The Final Count Down

Hola familia!!!

This week has been the fastest yet, and pretty soon I will be in ARGENTINA!!! We were hoping to get travel plans today, which is why I am e-mailing later than usual so that if they came I could tell you, but they haven't come... probably tomorrow. So I will let you know all of the airport details including call times next week. Sorry. Believe me, I really wish that they had come. We are getting really anxious to find out. I can't believe that we are really leaving in just over a week. I don't think it has hit me yet that I am leaving. The MTC is hard, but it's kind of a safe place... The real work will come in the field. I just feel such a great responsibility because we are talking about people's eternal salvation here! I don't want to pass ANYONE on the street without testifying of Christ, I want the entire city of Buenos Aires to know Him and accept His gospel through baptism. I want to do everything I can for the Lord and according to His direction. That feels like the biggest responsibility that I have ever had in my life. I know that I need to rely on Him and then get to work. I am so humbled, excited, nervous, etc etc.

We met with the Argentine Consulate this week, because one of the requirements for a visa to ARG is a face to face with him. That was fun and interesting. He answered a bunch of questions about Argentina and then we all signed final papers for visas. YAY!!! So the thing that you will need to know from that meeting... he said that if you do send packages that it will probably be better to use fedex or another private company so that it's them working with their people and not between governments and to still keep it small. But again, I am just happy to have your support, don't feel like you have to send anything. And to answer the question, I think that it takes something like 5 weeks for things to get there, but i don't know about with fedex. Sorry. I will send all of the addresses that you need home next week.

This week in relief society, Sister Sharon L. Eubank came and talked to us and it was super amazing. The thing that she said that stuck out the most was that sisters in the scriptures usually only get 1 line or less. If you only had one line to leave for all the word, what would it be? I think I know what mine would be, but I would love to hear yours first!
 ( To those women that read her blog: Post your comment and I will send those on to Kailei.  What one line would you like to leave the world?)

In Sacrament on Sunday, Hna Hill had to speak and she did such a great job. So proud of my companion!

Accomplishment of the week: I can tie a tie!!! And the Elders say that we aren't half bad at it, even if we do say so ourselves. haha. We learned that lots of our investigators won't know how and so we need to learn, so we did. It's actually kind of fun.

"Fernando" and "Edmundo" are being baptized this week! We are so excited, even if they are just our teachers! It's interesting because they act different for each companionship depending on how the lessons go and the Spirit of it all, and we are just so grateful that they will be baptized! I feel like Ammon that I will boast in my God. The very best thing is going in to a lesson with total faith and knowing that it is lead by the Spirit. I am humbled every time. We are actually having a mock baptismal service and that will be way fun. Our teacher wants us to have the experience planning it, and "Edmundo" asked that Hna Hill and I give the talks, so we have prepared those and the two of us are having a lot of fun planning the service. It is really exciting. We are even making programs and having cookies after. lol. We might as well go all out, right. haha. We even had our Branch President's wife bring us a serving platter. haha. Good times.

Spanish is coming along much better. We speak a lot more, and every week it gets easier. I am having a difficult time understanding when to use the subjunctive tense, so if you could all pray for me to understand that this week, I would really appreciate it. But yes, in all, I feel more confident about Spanish. Still not great, but better. I am honestly really scared for Argentina, but I have a lot of faith and we work diligently. So it will be okay.

Today was the craziest pday ever. We had a practice with our district because we are singing the musical number on pday and we got haircuts, so we had over an hour of our usual personal time gone. so I can't send many letters this week. Please forgive me.

The Tuesday devotional this week was good. The thing that was really powerful for me was the quote "happiness depends on circumstances. Joy depends on God.:" That is so true. I really am just so joyful to be here. I am learning and growing every day and it is just such a miracle.

I love you all so very much! Thank you for your examples, love, and support. I seriously could not do any of this without you.

I love you all more than I can even express! I am looking forward to talking to you soon.

ELEVEN DAYS!!!!

Love,

Hermana Shelley