Be Happy!

Hello my favorite family!

How are you all doing? This week was so great! I cannot believe how fast October has flown by! And of course as it is getting colder there things are getting a lot hotter here. I always thought that Idaho weather was crazy but Buenos Aires definitely tops it.... One day we have to use a jacket and something underneath and the next we are melting in short-sleeves. Oh my... I guess I am pretty tan already since like everyone is commenting on it. I personally feel that is a weird thing to notice about the missionaries but oh well. :) Also the mosquitos have come out... Oh my favorite part of Argentina. The craziest part is that they are out all day, not just in the night, and they can bite through any article of clothing! I guess I will just suffer for the next couple of months.

I forgot to tell you last week about the great "typically missionary" experience that I had! We were crossing the street and had to wait in the middle for a second for the cars to pass and a bus came by and some guy threw a half eaten piece of bread at us! Ha ha the best part was that it hit my companion in the head and then hit me in the head as well! My companion was super mad but I thought it was hilarious! Also walking down that same street this week someone threw an egg at us. Luckily they have terrible aim so it wasn´t even close... again I was loving it for the whole "being persecuted for Christ´s sake" and my companion was mad. Oh the mission experiences.

So the family I wrote you about last week, the Flia Solis, is SOOOO amazing! I love them so much and it is sooooo interesting to speak/teach in english. They are so incredible. They said to tell you all hi today. I was so excited in thier house this week. They have couches!!! And they have a box of rice crispie treats, fruit roll-ups, maple syrup etc. I was in heaven. AND I ate ranch!!!! Also the kids of the family (Daniela y Nico) went to church on Sunday. Nico is 8 so it was pretty interesting since I haven´t really been around kids in awhile! We were so blessed though because we were running super late and weren´t going to make it to church on time and just then a member pulled up along side of us and told us to get in her car! I love instantaneous blessings like that!

As a thought Cali sent me a quote that I want to share with you. "If you aren´t happy, change something. If you don´t want to change something, be happy".... Y si... don´t really have much more to add to that, happiness is a choice, not something that just happens! so BE HAPPY!

Alright I have to go now, but I think about you often, I pray for you always, and I love you forever!

Hna Scanlon

When we think that it is all more than we can bear...we find someone that speaks in english

Hey!

Thanks for the emails! I can see that you are all doing well! I cannot believe how fast time is flying by! I have been with my "daughter" for a month now! I really can´t believe it! I had a funny story to tell you all that happened this week but I left my agenda in the pench....oops. One funny thing was we were walking down the road one day and there were a bunch of chairs set up along the side of the road, in parade fashion, so I asked my comp if there was something that was going to happen today. She gave me a really blank looked and responded, "No I don´t think so, why?" I responded by pointing to the chairs and she just started laughing and told me, "No they are just selling those." Ha ha one of those cultural things again.

It´s always interesting the excuses that people come up with as to why they cannot come to church. I think it would be easier to just tell us no but hey maybe that is just my thought. One of our investigators is always telling us that he can´t come to church because he has to take care of his bees. I didn´t know that bees needed that much caretaking but hey what do I know? So this past week we had to go to the offices for a meeting and when our district leader called to tell us that we had to be there really early in the morning I responded that we couldn´t go because we had to take care of our bees... His repsonse "You have bees?!?" I responded, "No, but I just wanted to see if that excuse worked on anyone else but us." It was pretty funny. Argentina is an interesting place but I find myself loving it more and more every day!

This Saturday was also one of the greatest days. Saturdays are super stressful days because we have to pass by for all of our investigators to make sure that they are going to church and also try and meet all of our goals for the week since we won´t have very much time on Sunday. So as we were walking around contacting people I saw a girl sitting behind this gate with her brother. I thought to myself "well they look a little young, but hey we´ll contact them anyway". As I started talking to her, she said to me in broken spanish, "Sorry I only speak in english!" I could´ve cried. I was so excited! I exclamed back "Me too!" And in that moment I think that she could´ve cried. Her name is Danielle and she and her family recently moved here from California because both of her parents are from here but she and her brother were born in the United States. They have only been living here for about 5 months so the language is still a struggle for her. Her brother who is 8 was standing in the background yelling, "I hate spanish!", it was pretty funny. It was super hard for me to talk about the gospel in english though...I guess I am really only a spanish missionary! I kept having to translate what I would normally say in spanish into english in my head...it was interesting. And they she asked me if I could say a prayer in english for her!!! It was SOOOO incredible. What is really the miracle is that they were waiting for their parents outside because they were moving into a new apt, if not we NEVER would have found them because their apt is behind a bunch of stores and is not very accesible. As we helped them move all their stuff in I was loving my life because they had things like microwave popcorn and all their boxes were written in english like "food" and "books". They are so great and a complete family which is always hard to find so we are super excited to help them progress!

