Misc Videos and Pix

So, we have hit a serious jackpot. I found tons and tons of pix and videos on the memory card Jordan sent. I'm so excited. Here are some videos and pix from their visit to the zoo a few weeks back.

It's so good to see some of her adventures. We sure miss that kid!

Let's Compare

So, let's go back a few months ---> 4 to be exact.

Remember this photo? When Jordan's feet were all cute and clean?

My how things have changed!

Hee, hee. Missions are so awesome!

Oops. I'm a week late. Sorry!

There's More To Life Than Increasing It's Pace

¡Hola Mi Familia!

Wow this week really was a big one for you!!! Thanks for all the news! Cade sent me pictures and before I read the email about Grandma´s house I looked at the pictures and couldn´t figure out what they were... I am so sad for her but she is such an example to us all. I am so glad that her party went to well. I thought about it on Friday and hoped that it was all that Mom had worked so hard for it to be.

Speaking of mold we had mold in our bathroom this week as well! Ha ha welcome to Argentina. I think that they man who came to clean it must have used extra strength pure clorox because the smell, although it has died down, still practically punches you in the face when you walk in. But no worries my health is great... my comps not so good. I say it´s my tough American blood... well it´s probably the Irish in me but we won´t go there. :)

I did hear about the news in Japan. I am not sure why is surprised me that it would be such big news here as well but it did. It took me awhile to figure out where Hapon was :) but wow I can´t believe it. I am also glad that I am here in Argentina and very far from water also! We try not to look at the news or the newspapers but it is so crazy what is happening there.

This week was an interesting one. The first two days were carnival so everyone was on holiday from work, so it made the work really difficult because everyone wanted to either do nothing in their houses or was away on vacation. I think I mentioned last week that the bank here ran out of money... ha ha something that I am not sure quite how that happens :) and we also didn´t have any money because it is the beginning of the month! So by Thursday we were desperate and had to travel about an hour away to the "city" to go to a bank. It was so funny while I was there I definitely felt like I was in the 80´s. I saw mullets, side ponytails, hammerpants, spandex pants and shorts... ha ha it was great. I forgot to mention a few weeks ago a saw a kid that not only had a mullet but the back part of it was bleached... ha ha completely awesome. It really is the best and my comp doesn´t really understand why I think it is so funny. I tried to explain this week when we passed a house that was blasting "Listen to Your Heart" but I am not sure that I got my point across... dang this language barrier....

Spanish... hmm what to say. It is a long process. I can understand a whole lot more for sure now but expressing myself is a whole different story. But that is coming along too. I am definitely learning patience... and humility. I figured out this week that it is a ton easier to listen to my comp and see what expressions she uses becasue then I can just use them and people can understand me. Yeah I know I probably should have tried to do that earlier but only recently have a started to understand what these phrases mean! A funny story. This week I couldn´t remember the word for turning the lights on so I tried to mime it to my comp... it didn´t work too well because the light switches here are sideways so basically she just thought I was crazy. When I realized why she didn´t understand what I was saying I thought it was hilarious... oh my I really am a missionary huh? I still don´t catch everything that everyone says to me and this week I was thinking that when I die I am going to replay this part of my life so that I can see what they really said as compared to what I thought they said... it should be pretty interesting.

The beginning of this week was soooooo hot. Seriously the hottest I have ever been in my life. I couldn´t even believe it. One day we walked out of lunch and I almost died. I just started laughing because I had never been so hot in my whole life. I guess that when it is hot like that it means that a big storm is coming in because it rained a ton during the end of the week and is not super cold. On Saturday we went to a members house for lunch and the first thing they did was offer us towels... yeah that is never a good sign :)

This week went by so fast! It´s hard to remember what happened in comparison to what happened a couple of weeks ago. They all kind of run together! I was studying about Charity a lot this week and love the scripture in Moroni 7: 43-48. It´s cool if you put Christ´s name in instead of charity because as we are all trying to follow His example this is what we need to do. I was looking at my old notes from the MTC because I had to give a talk on obedience and it was so incredible. Everything that I learned there was so monumental. We really were bathed in the spirit and didn´t even realize it. One of my favorite teachers had 3 peices of advice for us as we were in our finals days that I found this week and I think this is incredible. Of course he related it to the mission but I will relate it to life for you all.
1. Remember: Remember what Christ has done for you, remember what Joseph Smith went through and all the saints before us so that this gospel could roll forward
2. Be obedient: As we live the commandments and follows the prophets that is how we can find peace and happiness in this life. This is the only way that we can be happy here and have eternal life in the world to come. Mosiah 2:41
3. Love: If we have love (and I would say charity) we will do anything. We will go to any service project, accept any calling and give our whole heart, might, mind and strength to this work.

