The Future Of The Mission Is In Your Hands

¡Hola!

¿Cómo estan? Wow what a crazy week. My old companion Hna Urdapilleta goes home tomorrow along with my old companions Hna Duarte and Hna Salazar. It´s funny that basically all of my old companions are leaving this transfer! I guess I´ve had the best examples that the mission had to offer me as far as my training goes! As for my new companion for today I am with Hna Tucker because my new companion doesn´t arrive until tomorrow! I have no idea (and neither does President) if she will be from the states or a latin! Ha ha that´s right... I don´t know who she is because I am training!!! Yeah I am a little scared but I trust in the fact that I am an instrument in the Lord´s hands and He knows what He is doing far more than I do! So this coming week will be really interesting!

This past week was really interesting as my companion had a lot of things to do to get ready to go home. We went into the offices of the mission three times this week which involved a 1 hour bus ride each way! Ha ha tons of fun! I also got to go on divisions with Hna Tucker in her area also with another American named Hna Johnson. It was fun and really different to be with Americans for an extended period of time!

Also this week we had the baptism of Juan! He is so incredible. It was so amazing to see the change that came over him after his baptism and confirmation. And also to see the ward really reach out to him. Such an incredible blessing to be able to help the Lord in His work.

Dad sent me this quote and I really liked it so I decided to share it with you all.
"We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ, The Bible sits on the pulpits of hundred of different religious sects. The Book of Mormon, the record of Joseph, verifies and clarifies the Bible. It removes stumbling blocks, it restores many plain and precious things. We testify that when used together, the Bible and the Book of Mormon confound false doctrine, lay down contentions, and establish peace." (2 Nephi 3:12) - Pres. Thomas S. Monson

It really is so true. The Book of Mormon changes lives and so does the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have seen it not only in the lives of the people here in Argentina but in my own life as well. The Bible and the Book of Mormon together really are the word of God and through both of these books and the doctrines found in them we can find more peace and happiness in this life and in the life to come! I love this work!

I love you all!

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

Hna Scanlon

Miracles

Hey!!!

Another week has gone by. I swear that they just keep going by faster and faster. Thanks for all your love and support. I really can feel all your prayers in my behalf and I really appreciate it.

So this week I really learned that God is still a God of miracles. A few months ago a friend sent me this scripture in 2 Nephi 27:23. I think I might have already sent this to you but it´s worth sending again, especially since I lived it this week. It says "...I am God and I am a God of miracles and I will show the world that I am the same yesterday, today and forever, but I only work among the children of men, according to their faith" (sorry if i slaughtered that, I had to translate from my spanish scriptures!). This coming Saturday we are going to have a baptism!!! A friend of one of the members is going to get baptized! His name is Juan and he really is a miracle. I really didn´t have faith in him specifically but I had faith in the fact that the Lord was preparing people to accept our message. As of about 3 weeks ago he wanted NOTHING to do with us. But we were presistent and every time we saw him in the house of his friends we taught him the pure and simple truths of the gospel. Mostly about Joseph Smith and how he could know if this message was from God. What an incredible promise! In Preach My Gospel it says that the biggest miracle that we can see in our lives in the miracle of conversion and I definitely know that is true. As we put our faith into action, I know that we can all see miracles in our own lives and know that God loves us and has a

plan for every one of us in this life.

Elder Aidukaitis came and visited the mission this week. Everyone was super scared for him to come but it was so incredible. He is an incredible man. He also challenged us to live worthy enough, work hard enough, and have enough faith that we can see miracles in the mission because miracles are not a given, as the scripture says, they are according to our faith.

This week is the last week of the transfer and then my comp is going home!!!! Wow so crazy how fast time goes by. Ha ha actually all of the last 3 comps that I have had are leaving this transfer. It´s crazy because when I got here they had the same time that I now have and I thought that they were soooo old in the mission! :)

I love you all tons and tons!

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

Hna Scanlon

I stole these pics from here.

Trust

(we're currently having a picture drought, so I'm getting a little creative)

¡Hola!

First off I just wanted to say thanks for always writing me every week. I love reading my emails every week. It makes me feel so much closer to home.

I can´t believe that it was the 10 year anniversary of 9-11 this week. How quickly time passes. There were quite a few people who asked me about it; what I thought about the anniversary of it etc. It is interesting to me that there really were quite a few people asking me about it. I am not sure if there was a lot of news coverage since we don´t have access to a television but I am thinking not really.

