January 16th 2014 - Week 2

 Ok, so this week has been pretty crazy, I´ll be honest! So first, we had P-day and that was really nice. It´s cool that we get to have a sort of break from all the stressful learning... I loved it. But the best part was going to the temple! It was SOOOOO beautiful and I loved it so much! I honestly couldn´t believe the spirit I felt. I was incredible. Also, I did the whole session in Spanish!!! It was one of the coolest experiences ever! I actually understood a TON of what they were saying. If that´s not the power of the Holy Ghost, then I don´t know what is!! But really, it was amazing and I look forward to going every P-day that  I´m here!! So that means today! We actually decided that our district is going to do the session in English this week (so with the headsets, I think). Just so we can understand completely. It will be nice. I love it so much! Mom and dad, I think that when you guys come down to get me in 18 months we´ll have to stop by and do a session in the Argentina Temple cuz I love it so much!! ;)  

Also, speaking of my district, I thought I´d tell you how much I love them! We seriously have the best district ever and everyone is so awesome. We have the coolest discussions and the most spiritual experiences! And our district leader is amazing! I love em all! The elders are: Elder Turley, Bird, Johnson, Harbold, Fielding and our leader Elder Pulsipher. I get along with all of them in different ways. The sisters are: Hermana Argyle (companion), Dunagan, and Sump. I love them!! Anyway, my whole district is super cool :) 

Something else that was crazy this week. The MTC got robbed! Nuts, right?! So there were these workers that were working on the rooms over the weekend (like Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), and they were like fixing windows of something. So after the temple last week, I was putting on some earrings and I noticed that 2 of my rings were missing from my case.. I was really confused and thought maybe I had lost them, but I hadn´t even taken them out so I knew it wasn´t me. I first thought that it was maybe one of the Hermanas in my room, but I kinda just forgot about it. Then that night I told Hermana Valenzuela (one of my roomies) and she decided to check her wallet. $50 (US) in pesos was gone! She had no clue what had happened! So then the next morning we talk to our room leader and she said she would tell Hermana Openshaw (president´s wife). Later on I told our district what had happened and our leader told all the Elders to check their things. Like 5 Elders here had money stolen! Elder Turley in my district had his $160 for his visa stolen! Anyways, I think there was like $700 stolen altogether?? Crazy, right?! Eventually they got it sorted out and figured out and the workers lost their job and the company is giving all of the money back. Haha I never thought I´d say I got robbed at the MTC ;)

So we went proselyting yesterday!! Wow it was nuts. So usually we would go on Saturday, but because the president is leaving and the new one is coming, they changed this week to Wednesday so all the staff of the MTC could have a huge meeting and activity or something. So we ended up going a few days earlier than expected! So, we get all ready in the morning and then all of us (the North Americans) get in this bus and he takes us somewhere like 35 minutes away. It was so cool because it was the first time that I felt like I was actually in a different country! Sounds weird, but I have been stuck in this MTC since day one and it just doesn´t seem like we´re in Argentina. So when we went out I was like freaking out cuz it was so cool! Argentina is beautiful! It´s so differnt but it reminded me of Mexico. Similar buildings and stuff. It did make me appreciate living in the US though. So we all got dropped off in companionships and had our own areas to proselyte in. At first we were so confused. Me and Hermana Argyle had no clue what to do. So, we just start walking our area. We said hola to just about everyone. We got a lot of weird looks! So we find this street that is kinda like a strip mall with all these shops and everyone is just staring at us!! It was pretty funny. So then we find a spot to sit and eat our sack lunches and we prayed that someone would come to us or that we could find someone to talk to, because we were feeling pretty dicouraged. This lady walks by and we say hola! She then stops and talks to us for a good 15 minutes! She was really nice and pretty much just asked us a bunch of questions and stuff. We told her that we were going to Paraguay and she told us it´s VERY different than Argentina. It was really just like a friendly conversation and she knew a little bit of English so that was kinda cool! Wow though.... The power of prayer is so real! It was crazy that our pray was answered that fast!! The rest of the day was pretty good. We handed out like 5 pamphlets to these (kind of attractive) workers. They waved at us to we talked to them for like 5 minutes and just gave them some random pamphlets. HAHA I think one of them was Chastity??? HAHAHAHA!! ;) It was great. So we felt like we did pretty good for our first time. It is really hard and you have to be really ready for rejection. A ton of people kept ingnoring us when we would say hi. We just kept being happy! Next week we do it on Saturday. I wonder how that will be!! 

Anyways... I love you guys all so much and I look forward to every Thursday to hear from you!! I´m hoping that that package dad said he sent gets here. I had no clue that we couldn´t have people send them!! Hopefully it doesn´t get stuck in customs! The emails are great and I love hearing about what is happening! I love you guys and pray for you every night! I love being a missionary, by the way! It can be frustrating sometimes and stressful... BUT I have Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to rely on!! :)

I´ll send some pics! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! 

-Hermana Whittaker