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.
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