A Perfecting Process

¡Hola Mi Familia!

¿Como estan? It sounds like you all had a great time with Kyle and his family and the baby blessing! I was able to watch the video of Owen so that made me smile! Right now I am in Marcos Paz which is about 30 minutes from my area because we came here to have an activity with the Elders in my Zone. We ended up playing Paddle Ball (I think that would be the translation of it.... It´s like tennis and racket ball combined into one). It was fun. Then we went to the church and played soccer. Yeah they made the Hnas be goalie and I was awful... but so was my comp and she´s latin so I didn´t feel too bad... ha ha we both got hit in the head with the ball. Good times.

This week was great. It is getting really cold here right now which makes it a little bit harder to be excited to walk around in the street all day but good all the same. We were told that it was suppose to snow this weekend but didn´t so I guess I should count my blessings right? I now sleep with a two liter bottle of hot water to keep warm if that tells you about the level of heat in our apt. Ha ha but all good memories right? :)

This week we had the farewell meeting of Pte and Hna Benton. They will be heading back to the States on the 30th of June so only a few more days before we get a new mission president! I am really excited to meet our new President although it is a bit strange and sad to say goodbye to the Bentons. It will be interesting to see what things change with a new President and how the mission is affected. It was interesting because Pte Benton was telling us that his first transfer here they had 60 something converts and now every transfer since I have been here we have had more than 200. He truly is leaving a legacy and helped change our mission a ton so with a new President it will be interesting but everyone is excited!

Other news is that this will probably be my last week in Las Heras. So crazy! My comp has planned with all the members (ha ha ok so basically the Miguez Family) a going away party. The Bishop joked with me that everyone was going to wear black! It´s hard for me to imagine my mission anywhere else but in Las Heras but I really do feel that it is time for me to go. Leaving here will definitely help me grow a ton and as my favorite saying goes "If you´re not uncomfortable you´re not growing" so here it goes to growing pains! Also a plus is that it is almost certain that I will go close to the offices so I will get mail every week! Yahoo!

SIDE NOTE: I haven´t received any of the packages that you have sent.... I am hoping that I will this coming week when we have transfers....

This weekend we will also have the baptisms of the parents of a family we found during the first week of this transfer, the Flia Ferrari! It´s super exciting. They have had so many problems this transfer because the dad doesn´t have work and they are being evicted from their house (today). The Bishop has really been a blessing because he has taken them food etc and they are also helping with their housing problems. The Relief Society President has to go to their house to fill out the form and it made me think of Beth and definitely has strengthened my testimony that the church is the same everywhere.

Update on my spanish. I had to give a talk yesterday in church about patience... 1. I had one night to prepare it 2. I only had Ensigns in english so if I wanted to use a quote I had to tranlate it myself 3. I ultimately didn´t really have time to finish it, much less review it... Luckily I am a missionary and therefore I believe more blessed since everyone at least seemed to understand what I had said and told me that they had appreciated it. So I guess I am progressing :) Now but I feel tons more confident and can actually basically do everything on my own now as far as normal life talking to people goes. It´s still hard at times because I can´t communicate in spanish like I can in english... ha ha but then my comp reminds me of my favorite talk by Elder Utchdorf about Patience... ha ha which is also probably why I had to talk about it on Sunday as well!

Ok so my hands are so cold that typing this hurts my joints so this will probably be shorter than I had anticipated.... Man humid cold is FAR worse than dry cold.

I will end with a few thoughts that I had for my talk yesterday. I think that I send you all little thoughts about basically the same things but remember that the gospel is made up of small and simple principles that we need to consistantly work to develop so that therefore we can gain exaltation! :) Ok so there are 3 Types of Patience
1. Patience with yourself: This life is hard. And since we are not perfect we are going to make mistakes. And we are not going to progress as fast as we want to. Often we will not see results as quickly as we want to either. But patience is a divine quality and we need to remember that this life and the task of becoming perfect is a process!
2. Patience with everyone around us: My main purpose is talking about this was focused on the ideals of the prodigal son and the lost sheep. I read a story about how we need to always keep in mind that we don´t know everything about others and need to accept them and help them. I hope that none of us will be the reason that a less active member or a recent convert doesn not come to church because they feel that they are not worthy to do so due to the judgements of others. Also Pte Packer had a interesting article in the Feb Liahona where he talked about the fact that less active members etc are the one who need to have important assignments like talks etc to help them.
3. Patience with the Lord and His time: We don´t know how long it will take us to learn from our trials in this life or what we need to endure to learn and become the people that the Lord needs, but He does. The children of Israel had to wait for 40 years in the wilderness, jacob had to wait 7 years for Rachel, Joseph Smith had to wait so long in jail that he questioned the Lord, "How long?" God has a purpose and a plan and we need to have patience so that we can be perfected!