Also on Saturday we were walking down the street and passed by two boys. It took me a few seconds but I realized that they were talking in english! I then yelled after them, "Hey, do you know english?". They turned around shocked and responded "yes". I guess that they had both lived in Florida for some period of time and are now studying here. Again it was really hard to explain to them exactly who we were and what we were doing in english.

This Sunday in church we heard a talk from our stake president where he shared a story about the end of his mission. As he was having his final interview with his mission president, he only asked him two questions, "Did you do everything the Lord wanted you to do?" Wow when he said that question it made me think really hard...and the second question "Did you work the hardest that you possibly could?". Obviously this applies not only to me as a mission but also to all of us in this life. I really feel like the mission is a "mini life" where I have found many applications for the things that I am learning here to be used for the rest of my life. Are we all doing all we can the help the Lord build His kingdom here on earth and the prepare not only ourselves, but everyone to be prepared to meet their God? I found that they hardest thing for me as a missionary and I think for all of us in our lives is consistancy. Anyone can be a fantastic disciple of Christ for one day, one month, or even 1 1/2 years :) but can we do it for our whole lives. Do we make Christ a part of who we are? I love this quote that Dad sent to me from Elder Maxwell:

When in situations of stress we wonder if there is any more
In us to give, we can be comforted to know that God,
Who knows our capacity perfectly, placed us here to succeed.
No one was foreordained to fail or be wicked.

When we have been weighed and found wanting,
Let us remember that we were measured before
And we were found equal to our tasks, and, therefore
Let us continue, He will not press upon us more than
We can bear.

I know that God not only loves us but knows us perfectly. He knows what He sent us here to accomplish and if we let Him, He will lead us by the hand.

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

Hna Scanlon

The following is a video of Hna Scanlon. Her companion is filming and Obispo Cristeche is on the left. It's pretty funny.

Nothing Goes Unnoticed

Hey All!

Sorry that I didn´t get an email sent out yesterday... it was a CRAZY P-day so I am sending you a quick note today. Yesterday we had a little training as trainers and our new comps so we were in the offices of the mission in the morning and then had lunch there as well and played some games afterwards. It was really fun since we don´t get to be in big groups of missionaries very often. Ha ha I love that little things are so exciting in my life now! I also got to see Hna Tucker which was super great! We were talking about the fact that we need to register in Feb and find housing like in Jan. How crazy fast time is passing...

I have been enjoying the pictures that Cali sent for the past two weeks. I think I look at them all EVERY day. I cannot believe how big all of the kids are getting. How crazy! Especially Kyle and Carolyn´s kids since it has been so long since I have seen them... And Luke! Wow he looks completely different. Tell them all to stop growing until I get home ok?

This past week we had interviews with Pres. Carter and his wife. It was so incredible. They are so amazing. He has helped me so much and more than anything I can feel how much the Lord loves me through the love that Pres. Carter has for us. His wife works really hard to have pictures updated on the blog of the mission so there are a few from last week´s conference so you should check that out.

