Sooo... I saw grown men cry this week.... After the Germans slaughtered the Argentinians 4-0, grown men wandered the streets drunk and crying as if the outcome somehow affected their way of life. Thankfully no riots, but I have heard of that happening too. The next day, everyone forgot about the World Cup and la Obra Misional got back to buisness as usual. Hermana Madariaga (argentinian herself) and I actually prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for the loss, because it was cutting into prime proselyting time... that, and the final would have been on a Sunday Morning and we would have been missing all of the investigators and half the members, who would have been at home watching the game... I pity the German Missionaries, but then again, I don´t think the Mundial Fever is the same there as it is here.

We have a new rule here in the mission, that we need to try and put baptismal dates with people in the first lesson, the first meeting... Anyone who is or was a missionary knows thats kind of a really gutsy thing, and Hermana Madariaga and I were really kind of freaked out at the prospect, so we asked help of presidente in interviews and he showed us a really tranquilo way to do it, and so, with a little courage, we put it to work and found that within our cache of investigators, two more fechas bautismales.

One girl, Julieta, is a daughter of a woman who is menos activo, and another Noelia, is a friend of Familia Mancuello (the family of circus people), Julieta came to church and seems very sincere... but we want to reactivate her mother or baptize her sister too, so she does not have to be alone... I don´t want what happened to Débora in Ituzaingó to happen to Julieta. Noelia accepted the fecha bautismal, but still has not come to church yet, so we are not so sure what we should do... we don´t want to leave her yet because she is keeping all of her other commitments.

Another woman that we are teaching, Mabel... is totally awesome. She came to church for the second time yesterday, which was fast and testimony meeting... I explained to her what was happening so she wouldn´t freak out that people randomly stood up in the audience, that she was not expected to do the same, and she expressed a desire to bear her testimony at some point. "Not today." she said, "Maybe next month." And then in Relief Society she volunteered herself to help in a service project serving meals to a bunch of young single adults that are going to sleep in the Capilla during a big conference. ALL BY HERSELF SHE DECIDED THAT! She is quickly becoming part of the ward!!! But no investigator is completely golden... She has to get married, and her marido (the man who acts like her husband but is not married to her) is from Paraguay and doesn´t have Paraguayan or Argentinian documents... makes marriage super dificil... She might be an investigator for a long haul.

Well, Time is almost up...

Love you all,
Hermana Tritsch

Hey All!

Hope everyting is fine on the home front. I am so glad for these weekly letters or maybe I would be fresh out of journal entries... I enter the pench so tired in the nighttime, me da fiaca to write in my journal... We work really hard and Hermana Madariaga helps me be more obedient. She is helping me a TON with my language, we call her the "Gendarme Linguistica" but its exactly what I needed. My other companions never corrected me, so I have picked up alot of nasty habits like, "wear the bus" instead of "take the bus" among other little gut-busters. Well, my companion at least gets a crack out of it... jaja.

This week we were all ahead full with menos activos, and found much success with this. Many people came to church yesterday that had not been at church in a long time, and I like to think that maybe one of our visitas gave them the animo to come to church. The chapel has two sets of banks with the isle in the center, and normally everyone sits on the same side, but yesterday there was so many people that there were also people who had to find space on the other side... Its a little thing but its enough to make a missionary extraordinarily happy.

Now I am going to tell you what it is like during the World Cup in Argentina.... Especially when they are winning. In the United States, there really is not anything like it. There are big, crazy fans in many sports in the United States, but here in Argentina, its really the only sport. Yesterday, Argentina played against Britain (I believe) and the whole city was dead, but we could hear the game playing from all the houses.

When they scored a goal (and from the sound of it, Argentina scored several) The whole of Posadas shouts and cries and makes tons of noise. You could lay down in the middle of a normally very busy street and take a nap if you wanted and nothing would happen to you. And missionary work? You can almost forget it. The only ones that wander the calles are people with black tags. All of our citas told us to come back after the game, and noone wanted to listen to us for fear of losing a goal.

I am quite happy that the United States is no longer in the running for the World Cup. OR it might be dangerous for me to be in the streets. Jaja.

Love Ya,
Sarah

Hey everyone!!
This week went by superfast… Yesterday, I forgot that tomorrow was p-day… but alas, here I am for another entry.

These past few weeks we have had a very high number of new investigators, and we rana round town trying to follow up on them… some of them had little interest, others were not home (on purpose or on accident, we will never know) but others really had some interest… I am a firm believer that when people have interest, they show it quickly… for example one of the new investigators from this past week, Mabel.

