole new set of questions and doubts for me.” All I have to say is, thank goodness for the topical guide! She was completely shocked and shaken in her “firm” belief in Mary, the eternal virgin. The real powerful experience of the week was when Hna. Cuello and I went to our favorite little “pueblito” out in the middle of nowhere. We ended up teaching Juan, Carmen (his “wife) and Gabriela (his 15 year old daughter with an 18 month old baby). Juan is the man we visited a few weeks ago, who is bedridden and yelled at us out the door as we walked back, yelling for help. Come to find out, he had a sudden heart attack while working 6 years ago that left him essentially completely paralyzed. We walked into his home this time, on a night that we REALLY cold. They live in a very humble home made of concrete, without heating, and with some sparse broken furniture. Juan was laying in his bed inside the front door, shivering under his blankets. Gabiela and Carmen were huddled around a metal tin filled with embers, trying to stay warm. They turned over a few plastic buckets and put a folded shirt on top as a cushion and let us sit down while they stood and listened to us. This time, we were able to teach him and some of his family about the Plan of Salvation and the hope he has in being restored to full physical capabilities thanks to Jesus Christ. His wife Carmen and daughter are quite receptive and were very attentive. It was a spirit filled lesson that filled their cold home with hope and the warmth of the Gospel. What was so miraculous about this whole experience was that Juan used to work with a member in our ward years and years ago in Buenos Aires. He spoke so highly of him and clearly wanted to chat with him some more, after all these years. So, we called Hno. Ferrara and asked him if he could come with us to visit Juan and his family and Saturday (since Hno. Ferrara has a car and would be able to pick Juan up and take him to church on Sunday). We met Hno. Ferrara and his wife at their home Saturday afternoon and drove up to Juan’s house and visited with them. Juan was of much better spirits, being able to sit and talk with a friend after so many years. We weren’t really able to get a word in edgewise to teach him and his family anything because Juan was so eager to chat with someone that he just kept talking and asking questions. Hno. Ferrara and his wife were so gracious in chatted with them about anything and everything, sharing mate the whole time. It was really special to watch this family light up with having visitors in their home. It was a rather jumbled sort of lesson with people coming and going through their open front door as well as dogs barking and babies crying, but it was clear to see that what we shared with them meant more than anything of monetary value. The miracle of this whole experience came on Sunday, the day after this visit with Juan and the Ferrara family. In Sacrament meeting, being testimony meeting, Hno. Ferrara bore his testimony about how grateful he is for the blessings he has in his life and how caught up in life he can get that he doesn’t realize all that he has. It sure sounded like he was referring to the experience with Juan and his family from what he was saying, but I didn’t think too much about it. In Relief Society, Hna. Ferrara got up and bore her testimony as well, sharing similar feelings, but sharing about the powerful experience she and her husband had in visiting Juan and his family with us the night before. I was so touched and moved by the spirit realizing that even though Juan and his family didn’t come to church, maybe we went to visit him and his family to not only strengthen Juan, but to bless Hna and Hno Ferrara; maybe they needed the experience more than us missionaries or more than Juan and his humble family. Another hermana in the ward also got up and bore her testimony about how we had shared with her just what she needed in the moment when we had lunch with her Saturday afternoon. She was so grateful for the thought and testimony we shared with her. I was again, amazed at the power of the spirit and reminded of the power and light we share as missionaries because when I shared the spiritual thought after lunch, I wasn’t feeling so great and felt like my thoughts and words were all jumbled. But listening to her bear her testimony strengthened my own in regards to how the spirit takes our weaknesses and makes them strengths, maybe not in our own eyes, but in the eyes and hearts of those who need, we are strong. How grateful I am to be a humble mouth piece of the Lord, that He trusts me enough to transmit His messages of love through me, despite my weaknesses. Things are going well here. Hna. Cuello and I will start this new transfer together, but next week she will head home to Buenos Aires and I will start training a new hermana fresh from the Provo MTC. Thanks for all your love and support! Hope everyone has a great 4th of July…wish I were there for the BBQ hamburgers, hot dogs, and watermelon. ENJOY! Love you, Hna. Pelton

Word of the week: congelar (to freeze)

Well, I don't have a lot to report about this week. This week just flew by between the weather getting really cold, interviews with the mission president, and lots of hot cocoa, I can't believe that it's already Monday and another week has gone by. Today I received the paperwork to get things set up for me to go home. Wow, 3 months from today and I will be getting on a plane heading for the United States. CRAZY! It was great seeing the Lindahls one more time before they leave this Friday to go back to the states and normal life. President seemed quite burnt out and ready to go home and rightly so after 3 years of stressful service as a mission president in one of the only progressing missions in Argentina. It was great talking to him and his wife and receiving their last words of counsel and advice. Next week we have transfers and as of right now, I have no idea what will happen. Hna. Cuello is staying in the mission for a week or two after transfers before she goes home to Buenos Aires, so my guess is that she will stay here in the area and that I will be moved one more time. I suggested to President Lindahl that I'd like to serve in San Juan (one of the other provinces of the mission) since I only have 2 transfers left and it's highly unlikely that I'd be moved my last transfer to a new area. We'll see though. With a new president coming into the mission and new hermanas on their way, anything is possible. The great thing is that I don't have to worry about it...I just have to pray to be able to accept whatever comes my way. (One more move would be fun though, if I had things my way). In other proselyting news this week, Hna. Cuello and I found a great little Evangelical family while knocking doors. The wife came to the door and said no a few times, but I kinda persisted (I've gotten stubborn in my old mission age) and she ended up letting us in. We taught her and her husband (who has a huge cast on his leg because of an accident and therefore had no choice but to listen to us since he can't move...hahaha...tricky aren't we!) We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and Fabian (the husband) was quite attentive. He apparently has always had the question of what happens to our spirits between death and the resurrection because from what he understood, we will all be resurrected when Christ comes again. He has a great understanding of the Bible and was very happy and willing to learn more and close the gaps in his spiritual understanding. I've never met someone here on the mission that has had that question, but it just goes to show that we are all different as individual people, but that the Gospel answers all the questions that we have with simple, to the point repsonses that we don't have to seek by going to a Catholic Priest, your pastor, or someone who studies the Bible religiously---the mysteries of the kingdom are well within our reach if we will but, seek, knock, and ask. The other memorable moment of the week was something tender that really had nothing to do with preach the gospel, but everything to do with being a representative of Jesus Christ. Hna. Cuello and I went to our little "golden town" again this week to try and follow up again with some of the people we'd taught there. As we were walking on the dusty road out to the little town, I had the wierdest urge to hurry to the neighborhood...to run really. I had the kick that thought out of my mind because I hardly have the strength to make it though the day just walking, let alone running. When we got to the neighborhood, our investigators weren't home, so we knocked the few doors that we had left to knock, taught a young, pregnant mom outside her metal hut in the freezing weather and then moved on. As we were teaching Estella, a group of little kids started to huddle around us to and listened and joked and just were being little kids. It's not a rare occurance that little kids come over to us and listen because we teach outside a lot of the time and obviously the blond hair and weird accent draws a crowd. One little girl named Priscila was quite chatty and liked participating in our little lesson about prayer. She is only about 6 years old, but quite talkative and cute. She was covered in dirt and despite the cold weather, was only wearing jeans and a light sweatshirt. As we finished up the lesson with Estella, Priscila looked up at us and asked us if we were going to go visit her mom now and that she'd show us to her house. So, we smiled and just walked with her towards her home around the corner. She was just chatting away and I grabbed her little frozen hand and just started walking with her hand-in-hand. She smiled up at me and started swinging her arms and walked a little bit happier around the block. We got to her house and her mom came out and listened to us for a few minutes, despite the freezing weather. She didn't want to let us in because her husband was sleeping, so we taught her outside as well. Priscila just looked like a little ice cube, so I knelt down to her level and (yes....I'm about to break a rule here...) waved her over to come sit on my lap. I just set my scripture case in her lap and let her look at the pictures I have throughout my scriptures and wrapped my arms around her to warm her up. She snuggled right into me and seemed just as content as a little clam (had to throw that in there for my Seattle-ites :). ) After we finished teaching her mom, with my legs asleep, I stood up. Priscila just looked at me and asked me, "Did I warm you up?" I smiled, paused, and shook my head "yes". How sweet a little girl who had dirty clothes and cold fingers while I had gloves and a big fluffy coat and she was trying to warm me up. I was greatly touched by her simple smile and her question when the whole time I was trying to help her. She asked her mom if she could walk us to another house or two, so she held on to my scriuptures (at her request) and she walked hand-in-hand with me to a few other houses and then to the dirt road back to our area (ie: real life). I gave the little kids in the neighborhood a copy of the friend magazine the next day when we went back and they were thrilled! That little experience with Priscila walking with me will hopefully stay with me forever. It was something so simple, but something that really taught me the importance of being the Christlike example in deeds not just in words. When we are serving others and trying to give of ourselves, we are the ones who are helped in return---we receive the bigger reward no matter how much we give or seem to be sacrificing. I'm still not sure why I had such an urge to run to the neighborhood, but I am sure that part of the reason was to warm the little body and heart of Priscila. The light of the Lord shines brightly in the little children. No wonder Christ weeped as he blessed them and was always telling us to become as little children. They truly are those who are worthy of the kingdom. Things are going well here in San Luis. This is the last week of the transfer. Next Monday we will get the transfer call and hear about what's going on for the next 6 weeks. Pres. Avila and his family should move in this week....stay tuned....we're all anxious to see how life changes or stays the same. Thanks for all your love and support! See you in 3 months! Love you, Hna. Pelton ps-send my best to Uncle Paul...I will surely keep him in my prayers :)