The Heart of a Mormon

¡Hola!

Yet again, time to write another letter to you all. This past week here it was FREEZING!!! But really though I was so cold! Last night I even slept with a hot water bottle... don´t worry I made sure that is wasn´t too hot so that it didn´t burn me again like last winter!! :) Today though it seems to be warming up so that is good. Hopefully it will stay nice for at least a few more weeks!

Yesterday was one of the coolest sacrament meetings that I have had on my mission. Since it was the fifth Sunday of the month the theme of sacrament meeting was missionary work!! Of course when it was brought up that one of the missionaries should talk (there are 6 now in the ward that I am in) the Elders jumped at the chance to volunteer me... The Elder´s excuse was that I am leaving soon. The ironic part is that both he and his companion are coming home with me as well. I was quick to point that out but the damage was already done. So in typical me fashion I "stewed" about it all week, as mom would put it, writing about 3 different talks as I was on sure what exactly I wanted to share. Well when Sunday finally came we got there to realize that 1. we were going to have a confirmation 2. about 5 people were suppose to talk 3. all the missionaries were suppose to sing and 4. we started sacrament meeting about 20 minutes late. So in short I ended up basically just giving my testimony and then sitting down. So I didn´t actually end of giving any of the talks that I hade written! ha ha oh good times. :)

This week was fantastic though as we had a BAPTISM!! A young man named Jonathan got baptized!! It was so incredible. We also had other investigators that came to the baptism and they loved it. It really was one of the most spiritual baptisms that I have been to! It was interesting because jonathan has shoulder length hair that he usually wears in a pony tail but when he changed into his white clothes he left it down, and to be honest he really looked a lot like Jesus. I wasn´t the only one that thought that either. I was kinda laughing to myself about that as he and our ward mission leader got into the font and then I looked at the picture on the wall of Jesus being baptized by John the baptist and I could just feel the spirit so strong. This really is what it is all about. The first step that we take to make it back to our Heavenly Father!!! Then after he was baptized it was so interesting to see the change in his face when he came out of the water. It is truly incredible how when we keep the commandments of God he really does bless us and as we come unto Him we really do change and not just in a spiritual sense but physically as well. Anyways all in all this weekend was definitely one of the best in my 
mission.

On a lighter note, yesterday we got to a members house and I went to pull up the socks that I was wearing in my boots since they always fall down. I fixed one side just fine but when I got to the other side I couldn´t find my sock!!! I finally pulled my boot all the way off to see if it was stuck down in the toe of the boot and I just couldn´t feel it... nope. I was quite confused as to what had happend and my comp and the family were quite amused and couldn´t stop laughing. Well last night when we got home I found my sock laying on the floor of the pench. I guess in my rush to leave I just hadn´t put it one... So the moral is that I am just as crazy as I have always been. :)

Yesterday we went to the house of some members to eat lunch. The mom was telling us how this past week her son had to get some breathing treatments so they were talking him to the doctor every couple of days. The doctor that they always went to see soon became a good friend to them and the mom of this family told me that she had been praying for a opportunity to share the gospel with this lady. Finally on one of the last days, the doctor pulled in one of the older kids in the family and said, "I just love your daughter, I don´t know what it is but something is different about her.". The mom saw her opportunity and responded, "could it be the heart of a mormon?". This response lead to a deeper discussion about the church and the mom asked us to give her a book of mormon to take to the doctor so that she could begin reading it. At first I thought to myself, "what a strange response" but as my companion and I left and every sense I have been contemplating what does it mean to have "the heart of a mormon"? This morning I read the talk by Elder Andersen from this past conference entitled, "What does Christ think of me?" and loved some of the suggestions of what a true disciple of Christ is. It really is more than just actions, it is what we are, what we have in our hearts. This is what others notice, this is what makes us different. One of the scriptures that he used that I really like is found in Lucas 9: 23 and I liked this scripture because it talks about how we must take up our crosses EVERY day. I think this is something that I have definitely learned on my mission. Every day we have to choose to serve Christ. To really be His disciples. I am not sure why but for some reason I had felt that it was like a check-list and once the decision was made that was it. But this is so not true. One of my favorite quotes in preach my gospel talks about how the gospel is made up of steps that we are meant to take not only once in our lives but many times EVERY day. So for me this is one of the biggest indicators of a disciple of Christ, the firm resolve to make choose EVERY day whom we will serve! To every day be a little be better in the process and I think gradually it will probably get a little bit easier. In my studies this morning that was one of the things that I thought of that makes a "heart of a mormon" but I am curious to see what you all think... truly was does make a "heart of a mormon"?!?

Well I think that is all for this week! I love you tons! Hope all is well with all of you! I miss you like crazy!

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

Hna Scanlon

(The view from my apartment)

FYI...I'm Still Alive!

¡HI!

SORRY!! (she was 3 days late sending her email. We were only freaking out a little!) I just wanted to write you all a letter and tell you that I did not in fact die... just that we had problems with internet this week and I couldn´t get an email sent out to you until today... and with that I actually don´t have any time to email you... I am just going to print out my emails to read them and then I will have p-day again on Monday so I will respond to everything then!

