I think I may go into the Spy business..., August 6,2012

Hey Fam!!!!!!!

I was excited to get your e-mail Mom! I am so glad that Derek had a good birthday. I need to find something really cool here for him but it may be belated. So its exciting that you all have been getting a lot of rain in Florida and I hope that Utah gets its act together and starts to rain soon. I am sorry the zucchini died again, that is really kind of funny but sad at the same time. The more time I spend out here in the mission field the more I notice how weird I am getting. My companion and I talk about the strangest things and we talk about how strange things are here in Argentina but by the time we get home we will think that everything in the US is weird. I laugh at hna. Tourtillott so much because she literally has forgotten how a lot of things are in the US. I will have to make a list and tell you about them all next week.

So this week has been interesting but we have gotten a lot done. We having be doing a lot of contacting and we have had some great lessons with people. I love being a missionary because I get hear some many cool stories from people about their experiences with God or with the Holy Ghost. And when we talk to people. sometime they tell us that they had been praying for help and then we have showed up at their door. I love the way that I have seen Heavenly Father working with people here. We have been teaching this man and he knows that the church is true and he believes in the Book of Mormon and everything but he just doesn´t understand why he just can´t live his life as a good person. Its so frustrating because I know how much the gospel can bless his life.

We also have this inverstigator whose name is Annibal and he has a date for September first to get baptized. He is really awesome! He loves Everything about the gospel but the hard thing for him to do is to come to church. He came last week but he was sick yesterday and so he was able to come. We are really working with him right now to help him understand the importance of coming to church. I know that it will click for him soon and I know that it will really help him if we get him involved with some of the members so that they can encourage him as well. I am really excited for him and he is really a very amazing man.

So on Saturday we had a very interesting experience. We had knocked into this women the previous week and se really like the first lesson so we went back to teach her. She let us in and right away she started to tell us about how she had been in an accident a few years ago and she was in the hospital forever because she had a big hole in her stomach that wouldn´t close up and now she is having issues with that area and the doctors who operated on her wouldn´t tell her anything and so she wanted to know if we could help her. I guess when she was having surgery, she was awake and her hands and legs were tied and she wanted to know if that was normal. My companion told her that is didn´think it was but she didn´t know and she told her at we were there to teach her the gospel and not to be her counselors. We then the lady looks at us kind of creepily and said that maybe we do know what happened to her but we can´t say. Since I can´t understand anything, I didn´t know what was going on but I sensed that she was off her rocker but after we left my companion told me everything she had said and I was shocked. So that is another person who thinks that we are spies.

the up side about not being able to understand is that I can make up really funny stories in my head as they are talking based on the words I pick up. Sometimes I am not to far off. The people here love to talk about everything and nothing all the same time.

Also this week we had a Noche de Hogar (family night) with Maria and her sister who is not a member. We hope to start teaching her sister but when we had the noche de hogar with them we literally didn´t say a word for an hour and a half. Her sister talked about all of her problems and stuff like that and Maria just talks about anything. So it was quite interesting. They are so hiliarious but it is really hard to teach them so we are going to be practicing on how we can cut in and bring the conversation back to our lessons.

Well yesterday at church crazy man came in and threated to light the church on fire so the police came and arrested him. He really needs help. He broke into the Bishop´s house and stole somethings last week. It is really sad but I hope that something can be done with him soon.

So I am sorry about the letter situation but I am writing today but it is way cheaper to send a large envelop with a lot of letters in it than a letter at a time so I will be needing you to put the letters for my friends in the mailbox so they can get them. There is just no time in the day to get everything done. We will be going down to Rosario on wednesday and thursday for me to get some more things down with my visa and we also hope to be moving this week sometime so it should be a crazy week. 

Well I love you all so much and I hope that your week is awesome!!!!! I love this gospel and the opportunity I have to spread it to the wonderfully crazy people here in Parana.

Lots of Love,

Alayna

What's Up Family!!! July 30,2012

Hola Familia,

 

It was great to get your e-mail Mom. It sounds like Sea World was a blast and its Exciting that Derek is now Offical!!! I am sorry that Dad couldn´t make it down but hopefully in four years.

So I love it here in Parana! It is so different and it really helps me realize how blessed I am. The people here are very friendly but they are all Catholic and they don´t want to change because they feel like they would be going against their family.

We have one man that we are teaching whose name is Nelson and he really knows that the church is true but he can´t get himself to stop being catholic and his wife has basically told him if he gets baptized that she will leave him. Its really sad because he is so amazing and he loves the gospel but his wife is just being selfish. We are going to continue to work with him and I hope that he will be able to get baptized soon.

