Hey everyone!!
I am so sorry that this blog entry is a day late, but there is a new mission rule, is that when holidays take place on P-day, we have to work that day and take the next day as a P-Day... such is the case this week. This week the whole of Argentina celebrates the death of beloved freedom fighter San Martin, and they celebrate this day is a national holiday. BUT missionaries work holidays... Jaja.

The transfer has gone by SUPER fast, I can hardly believe that we are in week 6 of the transfer. This past week was one for the record books, but eye opening. We worked hard running from one area to another, discovering a new neighborhood that holds alot of promise, and saw a part of our area that I had never seen before, that seemed like the center of nowhere, but in reality is in the geographical center of Posadas (not the commercial center, but geographical) Walking for this part of our area, by an avenida called Aguado, I felt so far away from everything, stuck in the middle of the jungle with tiny little shacks surrounded by toucans, monkeys and tarzan-like vines... (a little over-exageration about the monkeys. They tell me the monkeys exist, but I haven´t seen them... The toucans... that´s true, we really did see them.) Its so strange to see that especially when in the other side of our area is where all the businesses and factories are. What a stark difference!

There is alot of that here, big huge expensive homes right next door to little shacks without indoor plumbing or insulation. Its always been a little hard to get used to.
In other news, my companion had her first wedding preposal this week. My companion was doing a contact while I was buying some mandioca that we were going to cook for lunch, and he said, "I I come to church and I get baptized, will you marry me?" and my companion, in good missionary form, said the argentinian equivalent of "Heck, NO!" and I finished paying for the mandioca and we runned-walked to our apartment without looking back.

Missionary work-wise, We tried to pull a miracle, when we had a great idea that we could get Maria (one of the girls who severly wants to get baptized, but can´t because she does not have permission of her parents) to come with her parents to see a baptism that a neighboring ward was having, we tried all week to pull it off, but in the end it we could not pull it off. Pucha. Now we are down to four investigators that have baptismal dates... they are all falling like flies.

Remember 14 year old Julieta? Well, she has gone to church 5 Sundays, and WANTS to get baptized, but her home still is not Mormon-friendly, among shouting, criticisms and we think there might even be physical abuse, we do not want to baptize her and put her into that environment. She is still very young, so we will see. We want to see bigger changes in her and her family to see if she really is ready for such a big commitment, and that the home will be a better place where she can be strong and loyal without criticism or shame.

We have many people who go to church that we can´t baptize, and people that have baptismal dates that don´t go to church! We have no idea how to solve this problem. So we contine working and trying to find people that GO to church that we CAN baptize.

Ah, well. The life of a missionary, I guess.

Love you all,
Hermana Tritsch

PS: I hope by this time in my mission that some of you are still in tune with my blog... if so thanks so much. Thanks for visiting it, it means alot that there are people that read it. I love you all and I hope that I will be able to see you all in time for New Years!!