For these few days I get to be with Hna Tucker because she is staying in our pench until she goes home... so that has been a lot of fun! Really strange that she is leaving though... I sure am going to miss her.

Things here in Ramos Mejia are really good. No I didn´t get transferred and neither did my companion. We were pretty happy about that. :)

Thanks for the emails this week. I will enjoy reading them tonight when I get a moment (there are 5 of us in the apartment right now so I am not sure when that will happen! :)

I hope that you are all happy and healthy! Oh pray for me on Sunday I have to give a talk in church... oh geeze. Hope it goes well. 

I am doing really well!

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

Hna Scanlon

(Familia Caballero)

Continue on in PATIENCE

¡Hola!

How are things going for you all?!? I hope that they are going well! As usual I can´t believe that another week has FLOWN by!

This week was a lot more laid back then the last week. So there aren´t as many things to report. Honestly I am struggling to remember what specifically happened this past week! They all just kind of seem to blend together! Last week I forgot to mention that we found this AMAZING investigator... but really though like so incredible. His name is Jonathan and he is basically a saint. One lesson that we had with him this week he started off by saying that there were major things in his life that he needed to change... in my mind I am thinking oh great he smokes or drinks etc... then he finished by saying that he thinks about himself too much and that it really is a huge problem for him in his life.... wow. As usual I am learning more from my investigators then I can possibly teach them!

This morning I was reading one of my favorite conference talks of all time again, Continuing in Patience by Elder Utchdorf. It really is so incredible and I am sure that I have already shared things with all of you from it before but I love it a lot and I think that we can all always remember to be more patient, especially with ourselves. Elder Utchdorf says, "Often the deep valleys of our present will be understood only by looking back on them from the mountains of our future experience. Often we can´t see the Lord´s hand in our lives until long after the trials have passed. Often the most difficult times of our lives are essential building blocks that form the foundation of our character and pave the way to future opportunity. understanding, and happiness". 

Elder Utchdorf continues, "Patience is a process of perfection. The Savior Himself said that in your patience you possess your souls. Or, to use another translation of the Greek text, in your patience you win mastery of your souls. Patience means to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than in the recieving that we grow the most. This was true in the time of the Savior. It is true in our time as well, for we are commanded in these latter days to ¨continue in patience until ye are perfected¨." 
"... the work of patience boils down to this: keep the commandments, trust in God... serve Him with meekness and Christlike love, exercise faith and hope in the Savior and never give up. The lessons we learn from patience will cultivate our character, lift our lives, and heighten our happiness."

I know that what Elder Uchtdof said is true. As we continue on in patience God can make more out of us then we can. I love the analogy of the mountains and valleys... maybe because I am missing them a little bit and also because I love the poem "It´s in the valleys that you grow". SO TRUE!!! It also makes me think of Janet Evan´s favorite quote "The harder the climb, the better the view!". This life is suppose to give us experience and help us grow but also "men are that they might have JOY"!!! So to all I would say CONTINUE ON IN PATIENCE!! It´s not just about enduring it´s about "enduring well"!

I love you all tons. Thanks for all that you do to love and support me! God really does send angels to bless our lives, I have just been lucky enough to have them as friends and family members! Continue to send dearelders and letters :) I love getting them!!!

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

Hna Scanlon

(Yes, she is opening the baptismal font with a fork. Gotta love the mission!)

The Focus of Our Faith

¡Hola Mi Familia!

What a crazy week! Lots of weeks I feel like I don´t have much to tell you but this week is DEFINITELY an exception! The excitment started on Monday when we went out to work and found a family from Paraguay that has 9 people in it!!!! So incredible and they actually want to listen to us! So we will see how that goes. The mom in the family actually reminds me of Chris Smith...it´s kinda funny but a nice little piece of home. 

Tuesday it would be safe to say was a no good very bad day. BUT luckily I had heard Elder Wirthlin´s talk "Come what may and love it" that morning so my companion and I decided to just laugh about everything. To start with I wasn´t feeling very well that day. For some reason I felt light headed like ALL day wich was weird. So as we were walking in the street there are always these puddles of water along the curbs... well thinking that I could clear it I went to jump and landed right on the end of the water where there just happened to be a nice growth of mold... needless to say I slipped and went hurttling to ground, landing directly in the water. THEN when I tried to get up I slipped again and feel again into the water. My comp only saw the second fall but started laughing as soon as she saw that I was laughing. I was pretty wet, my bag included and with a few scrapes but for the most part just my pride was injured. I asked my comp if she thought anyone had seen me fall... When she said no I think she was a little surprised at my response of, "Dang it, that was good at least someone else could have enjoyed watching it!". There was a train passing on the other side of the street so maybe some bored passenger got to see a good show and got a laugh out of it... :)

