Hey Friends and Fam!!!

Now officially reporting from Corrientes Capital, I am back to feeling like a newbie... lost as ever, but exited to be here... I think that is why they do transfers... to keep you on your toes... jaja. This area is full of viviendas with confusing neighborhoods with a thousand and one wierd pasages to explore... its like a maze.... turn the corner and there is even more unexplored territory. My precious Posadas was a grid system, easy to learn and master... but here in Laguna Seca everything is completely mixed up.

But I am gaining somewhat of a footing from a forced study of the map when we decided to work with a long list of menos activos scattered all over the place, and two binders full of old investigators. We are examining every single sheet, discarding the ones that do not have enough information to find them, and writing down the addresses of the ones that seem to have potential to eventually go and find them. We have already seen some fruit... but its too early to see if the fruit that we found is ripe yet.

Hermana Hall and I are getting exited about one girl named Yesica, she is 17 years old, but as luck has it, turns 18 a day before the baptismal date we put with her. (we did not know that when we put the date, the only one who knew was her and God) She was really shy at first, and would not do much of any reading or praying with us, but every time we go there, she makes little steps, that for her are big ones. She went to chuch this Sunday for the second time, and this past charla, she even hugged us.... :) And we were teaching her about the law of chastity that day, so its a good sign.

On another side note, there is a Walmart and a McDonalds in Corrientes.... I walked into the walmart like a deer in headlights today, and found Marshmallows and Doughnuts. I bought my first doughnut in 16 months, and we are making rice krispie treats tomorrow... SOOO exited. I never thought I would think that marshmallows were a great find.

I think you learn what one can live without when you go to a foreign mission, I think.

Love,
Hermana Tritsch

Hey All!

Sorry for not writing yesterday, but because of Columbus Day (yes... they celebrate it down here.) Our p-day was switched to Tuesday and we worked the holiday.

Transferred again.... Laguna Seca, Corrientes Capital, Corrientes! I really love it here... its a good area with a good branch of people that are really exited about the gospel. There are many less actives, that we work with more and more as time goes on, but the core group of active members are really good and unified, well, as far as I can tell. I miss my old area because it became like home for me... I think I lived in that apartment longer than I did in any one room in college. But the change is good for me... keeps me fresh and exited.

My new compi, Hermana Brianna Hall is from American Fork, Utah and has a lot of love for this people and for her mission. She was with her trainer for three transfers, thats a long time in missionary speak so its been a little interesting being her replacement, but she is really exited to learn and we are learning together. She might just be my last compi in the campo misional so I am trying to make the best of it.

We are teaching many awesome people, who really have desire to learn about the gospel, and I can tell that this place is full of people ready to take the plunge. Our work is primarily done with less active families and we are finding people to baptize through them... their children, their husbands, their family, and so on. The less active members are actually a treasure trove for missionary work, because people who go to church are friends with people who are in the church already, and those who do not attend church so often, have more friends and family who are not members. Many of the baptismal dates that we have came from less active and part member families.

A few weeks before I got here, they did a Tormenta Blanca, which is when all of the missionaries of all over Corrientes Capital, come to our area and pair off with the members, with several addresses of less active homes, to find them, find if they still live there, invite them to church, and also invite them to hear the missionaries.

They found many good families to visit and to teach, and so we are predominately working from the fruits of it.

Well, I love my mission although it makes me sick to my stomach to think that its closing to an end for me... I got this transfer and the next, and chao, me voy... 

Well, at least I got to meet Hermana Herrin, my “sister” in the mission field, because she was trained by Hermana Shmutz too.

Love you all,
Hermana Tritsch

P.S. Today, for P-Day, we went to a zoo and we got to see some of the local critters... Lots of Pictures, but this computer is being slow, so here are three of my new HUMAN friends....

Hey Everyone!!!

I can´t believe how fast that the transfer with Hermana Papenfuss has absolutely FLOWN by. It seems like yesterday that I went to find her in the mission home, but now my baby´s all grown up and (sniff sniff) savin´ Argentina!!!!! jaja (Mulan, get it?) well, it was an absolute BLAST doing it, but I can say that North American companions are ALOT different from South American companions... I am not sure which one is worse, but I feel my Spanish is getting worse, because I am speaking more in English.... Thats a nasty habit... and it does nothing for my skills. Hopefully I will get another south American compi before I go home, so I can go back to not knowing how to speak English.