So now I am going to tell you about some of the interesting things that have happened this week. One day when we were contacting, we stopped by this man who was working on his car and we introduced ourselves and he went off on how we were really spies for the American Government and we really just take down everyones information and give it to the government. It was hilarious! My companion tried to convince him otherwise but he wouldn´t have it. He was nice enough but when we left he still thought we were spies but he did say that he would check out the church sometime.

So our pench is pretty run down and we have rented a new pench but we can´t move in for about a month because they found out that the land lady had been stealing the electrical power from the meat store near by and so they have to re-wire the entire pench. So I will have a bucket shower for about another month and then I will have a some what normal shower again.

Yesterday at church a lady who just got bapized 4 days before I got here, got a calling to be the Relief Society secretary. Her name is Maria and she is super sweet but she will talk your ear off. When we have lessons with her she literally talks none stop for 50 minutes, no joke! She has some interesting thoughts but she loves the gospel and she is way excited about her calling.

Also yesterday we went to Evangelical Church. One of our investigators invited us and it was super weird! They pray and sing a ton and they have a full band to play the music. At the begining they had something like a testimony meeting where people would come up praise God by singing or saying stuff. I can´t understand any way so it was really hilarious. All of the women wear veils and the men and women are separated. It was quite interesting and I know even more now how blessed we are to be in the true church.

So this week we talked to some JWs here we call them testigos. They gave us a pamphlet that all it talked about was evolution and science. It had nothing religious in it what so ever! I don´t understand them at all but that is okay.

So this will be an interesting story. So there is someone in our ward who we call crazy man. He actually used to be the ward mission leader until about 4 months ago. He is skitsophrenic(or however you spell it) and so he was fine when he would take is medicine but about 5 months ago he started to mix his meds with drugs and he just kind of went crazy. He kicked his mother and sister out of the house that his mother owns and he has come to church a few times and threatened people with a fire extinguisher and he punched the stake president one time too. Now this was all before I got here and this past week some other things happened. Since he kicked his Mom and Sister out they have basically been in hiding. They come to church but he has no idea where they live because he may do something to them. So this week on saturday he basically took everything that was in the house and threw it into the street and so we got a call from is mom asking us to come and help her gather everything together and keep it in our pench until she could pick it all up. So we helped her and we asked her where her son was and she said she had the police take him. But here is the kicker, the police here are literally men in capes. Eventhough crazy man has thrown his mother out of her home, threatened people, assaulted the stake president and some other police and he also sell and does drugs and on saturday night he was mad at what his mother did so he lite the house on fire, they can´t arrest him because he is a skitsophrenic and so not in his right mind, supposedly, which is ridiculous because he knows what he is doing. It is really sad that basically he has to kill someone for them to finally arrest him. But don´t worry because for some reason he likes us has always been nice when we talk to him. This is such a strange country. It blows my mind. I would maybe like to visit again but I would never want to live here. They have a very corrupt government and people just do what they want.

Anyway, on a happier note, I am having such an amazing experience here and I am learning a ton. Hna. Tourtillott is hiliarious and we are always laughing at something that happens everyday. I have really seen the power of the Holy Ghost since I have been here and I may not understand the language but the people here have very strong testimonies and I can feel their love and their desire to follow Jesus Christ. I am excited to see waht happens this week.

I hope everyone has a great week! Enjoy the warm weather because I am freezing right now! It is so strange to be freezing in July!

Oh and it sounds cheesy but count your blessings! There are so many things that they don´t have here or don´t do here that I miss so much, like pepper(they only have salt here), peanut butter, cinnamon, pudding, cookies, fresh produce, flushable toliets, warm water, carpet, couches, insulated walls steak seasoning(I miss that so much), and a bunch of other stuff. Argentina is has its own charm but I am excited to come home and just lay on our carpeted floor.

I love you all so much and I can´t wait to hear from you next week!

Lots of Love,

Alayna

Hola from Parana!!!!!!!!!! July 23,2012

Hola Family!!!!!!

Well the past week has been quite the Adventure! I am still alive but for a while I didn´t think I would survive.

I guess I will give you the play by play. Here is goes........