On Wednesday we had an appointment with THE family so we were super excited all day. When we got to their house it was pretty windy outside but not too bad so we started talking to them just outside their house on the sidewalk. Within a few minutes it started raining like crazy and so we entered into their house to finish teaching them. Within about 5 minutes after that there was a ton of noise from the wind and then this huge crashing sound... I literally thought the house was going to break apart.... and they live in the middle of the block sharing walls with their neighbors on each side. When we looked outside there was literally a river flowing down the street and a ROOF from one of the neighboring houses in the door of the house that we were in. I looked at my companion and said, "I don´t think we should leave just yet!" Within the next 10 minutes the river that was in the street had gotten so large that the family was worried about it entering into their house (which a little bit of water eventually did). It really was SOOOO crazy... We watched colectivos (buses) come by that were having a hard time because of all of the water. After about 30 minutes the stormed stopped and so then we just had to wait for the water to leave the streets. When we finally left it didn´t seem like the damaged was too bad.. that was until we walked by a car dealership. All the windows were smashed out and the tiles/lights were all falling from the ceiling. On Thursday we could see more of the destruction in the daylight with trees literally being ripped from their roots out of the ground. It really is so crazy. People are still doing a lot of clean-up stuff but mostly it is back to normal. We were really blessed here in that we didn´t lose any power in out apt or anything. Some missionaries have had to be relocated in the mission due to lack of water and electricity, but no worries we are all safe and good here, especially in my area!

It was really incredible to share with people a message of the true reason that we celebrate Pascua (Easter). I found a quote that I really loved from Pte Hinckley, He states, "We know not all that lies ahead of us. We live in a world of uncertainty. For some, there will be great accomplishment. For others, disappointment. For some, much of rejoicing and gladness, good health, and gracious living. For others, perhaps sickness and a measure of sorrow. We do not know. But one thing we do know. Like the Polar Star in the heavens, regardless of what the future holds, there stands the Redeemer of the world, the Son of God, certain and sure as the anchor of our immortal lives. He is the rock of our salvation, our strength, our comfort, the very focus of our faith. 

(Me with Perla, a lady who got baptized a few weeks ago)

In sunshine and in shadow we look to Him, and He is there to assure and smile upon us.
He is the central focus of our worship. He is the Son of the living God, the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten in the flesh. He is ´risen from the dead... the firstfruits of them that slept´... None so great has ever walked the earth. None other has made a comparable sacrifice or granted a comparable blessing. He is the Savior and the Redeemer of the world. I believe in Him. I declare His divinity without equivocation or compromise. I love Him. I speak the name of Jesus Christ in reverence and wonder. He is our King, our Lord, our Master, the living Christ, who stands on the right hand of His father. He lives! He lives, resplendent and wonderful, the living Son of the living God."

I have seen how this messages changes lives. It has changed mine and countless millions across the world. This is the messages that we have for the entire world, that the Garden Tomb was empty, and because it was eventually all tombs will be empty. 

I know that God lives and that Jesus Christ is His son and that He too lives. He guides this church to help us return to live with Him and His father in happiness forever. 

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

Hna Scanlon

Choose You This Day Whom You Will Serve

This is the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, UT

¡Hi My Family!

How are you all doing? Sounds like it was an exciting Conference weekend! My companion and I were exciting all week for the weekend and talked with EVERYONE about the chance that they would have to come and listen to a living prophet and receive more guidance in their lives.
It really was incredible and so amazing to share this with the people here. It was really incredible because we were able to bring people to almost every session. How powerful the spirit is when you know that you have someone sitting next to you that is listening to a prophet of God for the first time. But as a consequence of trying to get all of our investigators to the church I actually ended up missing a good portion of conference so I look forward to reading the talks when they come out! Does anyone know when they will be available online? Mostly I would like to get Elder Holland´s talk asap since I missed most of it....

This is the interior of the Conference Center

There really isn´t much to report on my end of things. I loved the conference talks. In between the sessions on Saturday I was only half listening to what was being said but I heard one man say, "You become what you think about the most." I really liked that because I know that is definitely true. I think that a lot of the biggest battle in life is a mental battle with ourselves. That was one of the biggest things that I got out of conference. We have to learn to let the power of the atonement work in our lives and forgive EVERYONE... including ourselves, which a lot of times is the hardest. I know that we are free to choose what we want (2 Nephi 2:27) and that "our eternal destiny with not be the result of chance but of choice" ( Elder Bennett Oct 2011 Conference). I hope that we can choose this day, as Pres. Eyring challenges and as we can read in the bible, to serve the Lord and do what He would have us do. Only through this can we have LASTING peace and happiness.

I love you all!

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

Hna Scanlon

I got all of these photos here.

Waiting Upon the Lord

Hi All!!

I hope that this past week was a fantastic week for you all! It was a really good week here. It is starting to feel more and more like fall every day so that is nice. I now have to wear a jacket when we leave in the mornings so I guess that must mean that the weather is getting hotter for you all. Also the days are noticeably shorter... I don´t really like that but it´s ok.

This week was kinda exciting. On Saturday we planned to have a baptism... ha ha planned being the chosen word. It ended up that in the middle of filling up the font hours before the baptism the church water supply ran out... yeah I am not really sure how that would happen... so we ended up having the baptism on Sunday!! Then the water was ice cold because apparently the hot water in the font doesn´t work investigator) still ended up getting baptized and she is so excited to be a member that she said even though the water was cold she just felt this warm feeling the whole time!!! After she was baptized she just started crying! I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!! I guess all the problems that we had to go through to get her and every other investigator into the waters of baptism are definitely worth it right?!?