We made invitations to invite seriously everyone to General Conference... we handed out something like 90 invitations to members, nonmembers, less actives, investigators, random people on the street and everything. We gave one to Familia Candia, a part member family that we tracted into and have many hopes that the mother, Nidia, will progress well and baptize without problems. They have three little children all under the age of three, kind of reminds me of my parents at that age. Well, they did not come Saturday, but just before the Sunday evening session, an Elder told us that there was a couple with little kids that were looking for us, so we immediately bolted out of our seats and found them at the front door... with their three little children in tow. We located some members of our ward in the crowd, our Ward Mission Leader and his NOT-girlfriend and we sat them together so they could get to know some of the people that pertain to us.

The Conference started and they absolutely love it... I have so much high hopes for this family... we had an appointment with them Friday a lesson that turned to obedience in the end, and it ran at the end right up against curfew, so we did a little object lesson about the importance of obedience "A veces no sabemos porque tenemos las reglas o mandamientos, pero Dios nos requiere obediencia iqual, y Dios nos bendice con seguridad y protección si lo hacemos." So we high tailed it out of there even thought they wanted us to stay to eat pizza.

I am glad we did, I think it was for our obedience that we could teach them, and that they came to the conference.

Speaking of conference, it was AMAZING!!! I loved it... Especially the talks of Elder Holland (like always), Elder Uchdorf (The tree-airplane analogy of getting back to the fundamentals when everything goes wrong) and the fourteen key points about prophets (and even though they said it twice, I could not write fast enough to get them all down) and the plea of the Prophet that we have more gratitude with one another.... Seriously this conference was one of the best. I am so happy I got to see it in English... They holed up all of the English speaking missionaries in the relief society room with a tiny screen so we could hear it in our native tounge... like Christmas for missionaries.

And now I am faced with a new year (now I am 23) and a new transfer (number 12 for me) and yours truly now becomes the Oldest Hermana in the Mission....

now where DID I leave my cane?

Love,
Hermana Sarah Tritsch

Tune in next week to see what happens.... Will she go or will she stay? dun Dun DUNNNN!

Hola Familia y Amigos Queridos!

This past week went by so fast and every week I am as suprised as ever to see the number of my blog ever increase.... my mother was so kind remind me that I have 96 days before I touch American Soil... Thanks for that... Really.

But we work hard and try our hardest to achieve our goals...

One really cool thing: since the zone conference when they talked about working with part member families and less active families, we have found, by divine design several part member families that we did not even know existed. Nilia and Miguel Candia we found door to door contacting. When my companion recieved a really special prompting that we should talk to Nilia... and turns out that her marido, Miguel is a member less active!!! we are working really hard with the family... we have to help them get married, but It doesn´t seem like it will be a problem because they are in love with each other. They seem to soak up the doctrine like sponges and they love the promises that the gospel brings.

Then, not this sunday, but last, Angel y Elisabet Almendra came to church, Angel is a member and Elisabet isn´t but they decided to come to chuch so we went and visited them... Upon our arrival, we realized that we had already been to this house and talked to an old man... who was Elisabet´s Father. At the time we did not feel inspired to come back, but God just pushed us back into this house. Angel came to chuch this week, and is anxious to try to get back into activity, because he is ex-misionero.

We also went to Jose and Gladis Salazar... A couple less active that happens to be DEAF! Hermana Papenfuss and I got up the courage one day and went and visited them. We went there and Gladis was outside, and she saw us and put an angry look on her face and when she got closer, I showed her my tag, and her face completely changed and she became very happy to see us. She told us that when she saw us she thought we were Jehova´s witnesses because there is a deaf congregation of them, and they always come, but she immediately let us in and through a mix of botched sign language/paper conversation and lots of scriptures....

I realized that American Sign Language and Argentinian Sign Language are different, but not all that different. God is the same, Jesus is the same, and the sign for "I love you" too. I am not sure how effective it all was, but I felt the spirit really strong, and Gladis prayed and it was really beautiful. and then we all cried.

Later in the week, for week of Service, the ward cleaned up a local school, that was a school in which many of the adult members went to Elementary School. It was really cool to help them out in a place that was really close to their hearts. There was a great fondness, even though the school itself was in rough shape. Lots of dirt, and lots of repairs, but it was awesome to see all the work we had done.

Well time is up, and I miss you all, and just remember, by the next time I write I will be 23.

Love,
Hermana Tritsch