So after I talked to you all in Dallas we boarded the plane and we sat there for a bit before the pilot came over the system and said that we would need to change planes because the was a not so good smell that was in the plane and the maintence had  to check it out. So we got off and had to wait until 10 o´clock that night to board a new plane and start off for Argentina. So I thought that we might meet up with our Elderes there but we didn´t. We were just with 6 other Elderes from the MTC that we had seen before. The plane ride was forever long and I hardly slept. We arrived in Buenos Aires at 10 in the morning on tuesday and it was really quite easy. We went through a quick check point and we gave them our Visas and then we met up with Aliberto, a guy who works for the church, and then we separated from the Elderes and they took me and Hna. Morgan to this van and guess who was there, Our Elderes!!!!!!!! It was weird to see them again but Awesome at the same time. They loved Alabama. So then that started our 5 hour car trip to Rosario. Now our driver didn´t speak English and we couldn´t understand him for anything!!! So after being really confused and stopping at a gas station and eating a ham sandwich and Coke,(My first and last Coke) we finally made it to the Mission Home. Presidente and Hermana Giuliani are super sweet and nice! We had my first home cooked meal in Argentina, it was really good! It was ravioli with a meat sauce and there was a ton of it! Then we had flan for dessert.

We slept over at the Mission home that night and then on wednesday morning we got our trainers. Before we found out who they were we saw two sisters getting dropped off and on was American and the other was a Native speaker. Elder Perkins turned to me and said that i would be getting the Native Speaker. I thought that I would as well but nope, I got Hermana Tourtillott!!!!! Quite the name right? Its French! She is awesome and she is from Kansas. She has been out for 8 months and she is basically fluent in Spanish. She just finished having a companion from Peru and so is is going to be able to teach me a lot.

Our area is in Parana and it is called Cinco Esquinas(Five Corners). We had to take another 4 hour bus ride to get here from Rosario. It is so strange to think that I live in Argentina! and I will be living here for the next 15 months!! It so crazy!!! Cinco Esquinas is a rather large area and some of our investigators live an hour away from our Pench(apartment). Walking! Okay now our pench is something else. The walls are concrete and we have no heating. We have a gas oven that looks like it could attack you and the word carpet doesn´t exist here. Oh and we have a Bucket Shower!!!!! When I first walked in Hna. Tourtillott asked me not to run away. I guess I looked that dumbfounded. I know that the living conditions here in Argentina aren´t like in the US but wow, it really humbles you. We we are contacting we knock on buildings that I swear we be condemned in the US. I have been extremly blessed to have grown up in the US.

Any who, we are over one ward but only 30 people come every sunday. I had to bear my testimony in church yesterday. It was quite nerve racking.

So basically I can´t understand a thing!!! They all talk super fast and so I am lost all of the time. I thought people in Texas talked a lot but nope, the people of Argentina have them beat! Hna Tourtillott just laughs at how confused I look as we are talking to people. But she is an awesome teacher and so I will be working super hard on learning the language.

I will have to tell you about all of the people that we are working with in the letter but they are quite interesting and have quite the history.

Well I hate to cut this short but I still need to write Presidente. I am so glad that everyone got down to Florida safely and that everything is Great!!! I will be writing a long letter! Promise! But I will probably be writing you on e-mail again before you get the letter. I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Lots of Love,

Alayna

 

p.s. My address is still the Mission Address. All of the mail has to go there so its the same as the one I gave you before I left.

p.p.s. I can´t believe Alexa is Engaged!!!!!!!!!!! Tell her congrats if you see her and give her my address so I can get and invite!

Adios to Texas! Monday July 16,2012

Hey Family!!!!!!!!

 

Right off the bat I will tell you that this is going to be the shortest e-mail ever. I will get to talk to you all so I can say everthing then. I can't believe that I am leaving Texas. I swear I just got here yesterday. I will miss Texas but I am super excited to be going to Argentina Finally!! Mom, I don't know if I will be able to call you between 2 and 4 but I know that we will be flying to some where else in the US first so I might be able to call you when we have our layover. Which might be around 5-7 maybe. I am sorry I can't be more definite. I don't know anything still. I guess I will find out when I go to the mission office at two.

I am excited that the trip is going great and I am excited to be able to talk to you. Have a blast in Nauvoo!!!!!!! I love you all soooooo much! Talk to you soon!!!

Lots of Love,

Alayna

 

p.s. yes Mom, when you write me in Argentina, don't put Hermana. 

Hi Y'all !!!!!!

Hola Familia!

 

It was great to get your e-mail Mom! I am glad Dad that you enjoyed the Father's Day card. I picked it out because it was a dog fishing and I like that song! So I am super excited that you liked it. I'm glad you all had a great Father's Day but I hope that Jason and his family can start feeling better now that they have moved into a new apartment. Yesterday we had Dinner at a member's home and they are vegetarians and so they grilled us regular hot dogs. It was super sweet of them to do that for us. and then after that we had great night visiting the less active families in our ward.