So I have been reading through all the conference talks again to get ready for this next weekend! And I want to share with you all some pieces from Elder Hales talk entitled, "Waiting upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done". He started off by talking about how many of us may question why we have to go through so many difficulties in this life, why isn´t it all easier? His response is as follows, "As we ask these questions, we realize that the purpose of our life on earth is to grow, develop, and be strengthened through our own experiences. How do we do this? The scriptures give us an answer in one simple phrase: we ´wait upon the Lord.´ Tests and trials are given to all of us. These mortal challenges allow us and our Heavenly Father to see whether we will exercise our agency to follow His Son. He already knows, and we have the opportunity to learn, that no matter how difficult our circumstances, áll these things shall be for our experience, and....our good.´ He continues that we will all have occasion in our lives to ask why we have to pass through these trials but that as we have increased faith we will answer with "thy will be done".

Elder Hales continues, "What then, does it mean to wait upon the Lord? In the scriptures, the word wait means to hope, to anticipate, and to trust. To hope and to trust in the Lord requires faith, patience, humility, meekness, long-suffering, keeping the commandments, and enduring to the end... We may no know when or how the Lord´s answers will be given, but in His time and His way, I testify, His answers will come. For some answers we may have to wait until the hereafter...Let us not give up on the Lord. His blessings are eternal, not temporary".

In closing he shares the scripture in Isaiah 40:31 "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with the wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint."

I know that this is true for all of us. As we accept the will of God in our lives and learn from our day to day experiences, God will give us the strength to not only make is through and become perfected through Christ, but to also find joy in our journey... for that is why we were sent here... to HAVE JOY!!!

Well I have to go! But I love you all! For Conference I want to give you all a special invitation to invite someone to go with you (or to go yourself if you weren´t planning on going). At the beginning of my mission I was afraid to invite people to conference because I had the fear that they would be bored.,.. I was so wrong. If anyone can bring the spirit and help others understand the gospel, you can bet it will be the living prophets and apostles that we have to help lead and
guide us in our days. I know that this is God´s true church. Now is the time to open our mouths and let others know the truth as well.

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

Hna Scanlon

The Humbling Experience of This Thing Called Life...

¡Hola Mi Familia y Todos los demas! :)

During this week I have thought a lot about what I would say to you all in my letter. As I look back on the week I feel like as always this week has probably been one of the weeks of biggest growth in my mission. It was super hard for me to say goodbye to Hna Pullan and even harder since she was transferred to Billinghurst with Hna Tucker!! I was SUPER jealous! But also really happy. They will have a lot of fun together. So my new companion is HERMANA JOHNSON!!! Ha ha so yup you guessed it, she is from the United States... ha ha Orem, Utah in fact. The first few days with Hna Johnson were interesting because we were also with Hna Danes, who was her trainer and also one of the hnas that I was with in the MTC. It was stressful because I had to lead them both in my area which is pretty large and I have only been here for 6 weeks but it went well and it was fun to teach with 2 other missionaries for a change.  

I feel like I am really at an interesting point in my mission right now. I guess that I thought that at some point I would "arrive" or in other words feel like I was the perfect missionary. Maybe that happens for others but that is definitely not my story. I feel the more I learn, the more I know that there is so much more I need to learn. I was truly very discouraged for a few days. Then I had the chance to talk with one of the Hnas before she left to go to her house. (Interesting side note, all the Hermanas stay with us for their last few days in the mission field, ha ha it´s really fun and interesting.) She also related to me that she had felt more or less the same way. She told me that I needed to let the Atonement work in my life and that at the close of her mission she looked back and realized that although for much of the time she felt like she was failing, indeed she had not been. When she told me that I realized that I didn´t want to feel this way until the end of my mission and prayed to Heavenly Father to help me know if what I am doing is right and what I need to do to change and be better so that I can still work to be the missionary that I want to be. 

As I have worked the rest of this week the sweet power of the Atonement has worked in my life and I have felt the sweet assurance that although I am not perfect, I am doing all I can to serve my Heavenly Father and He loves me. I think the biggest thing that I have learned on my mission is that of following the spirit and that was pointed out to me this week as almost every question that Hna Johnson asked me my reply was, "well Hna, we need to listen to the spirit". As I was lost in my own insecurities I forgot how wise Heavenly Father really is. He doesn´t give us all the answers, because if He did we wouldn´t need to ask Him anymore. He gives us piece by piece, and line upon line. And even though I feel as though I should know everything, I am beginning to see that the more I learn, the more I see that I don´t know anything and need to depend on the Lord even more.

(An ad for Energizer... yes this did actually work...)

I really feel that this is a grand life lesson that I have learned that really can be applied to all. That I think that we might never in this life, well at least in the near future, feel that we have really "arrived" but that we have the loving promise of a kind Heavenly Father and a humble older Brother that as we do all that we can, they will make up the rest. If we knew everything, 1. we wouldn´t need the Atonement or Christ in our lives and 2. we wouldn´t still be here, we would be translated!!! I love the humbling experience of this life!!!

My favorite scripture of the week: 2 Nefi 28:30... even when you feel like you are going backwards just keep going!!!

30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon ^aprecept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn^bwisdom; for unto him that ^creceiveth I will give ^dmore; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.

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

Hna Scanlon

All Mormons Are Men

¡Hi All!