Ok I have to go!

I think about you often, pray for you always, and love you forever!

Hna Scanlon

Steadfast and Immovable

!Hola!

Yeah I got mail this week! Thanks for all of the letters. I love hearing from you all. This week was a busy one in that we had divisions and I went to Ramos Mejia for a day and we also had interviews with President Benton.

It was fun to go to the city for the day. Ramos is the area that includes the offices of the mission and is the closest to capital (I think). It was interesting because the people there were super cold and didn´t really want to talk to us! My comp thinks that I will be headed there for my next area so I guess I better get use to it?!? But I really loved it so I will be excited if I get transferred there. Also the members there help the missionaries a ton so that will be great as well.

My last interview with President was really good. It´s interesting how inspired mission presidents are. We mostly talked about my life after the mission (yeah I was a little shocked) So I took good notes so I could forget about the suggestions for now and then remember them later! :) We will get our new president (President Carter) around the first week of July I think. I can´t really remember when this transfer ends but something like that. We are all very excited and very much anticipating the change, although it is bitter sweet in that we have to say goodbye to President and Hermana Benton.

Other news this week is that we had stake conference and they are a little different here in Argentina in that it was a broadcast for all of the south portion of South America (I think) and Elders Anderson and Packer spoke and also Sister Wixom, oh and also Elder Zivic of the seventy who´s son was one of my teachers in the MTC :). It was really incredible to hear their talks. Elder Packer talked about following impressions of the spirit in our lives and that we will never be led astray. All in all really a cool experience. 
I am not sure if you heard but in Chile a volcano erupted last week and this week we have ashes all the way here in Buenos Aires. Crazy huh? It´s not a ton and basically just looks like really bad dust but definitely really interesting.

Hna Salazar and I have been working really hard to do our part so that the Lord can work miracles in the lives of the people here in Las Heras and this week we definitely saw those results. We had to travel about an hour to go to stake conference and we still had 6 investigators at church. It was so incredible. I´ve learned on the mission that every person comes with their own little bag of surprises and difficulties. How incredible it is that the gospel is made perfectly for all of them! One of the families that we are teaching right now is the Roman Family, which consists of 3 kids and their parents. They are incredible. The dad has been out of work for a few months and they own a store that sells cookies but as of now they are not getting any profit from their store. They were told a week ago that they have to be out of their house by this Wednesday and they have nowhere to go and no prospect of a job. Last week they accepted a date to be baptized of July 2 and we promised them that if they would put the Lord first in their lives then everything else would work together for their good. They are so incredible and I know that they are going through these trials because they needed to find the gospel. They told us that if it weren´t for these trials they never would have listened to us.... How incredible is it that God is so mindful of us and DEFINITELY has a plan for each one of us!

One of our other investigators is Eduardo. My FIRST week in Argentina (yes almost 5 months ago) Hna Daniels and I contacted him in the street. He was basically the town drunk but ever since then he has been gradually changing. He has stopped smoking and drinking, and now bathes and comes to church regularly!!! He also now has running water and electricity in his house which he hasn´t had for about a month. He also let me cut his hair last week!!! He is going to be baptized this weekend and I am super excited!

Another baptism that we have this week is Elena. She is incredible. She lives alone with her 13 yr old son Franco because her husband died a year ago today. I think she has more faith than anyone I have ever known. It´s crazy. When we showed her the video about the Restoration in the middle of it she told us, "This is my answer. The church is true." She always talks about how she feels like Christ is in the room with us and she loves the picture with Christ holding the lost sheep because she says that the sheep is her. :) Her biggest challenge is that she didn´t want to wear a skirt to church (remember the bag of surprises). But this week we took her a skirt and she has started to put it on and go for short walks so that she can get use to it. it´s truly amazing to me how faith works and motivates people to change their lives and what a message of hope this gospel is.