Mabel and her family live right next to her sister Yolanda and we started teaching them and their 8 year old daughters, Augustina and Sabrina (They have other little kids that listen, but these are the ony ones that are of baptizing age.) (Mabel´s marido also listens from the doorway…) They both showed a ton of interest, and very quickly put into practice the commitment of family prayer. Mabel is a little shy to pray out loud, so she asks her children to do it. But this last time only Mabel and Augustina listened to the charla. They only have about 20 minutes before we loose the attention of the kids so we teach them one or two principles at a shot. This last time, we taught her and her small children Prophets with the book of pictures Dad sent me (thanks… I really have no idea how this lesson would have went without them) and it went really well. We volunteered a member to come by her house to find her and accompany her to church, and Mabel and Augustina CAME TO CHURCH!!!

It was fantastic! They really enjoyed the meetings and are exited to come back the following week. When we finish with lesson one, I think we are going to be able to put a baptismal date with them. Their desire is sincere, and that is what matters.
Momento Milagroso con Miembros: Remember my circus family, well, Yanina y Yamila, the “little people,” and also Angel, a friend of the Mancuellos got cordially invited by Fabiana, a girl in our Ward, to go watch the Argentina game at the institute, and also attend the class. Milagro de milagros, they went, and very quicky won the hearts of all that are involved… Now… how can we get them to church? Well, Fabi and our ward mission leader, Lucas are working on that, still. I would not doubt that they are going to do it. The invitation of a member to go to church is a million times more powerful than that of a missionary.

We have also been working with Familia Garcia, a married couple that has been members forever, but are now inactive because of the death of their son a few years ago. Her son died in a car crash when he was preparing to go on a mission, so she felt bitter that God took someone away from her that was preparing to serve God.
Well, yesterday was the birthday of the hermana, and we really celebrated it up, with a little cake that we made and candles… it made her so happy that she told us that this next Sunday that she will come to church with a nonmember friend… Its a striking difference from the first time that I know her… all sad and bitter toward the church and God but now really exited to return…

Stuff like cakes, pavadas, really, sometimes can make all of the difference. She is also allowing us to put together a JAS noche de hogar in her house… We were thinking if we fill her house with jóvenes again, it will probably help her reactivate. A little unorthodox, but nothing in a mission is orthodox.

Thanks for Reading this…

Hermana Sarah Tritsch

Drop me a line if you want to at: Sarah.tritsch@myldsmail.net

Hey Everyone!!

This week, we got highly involved with the members when the relief society presidency and primary presidency completely changed, including my convert, Ana Maria, as relief society first counselor... The ward has a new desire to work hard to find the inactives and help with the obra misional. As a result, we got 2 new weekly lunch appointments and 3 new assigned less active families. Put that with a litany of recent converts as well as our duties to find and teach our investigators, you can see that we have had our work cut out for us.

Funny story: We are still working with Natalia and her family, trying to teach her husband and child, and stumbled upon her brother and law, Fabian who had a baptismal date at one point, but could not give up smoking. He lives with Natalia, so we had a little plan to make sure he got to church Sunday. We already promised Natalia that we were going to look for her and her family and we got there and sent her children to jump on Fabian´s bed to wake him up for church... With a little push and shove and the shouting of children, Fabian groggingly got to church this sunday... one more step to guarding the word of wisdom, and on to baptism... (we hope.)

Well, Sorry this one is short, but I am out of time... Love ya.
Hermana Tritsch

Hey everyone!!!

Lots of Love and news:

This week, my mini went home and Hermana Lila Madariaga came from Goya to work with me here. She is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, although her English is a million times better than my Spanish. She has only been on a mission for a little over two months, and I am her second companion (Madrastra, asi dicen). She is really smart and friendly and we seem to work well together. She helps me refine my language, develop a better accent, and encourages me to be more obedient. The funny thing is, that she knew who I was long before I knew her.

Before my mission, (with the help of my dad) she stumbled upon this blog and read it and found out many details about me and my experiences. Its a little disconcerting when you begin to tell a mission story and she already knows it.... jaja. But its great... lots of laughs.

But we work hard and study hard together... we had record numbers this week with 19 new investigators and 6 references contacted. Arguably the best numbers I have ever had in my mission. I know that God put us together for a reason...

We made leaps and bounds with Natalia, the woman who had been attending church but did not know how to read well.... This week we were trying to put a baptismal date with her for the 26th of June but when we gave her the commitment she asked us if the baptism that she had when she was a girl still worked... Many people tell us that they have already been baptized because they do not understand that the baptisms of other faiths really don´t work for God... only the faiths that have the authority to do it, so we were not immediately alarmed.

So we began to ask her questions about her baptism to clarify... what age were you baptized? how was it done? do you remember anyone putting their hands on your head later? and the and the answers were all correct... that she had been baptized in Candelaria (another branch) when she was 12 years old. she remembers elders with tags and filmstrips, and a bunch of men putting their hands on her head... and lo and behold, our progressing investigator, really is not an investigator at all, but really and INACTIVE MEMBER!!! NO WONDER SHE WAS SO RECEPTIVE! jaja.