Wow we are already at Wednesday of this week... So crazy! So the big news of this week is that my comp is leaving! We are going to have our transfer meeting at 3 o´clock so we are not sure where she is going or who I am going to receive.... Always an adventure in the mission. We went by this morning to say goodbye to a few investigators... she and they both cried... and so did I. It is amazing how fast we get close to people when our sole purpose is to help them come unto Christ, especially our companions. I will miss her a lot but had a feeling that we would´t be together the next transfer, it really was just too good to be true. :)

So the title of my email is pretty interesting right?!? That was probably the funniest quote of the week. We passed by to talk to a reference that we recieved and the sister of the reference just happened to be there as well. The sister started out telling us that she is a Jehovah´s Witness and then said, "But wait... I thought that only men were mormons?!?" It was hilarious... I had the hardest time not laughing when she said that. I guess that just goes to show that we have a lot of work to go in sharing the gospel right and especially our message about eternal FAMILIES!!!

A few weeks ago the ward here went to Uruguay to go to the temple because this temple is closed and one of the recent converts here, Andres, who always goes with us to teach, got the opportunity to go to the temple for the first time. While he was gone we visited his family (most of whom are not yet members) and his mom expressed concerned that she should have made a little tag to put in his close with his name and address on it in case he got lost... the funny part about this is that Andres is like 60 years old!!! It was so incredible when he got back though. It has been a little difficult since he bears his testimony with EVERYONE about baptisms for the dead.. which is kinda hard to explain in a first contact in the street... but his does it with such a strong spirit that I just let him continue to do it because it means so much to him.

Last night we had the opportunity to have one of the new sisters that arrived stay in our apartment. It was really interesting because she was asking me for a ton of advice about the mission. I felt like telling her, "I don´t know, I´m still new!" Then I realized that I really am not... wow. But my point in telling you this is that the biggest thing I could tell her was that I really learned on my mission the importance of prayer. In the DVD that we show everyone about the first vision it shares a scripture that you can find both in the Book of Mormon but also in the Bible. In the Book of Mormon it is in 3 Nephi 14: 7-11. Also a talk but Elder Scott about the infinite power of prayer is INCREDIBLE and has impacted my own personal prayers a ton. How incredible is it that Heavenly Father has all power and can control everything and knows what it going on in our lives BUT He still wants to hear about it from us. And Him, being perfect, wants to give us everything, but He is waiting in most cases for us to ask. We have to have that desire. For example, with Joseph Smith, we can read that the first vision happened after his FIRST attempt to pray vocally... Heavenly Father was waiting for his desire to turn into action. I have found that as I have made my prayers more specific and more personal, basically a conversation with my Father about what happened in my day, I have found more answers to my prayers and more guidance in my life. As Heavenly Father sees our righteous actions He blesses us openly and abundantly. Sorry this is probably the shortest discussion on prayer but I hope that is somewhat makes sense and helps someone out there!

Ok I have to go! But I love you all TONS!!!

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

Hna Scanlon 

Eternally Right

¡Hola Mi Familia!

As I am writing this to you right now it is raining like crazy
outside. I still cannot believe the deafening sound of the thunder and
how it seems like the lightning is going to strike right next to me.
It's really cool though... especially when I don´t have to be walking
around in it!!! :)

This next week we will be having transfers again!!! Crazy I know... so
I won´t be emailing you on Monday but on Wednesday instead, just an
FYI.

I hope that all is going well with you. I can´t believe that it is
practically winter still there. But from the sounds of it, it was a
pretty mild winter. It is still pretty hot here. Well really it
depends on the day but for the most part it is about in the 90´s. My
comp and I go basically from house to house begging for water because
we are almost always dying of thirst. It´s pretty great and definitely
makes for FANTASTIC memories.

This past week we had the opportunity to go to the hospital to give a
lady a blessing. She was the mother of the girlfriend of a member of
the ward. No one in her family is a member but they had heard about
priesthood blessings and wanted their mother to receive one. She had
leukimia in a very advanced stage. The bishop and the member gave this
lady a blessing and then we had the opportunity to share a scripture
with her and let her know just how much her father in heaven loves
her. It was a very special moment and became even more so when later
on in the week we found out that she had passed away. It was somehow
very fitting that I recieved a letter from Beth this week that
included a quote from her gospel doctrine class. It says, "Please
remember this one thing: If our lives and our faith are centered upon
Jesus Christ and His restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently
wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior
and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right."
-Howard W. Hunter. I would only make one change to that quote and that
would be to change the word of permanently to eternally... I know that
as we turn all that we all over to the Lord He will make up the rest
and we can be at peace and happy in our lives. I know that this is the
true church of Jesus Christ that it has the power to make everything
in our lives ETERNALLY right.

I love you all tons! I am sooooo eternally grateful that we are a
forever family! Cali sent me a picture of a plaque this week that had
the definition of a missionary on it that I loved. It said,
"Missionary: a person who leaves their family for a while, so others
can be with their families forever". I know that I can only be apart
from you right now because we are a FOREVER family and I want others
to have that as well. I miss you all tons... p.s. if you want to know
how many DAYS I have left you can just ask Cade (it was really me, 
but we'll let him take the blame!... thanks for that btw... :) DON¨T START GETTING TRUNKY ON ME!!!!

