10th of November marks my 5th Cumplemes… Meaning that I completed 5 months in the mission. *GULP* it feels like I got my mission call 5 days ago.

Nevertheless, Here in Ituzaingó, my madrasta teaches me new things every day, and she and I have been doing really well. She and I have been trying to work better with the members this transfer, and so far, our efforts turned up plentifully. This week, we found 15 new investigators, contacted 7 references, and had 6 lessons with members… Numbers that Hermana Schmutz and I only worked to achieve and never saw.

The rain has been pouring and pouring this week, and on Saturday, normally a big work day for us, we could not work because it was so dangerous… and it was like another P-day. (Seriously, people were trapped in their houses because a river ran were the street used to be.) We spent the extra time memorizing scriptures and learning the provinces of Argentina. Hermana Araya has this puzzle map of Argentina, and I almost got it down… except we lost Cordoba… Hermana Araya likes to remind me of it every once in awhile.

We have also become eminently familiar with the extended works of LDS composer Michael McClean. She has officially taken over my zune, and we constantly listen to church music... she doesn´t seem to mind that its all in English. Hermana Araya likes to sing along to our favorite eighties hits like, “We Can be Together, Forever Someday” and “I Got to Find out Who I Am” and is consistently singing them in calles (streets). Too bad noone knows what in the word she is singing about.

We have to do this mission long homework assignment throughout our mission called Atesorad la Palabra (Treasure the Word), which consists of Predicad mi Evangelio (Preach My Gospel) study and memorizing like 200 different scriptures. Hermana Araya is almost done… I want to complete mine so badly, but me cuesta memorizar en Castellano (I have trouble memorizing in Castilian). Hermana Araya is helping me though. The rainy day really helped my atesorad progress… and hers too.

The rain aside, the work still moves forward in Ituzaingó.

We are working a lot with the youth, because two of our progressing investigators are teenage girls: Débora Cabrera and Mariana Triay. Débora is working steadily toward her baptism date on the 28th and we are so exited for it. The Mujeres Jovenes have kind of taken over planning her baptism, and we are going to let them.

They have all named themselves their Hermanadoras, and its awesome that they have friends in the rama. Gospel Doctrine was nearly all teenage girls last week.

Funny story: We have been trying to get Mariana, a daughter of some of our recent converts to come to church forever… and we can´t seem to do it. Mariana and one of the young women in our rama Adriana are schoolmates. Adriana loves doing missionary work with us, and we have been trying to get her and Mariana to be friends forever.

Last week, for an unidentified reason, they got into a fight at school and Adriana punched Mariana… Then, the parents get called in, and now, Mariana is going to church and Adriana is her biggest friend at church. Who knows if the two events are related or not, but it’s a funny chain of events.

Today, P-Day, we went to Posadas to hang out with the other hermanas in our Zone, Hermana Galbraith, Hermana Do Santos, Hermana Zevallos, Hermana Bourroughs, Hermana Kretchman, and Hermana Borchart. We really did not do much, we made tacos and hung out at the apartment of the Rocce Saenz Peña Hermanas (Downtown Posadas) and ate tacos. It was a real treat, because people don´t believe in seasonings really here. Herbs sometimes, but seasonings, no. Hermana Bourroughs had some taco seasoning from the states, and it was awesome… Still wanted some Cholula Hot Sauce, but it was so awesome anyway. The apartment smelled like home.

Now we are hanging out in Posadas waiting for our collectivo (bus) to take us back to Ituzaingó and back to our mission area.

Hope everything is well and happy stateside, and know that I am thinking and praying for you.

Love,
Hermana Sarah Tritsch