Ha ha alright I better go but thanks for all your love and support! I look forward to Mondays as much as you do!

Think about you often (in a supportful not homesick way:), pray for you ALL regularly, and love you forever!

Hna Scanlon

p.s. the subject is a quote from Elder Utchdorf´s talk this last conference. Make sure to find happiness NOW! Not just try to hurry through life and say you´ll find happiness later! :)

I got a card from Hermana Daniels today with Jordan's memory card from her camera. Hooray! There were (only) 17 photos on the card - we'll have to have a chat about documenting this awesome experience better, but it's fun to see more of her as a missionary! She looks great! And how cute is Hna Daniels?

Consistency (Hooray for pictures!)

¡Hola!

Like you all said it is hard for me to believe that another week has gone by as well! Mission life is going really well! This morning I found out why we live above a morgue (sp?).... As my comp and I were on our way to do internet I saw that it was open for business and said, "oh crap someone died" (yes it was said with a very American accent... cali I know you know what I am talking about... yeah probably not the most appropriate missionary vocabulary but remember that I am still striving to be better every day. Yes I said it in english because that is a sentence that my comp has learned :). As we rounded the corner the family of the deceased was standing there and one of their friends is an old investigator, and we contacted them and told them about life after death and are going to visit our investigator later this week. My point is that the church knew what they were doing when they had us live where we do. :)

Argentinisms
So I thought I would share with you my favorite spanish word... oñda. I am not sure if they use it everywhere or just in argentina but it´s like energy or a connection. For example if you want to know if something works you ask if it has oñda or if two people like each other then there´s oñda... ha ha anyway it´s used for everything but it´s something that I have learned to love. Another Argentine piece of culture... because I am in the country people ride around on horses quite a bit and they wear these french hats... like the ones that painters wear... and it is so funny to me. I´ll take a picture one of these days so you can all enjoy it with me. Another thing... when people can´t understand you (yes this happens to me quite a bit!) they ask if you are speaking chinese! Just like in the states! I thought that was pretty funny. Also there are quite a few chinese people here and my comp thought she was pretty funny when we walked by them and she looked at me like I should understand what they were saying.... I was a little concerned for a minute until I realized they were speaking chinese... not funny. Here in Las Heras there is a store that I loved walking by because I thought it was a pet store because all I could understand from the signs were the names of animals like turtle etc... this week I realized it´s a carniceria {butcher shop}.... yeah I don´t really like to walk by there anymore. Argentines are really funny and it´s definitely a different way of life. Debit cards having really made it down here yet and there are only two ATMs for all of Las Heras so the line is always super long. Ha ha this week they ran out of money until this wednesday. Usually this wouldn´t matter to us but it´s the beginning of the month so we don´t have any money either! Luckily there is one grocery store that takes debit cards so we can at least eat! :)

This week was really amazing in missionary work too! Guillermo is going to get baptized 26 of March! Remember he´s the one that had a change of heart from me using his bathroom. He still talks about that and I still don´t really understand.... He came to church on sunday for the first time and bore his testimony! i couldn´t tell what he was saying but I was hoping that is wasn´t anything inappropriate so I kept looking at my comps face to make sure it was ok. It went great though. He´s so funny. No one can pronounce Scanlon down here so he calls me Escanlone or Schanlon. It´s pretty funny. I laugh every time and just say "muy bien" to however he says it!

This week we had a mini zone conference and I got to see Hna Tucker! I was so excited! It was so great to see her. We had to travel like 3 hours by train to get to the meeting but it was so worth it. President Benton talked and the assistants and our zone leaders. Mostly it´s great to just know that we are not alone but all working together. Plus talking to others about their spanish and struggles etc helps a lot too! On the train I was reading a talk by Elder  Scott from last conference that is SOOOO good. My favorite quote is "We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day". That is one thing that I´ve thought about a lot as a missionary... consistency. It´s hard to always want to be an example of the believers and to always want to talk to everyone so on and so forth but that is what we are all called to do. When Elder Holland came to the MTC he talked about how we are called to be missionaries for the rest of our lives. I think I shared this before but it is also something I think about a lot. He related the story of Peter and how he was called to cast away his nets and feed his sheep. That is what we are all asked to do every day as well. As I´ve been here I have noticed how much members make a difference in missionary work... basically that they make all the difference. So this is my challenge to you all.... find ways to help the missionaries. I was thinking about how many families or people I know that were converted by the missionaries at home and who stayed active... it wasn´t many. But it can be if we will all be missionaries forever.