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

Hna Scanlon

Christ

The Buenos Aires West Mission Logo

¡Hola!

Wow this week really flew by! I can´t even believe it. It was my companion´s birthday this week so that was really fun. It was also Zone Conference that day so it wasn´t the funniest day. I tried my best to make her feel special... mostly it included getting EVERYONE we saw to sing her happy birthday. It was pretty funny.

This morning I was reading one of my favorite scriptures that I wanted to share with you. It´s in 2 nephi 25:23 y 26. In our Zone Conference we talked about how everything we do in the church really does lead us to think of Christ. Once I started paying attention I realized just how true that was! Christ really is the center of everything and really should be the center of our lives as well!

I am REALLY sorry that this is sooo short. I promise I will write more next week! Oh also THANKS to cali and cade for my packages! My comp and our investigators and I have been loving them all week!

Sending lots of love!

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

Hna Scanlon

(We are currently experiencing a photo drought so I have stolen a couple from the mission blog which is where both images from this post come from).

Doubt Not, Fear Not

¡Hola Familia!

Wow this week felt like a long week that really flew by!!! It was also filled with many funny/spiritual experiences. This week I had the opportunity to have the traveling assistants in my zone again so I was able to listen to their workshops etc again. Usually missionaries will only have this workshops once in their mission but since I got transferred to a different zone I got to have to it twice!! It was really fantastic and I was really grateful for the chance to learn more from them. At the beginning of the week I was a little nervous because that meant that we would have a lot less time to work in our area but I knew that the Lord would help us. My companion reminded me of a quote that is in DyC 6:36 "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not". I really love that scripture and tried to really rely on the Lord this week when I thought that there was no way we were going to get everything done. Ok so here is was happened during the week as I put my faith to test.

Monday: Basically we don´t have a lot of time to really work on Mondays. We had plans to go and teach a family that we have been working with but neither one of us felt really good about what we were going to teach them but we decided to go to their house anyway. Well it turned out that they weren´t home so we decided to contact some references that were in the same area. We knocked at the door of one lady and when she came to the door it seemed like she had been expecting us. She was sooo great. She wanted to know everything about the church and everyone that passed by she introduced to us! At first she apologized for not inviting us in because she didn´t want her FIVE dogs to bother us but then about 10 minutes later she ended inviting us in anyway! She was so great and promised us that she probably couldn´t come to church this week but would for sure be going the next week. She also gave us the reference to her son and her ex-husband and told us to tell them that she sent us... ha ha so funny. The temperature was probably like 35 degrees Celsius... we were dying.

Tuesday: We only had the morning to work because we had workshops in the afternoon so we rushed around doing as much as we could in the morning. We were rushing so much and it was so hot that I am pretty sure that we were both dehydrated but finally made it to the church, desperately searching for water... little did I know that they usually turn off the water in the church during the week. I thought I was going to die. Luckily, the mission offices are right next door to the church so we could beg them for water. I only tell you this because later that night when we got to the pench and couldn´t find our keys, we weren´t too stressed because we figured that they must be in the church and we just set them down somewhere in our desperate search for water. So we called the office Elder to search for them... but sadly they were nowhere to be found!! So we were locked out of our apartment, with two other Hermanas that were staying with us for the night, on Valentine´s Day. One of the couple missionaries that is in the mission live in our building so he came down to try and help us break into our apartment... After much banging on the door/lock with a hammer, it was determined that it was impossible to break in, which in part actually make me feel a little bit better since I was NEVER going to feel safe in Argentina again if we could break in so easily. So it was determined that we were going to stay for the night in the pench of some elders that live close and they were going to go and sleep in the pench of the office Elders.. Ha ha it was pretty funny, but let´s just say that after spending the night in the pench of the Elders I am extremely glad that I am an hermana. Later the Elder accused us of doing that just because it was Valentine´s Day... Again the temperature that day and night was like 36 degrees.

Wednesday: In the morning we had to be at the offices at 8 in the morning to start our meetings. Luckily it was just with Elders so they didn´t notice that we were wearing the same clothes as the day before. In the afternoon we finally got to go back to the pench only to find a man from the church (his name was McGyver... yeah I am not really sure) there changing the locks on our doors. So we we quickly changed our clothes, and made him a sandwich, and left to go and work. Here in the plaza they make the BEST hamburgers with an egg on them. So we ate that for lunch. I was in heaven. After looking for a few members to go with us, we finally gave up and went to teach our investigators solas. Later that night as we were teaching, an member just happened to walk by and he stopped and taught with us for a little bit.... God really does work in mysterious ways! It was probably like 40 degrees that day with like 95% humidity.