Ok in closing I wanted to share a few points from one of my favorite talks given by Elder Holland, "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence". In it he gives the example of Moses and the children of Israel in relation to our lives. He says that after we have paid the price to receive revelation from the Lord not to "let fear easily beset us.... The adversary does have power but he cannot conquer if we will it otherwise.... Everyone runs the risk of fear. You do, and I do." But what really matters is that we do not let that fear overpower us and have us doubt the confidence that we earlier received in our decisions. "Of course our faith will be tested as we fight through these self-doubts and second thoughts. Some days we will be miraculously led out of Egypt - seemingly free, seemingly on our way- only to come to yet another confrontation, like that water lying before of us. At those times we must resist the temptation to panic and to give up... Ánd Moses said unto the people, Fear yet not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.... the Lord shall fight for you´." I love this quote because I have seen it a lot since I have been here in Argentina and in my own life the self doubt of "Did I make the right choice?" I know that the Lord is leading and guiding our decisions every day and if we have Him in first place then we need not fear or doubt if we are heading in the right direction. Satan WILL tempt us to think otherwise and test our faith but we can stand firm and faithful in the truths that we know.

I love you all tons!
Think about you often, pray for you always, and love you forever!
Hna Scanlon

Mission Video

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B7AeaZHYBnhbYjhiZTVkMjgtMTVhYi00YWYxLTk2MTktZTRmNDc0ZTAxZmMx&hl=en_US&authkey=COvOzvgD

hey this is a video that some of the Elders made. I don´t think that there are pictures of me in this one but thought that you might like to see it none the less. 

Love you!
  Hna Scanlon

Knowing God

¡Hola!

Wow sounds like a crazy busy week for everyone! I still can´t believe that Anna is 8! Thanks for all the pictures etc. It was good to be able to at least see all the pictures. It´s kinda funny to see pictures of a baptism that is not a convert baptism since that is all that I see here... I found myself wondering "where are the missionaries?".I also wish that I could´ve been there but am glad that I wasn´t :)Ha ha the whiffle ball game sounds like it was a blast. I once had a very bad experience with whiffle ball in high school so I am not tooo sad that I missed it. Ha ha just kidding... we´ll have to play when I come home.

At every lunch appointment we have we give a little short lesson at the end of it. Yesterday it was my turn to give the lesson and this past week I had been reading in Alma 22 about Aaron and the conversion of King Lamoni. I love this whole story but in particular verse 18 where the King says that he would give away all his sins to know God. My companion then shared John 17:3 where is says that eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ, and how is it that we show that we know them? By doing the things in our lives that they would do if they were here.

I want to invite you all, as we did this family, to think about what "sins" or things you have in your life that is keeping you from knowing God or acting/doing the things that He would do if He were in your shoes. (Yes, that´s right I am always being a missionary :)

This week was really good. The weather here reminds me a lot of Idaho in that some days it is really warm and other days I am dying from the cold. But all in all it is pretty good. I can´t remember if I remembered to tell you that they literally dig huge trenches to capture all the water from the rain.... yeah winter should be pretty interesting here.

My new companion is incredible. I am learning tons and tons from her. One of the members in our ward talked to her about how as senior companion she should talk less than I do because I need to learn (yes the members here are basically like my family so they are always looking out for me). Not that she talked a ton more than I did before but now I talk a ton during lessons which is way helpful for my spanish! Including the fact that yesterday I taught Gospel Principles by myself! It went well so I was excited about that. Also during our testimony meeting the members basically just talked about how amazing the missionaries are and how they need to help us. So it looks like this week we will be having lots more lessons with members and Family Home Evenings :). It´s really great when hard work pays off and the Lord blesses us.

So I´ve found that when people yell things in the street it is really easy for me to not listen to what they say. So the other day we were walking in the street and a guy yelled "Dame la palabra del Señor"... I wasn´t really paying attention and then my comp looked at me and in english said, "Give me the word of the Lord". It was so funny that I laughed for probably like 10 minutes.

One of the biggest things that I learned from my companion is that is Argentine culture I am a bit cold. I tried to explain the concept of personal space (Yes, Cade I know right now you are singing the MC Hammer song, "Can´t Touch This") but apparently it just comes across that I don´t love the people. So well it´s true that I don´t really like to be touched... But I am working on it. I guess I never really thought about it that much before but my comp dropped the cane on me this week that I need to change that... SOOOO I am working on hugging people etc more... Ha ha we will see how it goes.... Goodbye personal space... But in all honesty it´s super awkward for me still (yes I taught my comp the word awkward to explain this situation since there isn´t really a good word in spanish) but I am pretty sure that it will get better :)

There was a change in things in the mission so I will only get mail about once every 3 weeks.... oh my. This was just a little FYI for you all :)

Ok I better go but am glad that we are an ETERNAL family. Know that I think about you all often, pray for you always, and love you forever!

Hna Escalon (ha ha that is how everyone says my name here.... it means stair :)