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