One family was the Hernandez family. They are So sweet!! He is from Mexico and she is from Peru and they have three kids. They came to church yesterday for the first time in 6 months which is Awesome!!!!! The father really wants his family to continue to come to church so they just need to get out of the habit of not coming. So when we visited with them last night we asked them if we could teaching them the lessons in Spanish so that we could get the practice. Because I am in an english area and so I hardly ever get to use my Spanish. And they Loved that Idea! It will help us practice with native speakers and it will hopefully get them active again and wanting to have the gospel more in their lives. Then the father asked if we could also come over sometimes and read The Book of Mormon with them in Spanish. He feels that it will really help their family. So I am super excited! Also super nervous because of my struggling Spanish skills but the cool thing is is that when we left Hermana Wright turned to me and said, "You know, this is one of the reasons you are here, to learn the language from the Hernandez family and also to help them grow in the Gospel." So I am super excited to meet with them again.

This week has definitely been something else. We had quite a few member present lessons scheduled but all of the appointments feel through. It was discouraging but I know that there will be days and week like this one has been but I know that if I continue to work hard and do all I can, the Lord will take care of the rest. So needless to say we did a lot of knocking doors this past week but we met some nice people who said we could come back and meet with them again. So I can't wait to see what this week brings.

Today for p-day we are getting together as a zone and we are going to Enchanted Rock. I guess it is a cave somewhere but that should be fun. So I will have to take a lot of pictures and send them to you. Tonight we have dinner with a couple where his is a member and she isn't but they are super sweet and so we are going to have a bbq with them tonight and also do some service for them. They are both in their 60's I think and he has some health problems and so we try to help them in anyway we can. Also tonight we hopefully will be teaching the first lesson to this guy named Dakota and his family. We tried to see them yesterday but they were busy and so they asked us to come back tonight.

So something really cool that happened at church yesterday was that Sister Riding in our ward came up to me and asked me what my parents names were. I told her and then she asked me if I knew Kent and Sherry. I freaked out and said they were my Aunt and Uncle and she got super excited. When Sister Riding and her husband we newly married they lived in Kent and Sherry's ward and they loved that ward and I guess Lisa baby sat for them. Well Sister Riding loved Lisa so much that she named her second daughter after Lisa. Isn't that cool!! So she wanted me to tell Kent and Sherry that so if you get a chance let them know that Bob and Valarie Riding say Hi! We have dinner with them on thursday so she is excited to talk to me about them. This is one of those times when I wish I knew my extended family better.:)

So to answer some questions, yes I am doing the twelve week program and if I leave from Argentina this next transfer then I will finish the program down there. And so no I haven't heard anything about my Visa but I think they will probably just tell me if I have it or not when transfer calls come so I need to be prepared.:)

We had a little rain last night and supposedly we are to get rain tomorrow and the next few days but I doubt it. The days have been a bit cooler lately but it is still super hot! And everyone I meet tells me that it will just continue to get worse. Que Bendicion!!! Also we have a car but we usually go to the area we are working in, park and walk everywhere until we have to leave that area.

Thank you all for your letters and Dad, for all the advice you give me! Thank you so much! I am always so excited to hear what is going on back home. I hope that Utah can get some rain to help with the fires. We talked to a guy a few days ago who predicts the world will end by the end of this year because of all of the signs that are coming true in the Bible. It was quite hilarious to listen to him. He went on to talk about how the Mayans and the different people in the Americas had to have been visited by some God because how else could the have been so advanced and I guess there are some carvings of a God that they worshiped that had long hair and a beard and his so he said it had to be Jesus. So we told him yeah it was and that is what The Book of Mormon is about and once we told him that, he was stumped and said he would have to think about that. It was so Funny!!!!! Oh the people you met!

Well I hope everyone has a great week and I hope to hear from you all soon!!! Thanks again for all of your love and support and I can't wait to tell you what this week brings!!! Enjoy the dry heat!!

Lots of Love,

Alayna

Greetings from Texas San Antonio Mission

Hey Everyone,

 

I have officially survived my first 5 day in Texas. The heat is killer but everyone's air conditioning works really well. I have so much to tell you but its hard to know to write in my e-mail and what to save for the letter. So on wednesday when we got off the plane and met with President Jones and his wife we got to go back to the mission home and have lunch. It is so nice to have real food again! Then they talked to us about the mission and I felt kind of out of the loop because they kept referring to things they had asked the missionaries to do before they came and me and Hermana Morgan had no idea what they were talking about and so President Jones would turn to us a say, "Oh you don't need to worry about that." They are both extremely nice but I now know what my teacher meant when he said we are kind of in limbo right now. Then we got to go to the Alamo. It is a lot smaller than I thought it would be but it was cool to see. It is right downtown in the middle of San Antonio. We then got to split up and go place our first Book of Mormon. There were only 3 sisters so we all went together and the one sister who is staying here totally took the lead and talked with this lady for 25 minutes. We were able to give a Book of Mormon to her but neither Hermana Morgan or I got a word in. But all in all is was a good experience. After that we went back had dinner and then slept over at some sisters apartment. Then on thursday we went to the transfer meeting. My trainer's name is Hermana Wright and she is from St. George. She has just been hear for 12 weeks and she is already training! She is awesome and I am so excited to work with her! Our area is Encino Park. Its not a very big area and its just outside the city limits of San Antonio.

