Amy En Argentina: A Few Things On My Mind...

Sometimes I feel like my life right now is just a remake of the Mr. Bean´s Holiday movie

Especially the part on the trian when he´s ordering coffe:

Lady in french: "coffe?"

Mr. Bean: "wi"

Lady: "sugar?"

Mr. Bean: "no"

Lady in english: "you speak really good french"

Mr. Bean: "gracias"

THIS is me except it´s in spanish hahahahaha mi vida. I say a lot of "si´s" and "and no´s" and a lot of smiling and nodding still. Then they ask me how long I´ve been here and then I say "hace cuatro meses" (because I have it mastered) and then they´re like wow your spanish is so good and I´m like wow if you only knew but thanks haha.

Ice Cream Makes Everything Better

Before the mish I was not a huge fan of ice cream but here in Argentina it is perfection. LOOOOVE it. It´s so soft and fluffy. On Friday I woke up with a headache but decided that it was because I ate a lot of sugar the night before and I don´t usually eat a lot of sugar and so I figured it was just a sugar hangover. But as the day went on the pain went from my head to my stomach. I started getting chills and a fever and my entire body hurt. I made it half way through the day but during our companionship study when all my joints (even in my hands) were throbbing with pain I had to tell Hermana Hurtado I was sick. I called Hermana Cifuentes and she told me to sleep it off which I hate napping on the mission so it sucked. Hermana Hurtado was so sweet and cleaned our house and she would peek through the door to check in on me while I just stared blankly at the cieling trying to decide if I needed to throw up or not. I finally took some nyquil (Spencer, your white elephant gift from Christmas came in handy) and it helped with the pain and I was able to sleep.

Then like at 8:00 at night we got a phone call from one of our cute recent converts, Luis. When Hna. Hurtado answered it he immediately asked if we were okay because he had a feeling that something was wrong. She told him that I had been sick that day and then he immediately wanted to talk to me. It was one of the cutest moments of my life talking to him. Then his wife Norma wanted to talk to me too and I swear it was just like talking to my mom on the phone for a few minutes. My eyes literally teared up I just felt so loved. Around 9 they called again and demanded the direction to our house because the were bringing me ice cream haha. And it was the best ice cream ever and it was the first thing I ate that day that agreed with my tummy. Sometimes I just can´t believe how lucky I am to have these people in my life that make me feel like I have my family. Someone asked me this week if I felt far away from home and really thought about it and said no because it´s like I can feel the love my family has for me through the members.

This place is my home away from home.

General Conference

Something that one of my friends taught me at college was to write down questions you have down on a piece of paper and leave space for answers that you find from the inspired talks you hear. I had questions like "what should I study?" "how can I be more patient" blablabla but there was only one question that got answered for me: "What lack I yet?"

Annnnd I´ve come to the conclusion that I have been wayyy to hard on myself. The talk by J. Devin Cornish hit me hard when he said "stop comparing yourself to others" and I was like shoot dang. Of course I´m going to feel down about myself I compare myself to all the other missionaries that have had waaaaay more experience than me or have been speaking the language their entire lives. I´m still a newbie in so many aspects, the only person I should compare myself to is the old me.

Also something that I have learned just recenctly is how cool it is to have your prayers answered. So many of my prayers have been answered through the words of the prophet and the apostles, and each answer was NOT what I was expecting, what I wanted, nor did it solve the problem. Each answer was something to meditate and improve on, to have patience with and something to work on daily and act in faith knowing that through hard work and trust in God, anything can be accomplished.

I think my favorite thing to learn and talk about is Christ and His atonement. Hna. Hurtatdo gave me this one talk (it´s called the fourth missionary I think) that I absolutely LOVED by (don´t remember his name whoops lol). I think the biggest thing I have hated hearing growing up was "you can´t change who are" and in this talk the guy literally says do not buy into that crap. Do not cut yourself short by saying "well that´s just how I am and I can´t change." It´s a lie! We can change who we are for the better through Christ and his Atonement. The atonement can help the biggest wounds and wipe away the biggest sins and BUILD us up to our potential through daily repentance. We can better ourselves everyday.

I´m so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel that we can always change and that there is always room for improvement. That we don´t have to accept our weaknesses as who we are but turn those weaknesses into our strengths through Jesus Christ. Our eternal progression depends on our desire and our actions to become more like Him. He is the only person that we can try to imitate and truly feel joy in doing so because he is our perfect example of who we can become. Of course we are going to be unhappy comparing ourselves to others and trying to be like them because they aren´t perfect either. Keep your eye focused on Christ, he is the goal and only mark your progession by who you were yesterday.

I´m so grateful for the person I was yesterday, for the person I am today, and for the person I am becoming. I´m grateful that I don´t have to be happy with just how I am, but I can be happy with daily repentance and with change and progression.

I am grateful that we have the hope for a better tomorrow because of Him, and with a better tomorrow, a better me.

RANT OVER promise.

Anywho, loved conference. It was such a nice refresher. Played games with the zone, tried the most bomb banana bread of my life, had shrimp for the first time in Argentina and didn´t die. We´re gonna risk Hermana Hurtado´s tears and make brownies for zone conference. I´ll let you know if something happens, which by my luck I´m pretty sure it will. This week we are going to start eating with members, nervous, but stoked at the same time. I´ll let you know how that goes too.

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