I was reading Alma 37:6-7 this morning and I liked it a lot. Remember that by SMALL and SIMPLE things are great things brought to pass. We all need to do the little things in our lives to be disciples of Christ, then can we have His spirit always to be with us and work miracles among the children of men.

Ha ha alright I will get off my soapbox now... :) Just a little food for thought for you all :) I love you all tons. Spanish is coming along and know that I am doing well and although I miss you tons I wouldn´t want to be anywhere else in the world doing anything else :)

Give Grandma Fern a hug for me for her birthday.

Kyle and Carolyn congrats.... you should probably name the baby jordan since even if it does end of being a boy the name would still work :)

Thanks for all your love and support.

Think about you often, pray for you always and love you forever!

Hna Scanlon

This Week's Installment

{Sorry. I'm a little late posting this. We get another email in 2 days. Hooray!}


¡Hola la mejor familia en el mundo! {Hello best family in the world!}

Ha ha I have no idea if that is right or not but I think my point gets across! My subject is a quote that I think every day...Thanks for all the emails! I love getting them all every week. Yeah it´s hard to relate to it being so cold since it was so hot last night I couldn´t fall asleep... and I had to clean our shower curtain today because there was mold on it because it never dries completely! It´s not as humid here as I thought it would be but it still is a lot, especially on days that it rains. Life in Las Heras is really good! My comp and I have been together for almost two weeks now! We just got a list of all the changes in the mission and all the other Hermanas that I came with have North Americans for comps still so I am definitely really blessed to be with a latin and I am really grateful for it!

So my spanish is coming along. The number one thing I say... ¿Que dijo? which means what did he/she/you say... yeah so that probably tells you my level of spanish. Definitely still have a long ways to go but the members here can actually communicate with me and joke around a little bit which is nice to feel semi normal. At lunch yesterday they complimented me on how much my spanish has come along... so I guess that is good. Sometimes I can see a big difference and sometimes it seems exactly the same so I don´t really know. It´s hard to see progress but I know that I am. Hna Daniels, who was really good at spanish, basically she sounded latin when she spoke, said to just forget about being frustrated with learning spanish and focus on my investiagators and being prepared to teach them and that is when I would learn spanish. I thought that was really good advice that is what I have been trying to do. It´s fun to have a latin comp because on Saturdays we have english day where we try and talk in english. It´s weird but that is actually harder for us! My comp says that she can´t understand me because of my accent... oh man I now can´t communicate in any language :) Ha ha I thought is was hilarious when she said that!

Cade made the recommendation that I should make sure and drink lots. I try to but here is the problem. Apparently I also inherited a bladder the size of a pea just like Janae. So if I drink a bottle of water I then have to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes for like the next hour... which is an issue when I am tracting in the streets of Argentina! Funny story though. The other week I was on divisions with Hna Clark and we stopped to visit one of her investigators and I had to go to the bathroom so bad so even though I didn´t know this man I asked him if I could use his bathroom. Well now he is in our area (his name is guillermo- remember double ll makes an sh sound :) and he brought of me using his bathroom and how it had this huge profound change in his life and how it made him clean his house and made him want to be a better person. I don´t completely understand but it was funny none the less. Now if we can only get him to stop praying to the virgin mary.... Also on the subject of drinks I am not sure if I have mentioned that they LOVE tang here... basically that is all they have to drink here... that and 7Up, Fanta, and Mangoes (a cola of some kind)... oh and coke and gatorade (which is either apple, fruit, or naranja). I never knew that more than one kind of tang existed but oh it does...

Not really a ton to report this week. I liked in Cali´s email where she said that the mission is like a roller coaster where your emotion changes every 5 minutes. Yeah that is basically the truth. So if I ever feel discouraged I just tell myself it will pass in about 5 minutes and it usually does!

Yes I am getting your emails with pictures and I love them. can you send pictures of the snow and mountains etc? people love to see them here! I haven´t gotten the elder holland talk but dearelder takes a few weeks so i probably will soon. i love this scripture heb 12:1-2 and heb 11:1-2. i don´t remember what the first one is about and my comp tried to explain it to me in spanish and i didn´t really understand cuz i´m in a hurry so just know that i liked it at one point in time this week! :)

Beth tell Ella that I make up songs too because most of the time I can´t sing the ones in spanish cuz the timing is different. My comp always laughs at me. plus everyone can hear me because i am trying to sing on tune... i am learning that it is probably better to just try and sing poorly to match them.. especially when it is only my comp and i singing. oh they have fireflies here! i was way excited to see them!


ok I have to go!

Think about you often, pray for you always, and love you forever!

Hna Scanlon