Ha ha so this past weekend was Grandparent´s Day huh? Wow the USA is starting to become like Argentina. I think they celebrated the Day of the Child like 3 different days this year. There is also the Day of the Friend etc... Ha ha it´s pretty funny. I am surprised that Hallmark hasn´t capitalized on this country yet. They would make a fortune with all the "holidays" here. :)

This past week was a fairly calm week. This coming week we will have a meeting with Elder Aidukaitis so everyone is talking about that. Remember that we are missionaries so any news is BIG news. :) The weather here is also starting to get hot. During the day I can just wear short-sleeves and be ok. And I also don´t have to wear nylons anymore!!!! I am SO excited. I am guessing that is probably more information than you all wanted to have...

This week I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 29 and I loved on part specifically in verse 20.  It says "...thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of cmercy towards them that put their dtrust in him." I love that because the Lord is always there, ready and willing to "extend" His arms of "mercy towards them that put their trust in Him". I know that I can see the difference daily as I try to do it on my own and slip and fall 100 times before I am humbled enough to put my trust in the Lord and do things in His way. As we put our all of our trust in Him, He will comfort and consol us and lead us by the hand in the path that we need.

I love you all tons!

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

Hna Scanlon

Emergency Entrance

¡Hi to all!

I sounds like you are all doing well and had a fun filled weekend! Ha ha I totally forgot that it was Labor Day Weekend and was a little confused as to why there was a long weekend until I was actually told that is was Labor Day Weekend. I guess that is probably a good thing and means that I am focused on the work. :)
How is everything going with everyone?! I can´t believe that we are already in SEPTEMBER! I am loving it here because it is starting to feel like spring. I never realize how much I miss the sun until it starts setting and rising earlier. I feel like the changes in seasons are more drastic here but maybe it is just because I pay more attention to it than I did in the states and it feel like time passes more quickly here! But it is already starting to get like at 6:30 when we have to get up!

Today we had to travel quite a bit because since my companion is finishing her mission she can go to her old areas to say goodbye to some of her converts. So as we were travelling I had some time to think and I was thinking about some things that have changed about me since I left ha ha so here is a little list for you.

1. I love bananas now. I don´t know if it is just in Argentina or what I but I love them, I eat like 1 kilo by myself every week. The best dessert in the world is dulce de leche and a banana... yum

2. This week Beth´s kids sent me an email and Anna asked me what animals I am seeing. Well this leads me to my second point. I don´t really like dogs anymore. I was never a huge animal person before but I have almost been bitten by so many and most of them I am sure have flees... so I have learned to really not like them. Other than that because I am in the city I don´t see too many animals. Oh parrots fly around wild here which is pretty cool.

3. I can now wash laundry by hand pretty effectively. Ok it´s not the same as a washer but I also don´t spend my whole P-day washing clothes...  so I am thinking that this is progress.

4. I am now tall, blond, and have light colored eyes... ha ha at least that is the Argentine perception of me. It´s super funny to me still that everyone calls me "the blond one".

5. I now snort. I hadn´t come to grips with this yet and was denying it until yesterday when we were talking to some Elders and everyone was laughing, but relatively quietly, and I started snorting... oh my how embarrassing. I have no idea why and I am hoping that it will go away after the mission. But as for now it is a reality of life that I am learning to cope with. It at least makes things entertaining.

6. I will basically eat anything now. I feel really rude when people offer me food and I say no so I have learned to eat just about anything. Luckily Argentine food is really good so it isn´t usually a trial for me to eat it! :)

7. I have learned to be more patient with people and have more love for them and to listen more than I want to be listened to. Obviously I still have a long way to go but it is something that I am working on every day.

8. I love reading the Book of Mormon! Especially in Spanish. I honestly never thought I would say that because I always struggled with reading my scriptures before but now I can really see what a resource they are for us in our daily lives.

Ha ha I am sure that there is more that has changed but for the most part those are the funny things.
In church on Sunday the lady giving the class in Relief Society made an interesting comment. She said that every time she looks at the emergency exit signs she thinks that they should read emergency entrance because the church is where we go to be healed from all our worldly wounds. I loved that because a lot of times our investigators or recent converts think that they aren´t worthy to go to church. And a lot of times we as members view church as a task, as one more thing that we have to do in our week. But to be able to go to church and seek refuge from the world is a blessing that is given to everyone! If is wasn´t important and to help us in our daily lives, do you think God would have made it a commandment?

I love this gospel and the opportunity that I have to be a missionary. I love being able to take the love and blessings that I have received from Heavenly Father and from all of you and share these things with the people that I meet every day.

I love you all so much! Thanks for all your love and support!

Hna Scanlon