So now we are working to reactivate her and are teaching her husband and oldest son (the only one that is old enough to baptize) How´s that for a drastic change of events. I am happy that she is a member, but at the same time, I am a little dissapointed because she was our only progressing investigator.

We also started teaching two girls Maria and Damaris, two 17 year old girls that the missionaries taught in this past year, but could not get baptized because their parents refused to give them permission (thats an understatement...) They turn 18 at the end of the year, and thus will not need parental permission to baptize, and their friend Luci, a member asked us in their behalf to teach them again... I first knew them algunas meses atras, and I remeber feeling like they were already members because they had a spirit about them. We know that they will get baptized, either now or when they turn 18, but we are trying to make it so when they do get baptize that it will not destroy their families. I see them and hear their stories and I feel like I have heard it before... Its resoundingly similar to that of Dad´s.

They came to church in secret yesterday... I hope it does not blow up later.

I love you all very much and thanks for all of your letters.

Hermana Sarah Tritsch

Greetings from the trenches of Suburban Posadas!!!

This week, we worked super hard trying to get everything back to normal after a week of no work for the sickness of Hermana Loria... I am soo tired,,,, and my mini too. We go to bed early almost every day.... plan... brush teeth... pray... sleep.... repeat the next night. I am learning a ton from her and how to teach better because she does not know anything... a nuevita would know the charlas... but minis come in, and if they happen to have or have read or even know about preach my gospel its a good thing...

I love Hermana Stein, don´t get me wrong... she is awesome... a hard worker and has a willingness to learn, but I am trying to develop more patience... that christlike attribute always needs developing, so it seems.

But the work continues... I am a firm believer that the gospel is so strong that it can overcome the petty mistakes that I make... well, I hope so anyway.

We are working hard with Familia Mancuello... A family that was born and raised in the circus. The mother, Maria, is really awesome... she is not afraid to ask her questions, which is a really big sign of interest... Her daughters Yamila y Yanina are also listening, and two friends of theirs, Noelia and Angel are also escuchando las charlas. Every time we go over there, its all jokes and giggles... Yamila and Yamila are "little people" and work in a functioning circus that is about to open, so we get to hear all about it.

Noelia has a great desire to know why she is here in the world, and is eagerly reading the Book of Mormon to find out why.

Saturday we took them to see a baptism and they really enjoyed it!!! Some of the members were suprised to see them(you can imagine) but every one treated them well and were really exited to see them... Especially Hermano Tau, who gave us their names as a reference. Its really fun to teach them, and I am so exited to see them progress. Its a new experience, and if they are to get baptized, there is alot of work to do.... (Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity above all) but I know that if this is something that they really want to do, that they will become strong converts in the church... I am sure of it.

We are also teaching a woman named Natalia, she is really awesome... has a strong desire to change, and has been coming to church for the past few weeks... Its hard for her to read, so we are taking everything slow and steady, so she can remember and understand everything. Sin embargo, she loves coming to church, even though her head still hangs really low when she is there... I know that she will come to baptize in time, and I hope I can be here to see it.

I love Ya,
Hermana Tritsch

Querida Familia y Amigos,

Blog number 50.... I can hardly believe it.... its quite an achievement really.... when I get to 52, Its going to be a year for me.... kind of scare me a little.

This past week was one for the record books... Went by really fast and really slow at the same time... my mini is una capa... She has a strong testimony of the blessings that come from the gospel that really touch our investigators... she gets really nervous to speak, but when she gets to it, its like someone gave her 17 months in mission. She is learning fast and we get along great... I wouldn´t ind it at all if she stayed with me a little longer... but she won´t... she has to return to her home and finish studying... she is in quinto grado... which equates to a senior in high school, so she has got to finish.

But it is a whole ´nother game when your companion is a mini... when other full time missionaries, nuevos aun, come, at least they know the lessons and a basic idea of what we teach, but Hermana Stein did not come with any of that... Just with a testimony and a desire to serve... She has taught me that is really all you need to be a missionary. Mientras, estoy enseñando ella todos... She just barely got baptized... has less time as a member than I have as a missionary, and I have to teach her like we teach our investigators. But I am learning a ton about how to simplify my teaching so noone gets lost, especially my companion...

We taught the Plan of Salvation for the first time together with Celina and it was awesome... my mini´s testimony was the key of everything... and I know that when she serves a mission of her own that she will be a very powerful servant of the Lord.

This week wasn´t the best week I ever had, because it was mainly looking for the investigators that Hermana Loria and I had to leave behind because she was sick... we found many and found some new families too. She works hard and loves being here, which really makes all of the difference.

I am grateful that Heavenly Father gave me the oppurtunity to learn from her.

P. S. Pictures below of me and Sister Stein, Sister Lauria, some of the Elders in our area and a few surprises.

-Hermana Tritsch