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking a lot about the past year and if I could change it, would I? This morning I was reading in D&C 49:27 where it says, "Behold, I will go before you and be your rearward; and I will be in your midst, and you shall not be confounded." I loved this scripture especially coupled with D&C 84:116 "Let him trust in me and he shall not be confounded; and a chair of his head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed." I love these two scriptures because the Lord is with us in everything and as we put forth our best effort, it will never be enough, but He will always be there to make up the rest and as we put our trust in Him we will never be "confused" about our decisions but will have the gentle confirmation of the spirit that what we are doing is the will of the Lord. He knows all of our trials and our successes, nothing goes unnoticed. I am so grateful for the opportunity that the Lord has given me to be an instrument in His hands to bless lives. I would not change where I am and what I am doing right now for anything in the world. I am grateful to all of you for the person that you have helped me to become, but I am eternally grateful for the person the Lord is shaping me into now. Although I miss you all more than I can even express and we all know that I don´t deal with change very well, I am happier now than I have ever been in my whole life. Thank you all for all your prayers on my behalf and for all the love and support that you give to me.

I know that this is the work of the Lord so that He can "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life" of all of His children. I love where I am , what I am doing, and who I am becoming.

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

Hna Scanlon

Stand Up And Speak Out

(Showing off the dirt from a hard day's work!)

¡Hi All!

It was so good to hear from you this week! First off my birthday was so great! And also super funny. That morning I received a text message from our Bishop telling me to head over to his house because he had a package for me for my birthday! Ha ha so first thing we headed to his house and he gave me the package and we sat and ate skittles and M&Ms and Hot Tamales!! I was in heaven. Thanks Cali for all the pictures, it was absolutely perfect. Also thanks for the grape juice packets. It´s interesting because in Argentina they have literally every other flavor of juice besides grape! Also thanks for the tattoos... All the little girls have loved me this week!

On my birthday we also went to one of my favorite member´s house and they made me a cake and sang happy birthday to me. Then when we finished it was raining so hard that they convinced us to cut head holes in plastic trash bags and then put them over us, not letting us cut arm holes because then our arms would get wet. It was pretty funny. Secretly the whole time I was hoping I didn´t fall because I could just imagine breaking off all my teeth!

We also went to a families house to make them brownies. yeah I really can´t cook very well so they didn´t turn out the greatest but hey it´s the effort that matters right!?!

Other than those exciting moments it was a pretty low key week. My companion is really great. I figured out something this week. I think that all Chileans are DEATHLY afraid of frogs (Kyle you can reaffirm this for me). I have only known 3 Chileans in the mission and every single one of them has a phobia of frogs. But really really bad. I don´t think that I have ever really seen anything quite like it. It would have been funny it my companion hadn´t been so scared since after it rains here there are almost literally a billion in the street.

From Dad´s email I have been thinking a lot about the importance of "standing up and speaking up" that Elder Holland talked about in his talk. Well obviously I don´t know what exactly was said but I love the well know scripture in Timothy that says, "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." Sometimes the hardest thing that we have to do is to be an example of the believers because it is such a popular trend in the world today to rely on the philosophies of men and to lean on our own understanding. I love the opportunity that I have to be with a new missionary because I can really see how much I have grown in the mission, more than anything in my testimony. I love that I look for any opportunity that I can find to share with those around me who I am and what I know. Yesterday my Bishop called me "sin verguenza" meaning that I have no shame. This is almost 100% true. I love this work and I love the people here. I know that it is God´s work and His glory "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life" of all of His children! I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to help Him with His work here in Argentina! I hope that we can all be examples of the believers EVERY day because whether you get to wear His name on a plack on your chest every day or you a wearing it in your heart it is the same.... People are watching you and your actions because they know who you are and who you represent!

I love you all so much!

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

Hna Scanlon

Pictures

Hermana Scanlon requested that this week's email be just for family. She is doing well, but doesn't want to share some things with the whole world. She did, however, send pictures, so here they are!

Hooray for American candy!

She is training! Woohoo! Her cute 'hija' is Hermana Cadiz from Santiago, Chile and Jordan thinks she's so awesome!

One of the best parts of my week was that I got to meet the Bishop of her current ward. Cool, huh? Obispo Cristeche is visiting Utah for General Conference and has been communicating with our dad via email to arrange tickets to Conference and so that I could meet him and pick up a package from Jordan.

I was on the way to the airport, so only planned to stay 15 or 20 minutes, but I ended up staying an hour and had to rush to catch my flight. It was so cool to speak a little Spanish and hear about Jordan and meet someone who knows her as a missionary. I am confident that she is doing very well and that the members are taking good care of her. He repeatedly told me that she is an excellent missionary. :)