On thursday night we were supposed to have a dinner appointment with a family in the ward but they weren't home when we went over so we dicided to knock some doors. Knocking doors is quite a nerve racking experience! Most people are very polite in telling us they are not interested. So we knocked a few doors and we knock on one door and a man answered the door and he and his wife let us in. They are both Catholic but they aren't happy with where they are at and so they are looking for something different. So right there we taught them the first lesson!!! I was so Nervous!!!!! They both agreed to read the Book of  Mormon and we get to meet with them again this week! Hermana Wright said I did great but I know I can improve a ton! Later that night we met with a couple and he is an inactive and she is not a member. They are Awesome!!! I will give you the details about them in the letter.

We are extremely blessed, we get to live with a member! In a House! It is the greatest thing Ever! Her name is Billie and she has 3 dogs!!! I love it so much!!! The members are also so Amazing! They feed us practically ever night and they are willing to help anyway they can. My first sunday was great and it was fun to be in a normal ward again.

I hope I can adjust to the heat soon or it may kill me!:) I may be buying a few cheap but cool shirts because a lot of what I have is too thick. The mission refunded me for my luggage and also the overweight which is Awesome!!!

I am excited to hear that everything is going well and I hope things work out with Jace and Emily with their apartment. I am glad they are all feeling better. Also its exciting that Derek and Kimberly will be leaving in a month! I hope Dad can get work off so you all can have a little Vacation! I really want to see dads new duds!!

Well I hope to go into more detail in my letter. Thanks so much for all of you love and prayers. They mean everything to me! The mission has been really hard so far but I know that this is where I need to be! I hope your week is amazing and have fun in the nice weather. I will never complain about Utah heat again! I love you all so much!

Lots of Love,

Alayna

 

p.s. here is the address you can write me at. :)

2318 Park Farm

San Antonio, TX 78259

Hola Familia!!!!

I am super excited! I found out this morning that I am getting temporarily reassigned!!! And I know where!!! But You will be getting a call from me around 5:45 tonight so I will tell you then!! So I am super excited to be going to two different places!!! This e-mail will probably be really short, sorry. And really scattered.

So my companion Hermana Nelson got re-assigned to Washington DC south!!! So you know where she is going but that is not where I am headed! She is going there with Brittany Pasquale. She is super excited!

So this week has been great but also difficult with not knowing if I would get my visa or where I would be off too. Its been hard to focus but I have learned a ton this week. My companions and I studied Alma 4&5 this week trying to find what Pure Testimony is. It was really Amazing! So I am inviting all of you to do the same! Its awesome what you can learn when you look for a specific thing.

It was fun to see Sister Wilson at the Temple! I'm glad she e-mailed you about that! So another person I just saw yesterday was Elder Hall!!!!!!! I didn't host yesterday but I saw him at dinner and talked to him for about 20 minutes!! It was so fun to see him!!! I was really happy that I was able to see him and I hope that I will see him more before I leave.

So It was fun to get an e-mail from both Kimberly and Emily! Thank you two for writing!!! Its great to here that Natashia got a job here! But I probably won't see her because I value my sleep more that yoga at 6 in the morning.:) And I can't believe how mobile Dylan has become!!! That is so fun to hear!!! Also Emily I am excited to hear that you are thinking of going back to school! I think that would be awesome to do as soon as you felt you could! Its also good to hear that everything is going well for Jace and work! Also I am excited that you got to work with Callie!! I miss that girl so much!!

So the tuesday night devotional was great! Elder Zwick from the seventy and his wife did a great job! They both talked on the importance of the Book of Mormon and Elder Zwick's testimony was just so Powerful!!!!

.Sorry this e-mail is so scattered but I need to go and I can't wait to call you tonight!! I love you all so much and I hope this week goes amazing!!!

Lots of Love,

Alayna

 

Alayna has been temporily reassigned to San Antonio, Texas and she flies out next Wednesday, June 6th. I will post her address there as soon as I know what it is!!