Thursday: We spent the majority of the day planning with the assistants and then had a meeting until 6 in the afternoon. We had plans to go with a member and contact a few people. We had literally been walking in the street for about 10 mintues when it started to rain.... pero mal. I have NEVER seen rain like this. In about 30 seconds I was soaking wet... which would have been fine but I had our area book, my preach my gospel and my scriptures in my bag... we were desperate for someone to let us in! Our poor member was all soaking wet. We knocked on a few houses until someone finally agreed to at least give us plastic bags to put our things in but didn´t want to hear anything about the gospel! Then my companion and I were both trying to figure out where we were and where we needed to go since neither one of us really knows the area! Ha ha it was hilarious and I literally have never been so wet in my life! I guess that is what I get for losing my umbrella last week.... I guess it all ended up being ok though because we saw the member at church on Sunday and he said to call him whenever it was raining because he wants to go with us again... little did he know I bet that it is forecasted to rain all week :) It was probably like 30 degrees with 100% humidity.

Friday: We finally had the whole day to work! It was fantastic! And members were really willing to help us. We went by one lady that was "deep cleaning" her house and when I asked her if she could come with us she responded "no problem!" and dropped all she was doing to help us. It truly was such a blessing! Other members also went with us and we found few FAMILIES to teach!!!

Saturday: We were really nervous to teach this family that we have been working with because that night they were going to have a party and told us that they probably wouldn´t be able to make it to church on Sunday because they would be drinking all Saturday night with their family. We really felt like we should teach them the Word of Wisdom and invite them to do all they could to keep it so that they could go to church on Sunday. When we got there all to their house, all their family was already there but they invited us in anyway. We had to wait for the husband to get back from buying a few things... it turned out when he walked in that he had gone to buy alcohol... we were a little nervous to say the least, but really felt like this was what the Lord wanted us to teach them. After we taught them and invited them to do this they agreed! We were SOOO happy!!!

Sunday: It was raining (and again I was soaking wet) but we were soooo excited as we went to pick up this family. When their niece came to the door and told us that they were sleeping still we both felt so sad... the journey back to the church was pretty silent as we both tried to still be in good spirits and not be discouraged. As Sacrament Meeting started I just happened to look behind me and a few rows back our investigators were sitting there beaming at us!!! WE COULDN¨T BELIEVE IT!!! Not only had they kept their commitment but they had come to church by themselves! It was so incredible. Then after church they both asked for priesthood blessings! This would´ve been enough to make my day but also in Sacrament Meeting their was a lady that we had contacted in a colectivo who found the church by herself and brought her two kids... it really was a day of miracles!

Alright so I hope that wasn´t too boring for all of you! I thought it was an exciting week and I feel like sometimes I don´t share the specifics of what I do so there you go! I guess what I learned is that as we seek the help of the Lord CONSTANTLY and CONSISTENTLY, He will show us what we need to do and where we need to go and He will give us success!

I love you all!

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

Hna Scanlon

This is her mission President and his wife, President and Sister Carter

Jordan loves them and feels blessed to be serving with them.

I stole this picture from here

Our Potential

Hello My dear family!

How the weeks just keep rolling by. I swear they are shorter than they use to be! I can´t even believe it! You have all asked about my new area and I am LOVING it! It is so HUGE!!! I can´t remember if I told you or not in my last email but we actually share out area with the Assistants to the mission president. It´s really kinda of interesting but I really like it. What better opportunity could I have then to learn from some of the best missionaries in the mission? I also love the ward. It is fantastic. I have NEVER been in a ward here so huge. Our ward list is about 11 pages long... which would mean like 200 something members and about 100 of those inactive, so we have our work cut-out for us. I am really excited though because the stake president and really into missionary work and he was the bishop of our ward up until a few months ago so we had a meeting with him this week to go over a plan as to what he sees for the area and how we can help him in his vision!!! We also have ward missionaries for the first time in my mission!!!! It´s incredible. I am really excited to work here and hope that I can stay here for the rest of my mission.

My companion is incredible. We have such a good time together and she is a really hard worker. As we have spent more time together I have realized just how latin I have become in my customs. I love it though so I am trying not to lose it. It is crazy how fast time flies by. I was with only latins for about a year and it flew by.. I can´t even believe it. We are both thinking that we will probably only be together for one transfer because this really is too good to be true! :) We had an interesting week this past week. On Monday the office Elders called us to inform us that 2 other Hnas were going to come and sleep in our pench that night. (Our pench is known as the office hilton since every sister that needs to stay close to the offices stays with us). It was great to see the other sisters and I should have known that something was going to happen since things always happen when we are with other sisters.... At like 1 o´clock in the morning I work up to my companion in severe pain. Unsure of what I could do since I feel that my nursing skills have been reduced to therapuetic touch and nothing else, we decided to call the mission nurse. Luckily they live in our same building and she and her husband (Elder and Hna Cox) rushed over to help us. After waking up the other hermanas as well, Hna Pullan was given a blessing and all four of us (Flia Cox and us) rushed to a Hospital in Capital. We were in the ER all night and until about 10 o´clock the next morning running tests etc. It was funny because Hna Cox was always pushing me to be close to my companion... The staff kept looking at us weird, I´m pretty sure they thought we were a couple. They think that she had some kidney stones so she had to go in for an ultrasound... that was really interesting especially because I got to accompany her... so when we left the room and I saw la Flia Cox in the hall I yelled "It´s a boy!" They just kinda chuckled but I thought I was pretty funny... so did my comp. Anyway after all those tests they think that she had a kidney stone that she already passed so we had to take it easy that day and a little bit this week but now it seems that she is all better! All in all a very interesting experience!

Cali sent me a quote from her talk that I really like so I will share it all with you! This is from Pres. Uchtdorf´s talk You Matter to Him and he said,

“God Himself said we are the reason He created the universe! His work and glory—the purpose for this magnificent universe—is to save and exalt mankind. In other words, the vast expanse of eternity, the glories and mysteries of infinite space and time are all built for the benefit of ordinary mortals like you and me. Our Heavenly Father created the universe that we might reach our potential as His sons and daughters.”

As we have been working hard to get to know the area better and the members, I have been sharing one of my favorite scriptures with many. It is found in DyC 18:10 and it says "Great is the worth of souls in the sight of God" (that was paraphrasing but it is something like that). I know that each and every one of us is important to God. His work and His glory is to bring to pass our eternal life. I know that God has a plan or each and every one of us. A plan of happiness and joy, but we have to do our part to find out what that plan is! As we do this we truly can reach our potential, to become like God is and enjoy all of His blessings in our lives.

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

Hna Scanlon

Here are some pictures of the past few weeks!

Picture 1: A somewhat airial view of Ciudad Evita

Picture 2: One of my favorite families (Flia Galvan)... and some of the neighbor kids

Picture 3: Silly faces

Picture 4: This is what Argentines do when they are saying like "What?!?"

Picture 5: One of my last meals in Ciudad Evita... asado!!!

Picture 6: Another one of my favorite families (Flia Cabral)

Picture 7: Hna Pullan and I my first night in Ramos... it rained SOOOO hard! The streets were literally rivers.

Picture 8: Me with Hna Pullan

Los Cambios

Hi All!!!

Well this week was definitely an interesting one with LOTS of changes! I got transferred to Ramos Mejia which is where the offices of the mission are located so I have been here a few times to go to conferences/interviews etc. The other big change is that my companion is from the USA!!!! Ha ha it has been really different because it really has been quite some time since I have spent an extended period of time with another American! I am loving it though. Her name is Hermana Hannah Pullan and she is from Payson, Utah. She also went to BYU for like 3 years before she went on her mission and have already put together some people that we both knew before the mission. She was an art major so I thought that maybe she knew Uncle Rory but she doesn´t think so. It has been interesting since it has been over a year since I have been with someone to talk to them about BYU!!!

Alright so about my area... It´s HUGE!! Well for me it is huge since my past two areas were relatively small. Also it is a city so that is a lot different for me as well. I am not used to having to pay attention to colectivo schedules etc but here we have to because there is no way that we can walk to get to all of our citas. We live in an apartment building with 15 stories and a doorman which is also really different. The ward here is super great as well. They really love missionary work and really want to help us. We also share a ward with the assistants of the president so that is kinda interesting but really good as well. It is interesting how with every transfer it feels like you are starting all over again. And well basically you are. But it is really good and I am super excited about it. This area also has what they tell me is the biggest hospital in Argentina, El Hospital Posadas. I guess it was built like forever ago and on Sunday we went inside to visit a recent convert. It was SOOOO interesting. I don´t think I have ever seen anything quite like it. They are adding onto the hospital so that should be good.

We worked a lot this week in the poorer part of our area and it was a really amazing experience. The people there are so humble and loving. It was amazing. Every time we are walking in this area I just smile to myself because this is exactly what I thought my mission would be like.

A funny story from the week. So we were trying to contact a reference that we had so we knocked on the door to this man´s house. Well his name is Juan so when a person came to the window of the house we asked if Juan was there. The person responded that he was busy. So my comp asked if that person was Juan.... to which SHE responed, "No I´m his wife!" Ha ha it was so funny. Neither one of us knew what to say. In our defense it was super sunny outside and hot and she had a very raspy voice. But still, I don´t think that she was very happy with us!

I am loving mission life. Dad asked me if I think this will be my last area and it quite possibly could be which is really interesting for me. I love this incredible opportunity that I have had to serve the Lord here in Argentina. And this next part will be the BEST part yet!

This week in Relief Society we watched the talk given by President Uchtdorf this past conference that was entitled, "Forget Me Not". It was really incredible and I just want to quickly share with you this little summary of the points that Pres. Uchtdorf shared with us that we should never forget.
1. Never forget to be patient with ourselves
2. Never forget the difference between a good sacrifice and an absurd one
3. Never forget to be happy NOW
4. Never forget the why of the gospel
5. Never forget that the Lord loves you

I hope that you all have a FANTASTIC week! Know that I am happy and healthy! :)

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

Hna Scanlon

Rush

hey!

So I don´t have time to write today because I AM BEING TRANSFERRED!!! I am sad but excited at the same time. So I have to go to our apartment to get all my things together because the car will be here to pick us up in about 20 mintues. I love you all. I don´t yet know where I am going or who I will be with so I will let you all know on Monday what happens!

It´s been hard to say goodbye to the people here knowing that I probably won´t see most of them again. I tried to leave them with the enthusiasm that I would be doing my part to make it to the Celestial Kingdom to see them again so they better be doing their part! :)

I have been thinking about this scripture this week, 1 Nephi 21: 15-16. It has become one of my favorites in the mission.

Well I love you tons! Sorry this is soooo short!

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

Hna Scanlon