Hello familia,
It´s me again, from Argentina. The weather has been quite good lately, which is a lovely change from the week before when it was freezing. It´s going to be a cold winter and I´m not super excited for it, but at least now i have my jacket (i left it in the mission office when I first got here... oops. But they sent it to me this last week.) So it was a good week. Hermana Davis and I haven´t done much better on not eating all the time, but a lot better on teaching lessons to people that might actually be interested in learning about the gospel. We still get rejected a lot because the mission goal is 40 contacts every day. My favorite is when people see us coming so they run inside and close the door. Because then it´s like hello, we´re not afraid to knock on your door. Silly Argentines. I like Argentines and my accent is getting a lot better. I´ve also learned some new things this week - they say "rey" instead of muy and they do say "che" a lot, especially if you are a mother talking to your disobedient child. Also, you sound like an old person or totally weird if you say Adios. You have to say ciao. I have not yet mastered this so I basically sound like a weirdo all the time. I´m working on it.
Something weird that happened this week was that we were listening to my companera´s MP3 player that has church songs and other church stuff on it and I suddenly heard Uncle Dan´s voice. It was very strange, but I looked at the MP3 player and sure enough, it was his talk from conference. It was totally weird because I´m in Argentina in this tiny town and Uncle Dan´s voice was in my house. It was actually very comforting and i listened to his whole talk. It was a good talk and it helped me think about my teaching and how I can improve it. So thanks Uncle Dan!
We went back to a bunch of houses this week of people we contacted on the street last week and some of them were actually there and then actually let us in! Milagro! Then we taught them a lesson and gave them a Book of Mormon. We got 11 new investigators this week, which was the mission record of the week and we got put in the newsletter. Very exciting. We actually have zone conference tomorrow so that´s why I´m emailing today. I´m excited for the President and the Hermana and the assistants to come. I think we could use a little pumping up and advice right now. Hermana Davis and I also got asked to give a taller about weekly planning so we´re pretty excited about that. We´re going to do a really cheesy demonstration and say something like "weekly planning gives you vision" but it´ll be in Spanish. My Spanish speaking abilities are going pretty well, but it´s still hard to understand. When people talk to me, my mind goes completely blank and I look to Hermana Davis for a translation. I love Hermana Davis. I feel so grateful for her because I feel like this whole adjusting to another country and being a real missionary and walking like 400 kilometers a day and not really knowing what a kilometer is thing would be really difficult if I had a rough companion too.
The frustrating thing about this country and the members who live here and probably all members in the world and probably me just a few months ago is that they don´t realize how important the gospel is. They´re all like oh yeah, maybe I´ll go to church next week. Or someone spread a rumor about me once (like this one lady got a rumor spread about her that she is a prostitute - that´s actually kinda intense) or said something mean to me so now I don´t go to church anymore. And we visited these inactives this week who said "I´m just not sure about this new prophet. He just loosened the rules on the missionaries too much." Hello lady, he´s the prophet! He´s just fine - I´m pretty sure it´s you with the problem. And when they have the gospel, they don´t really feel the need to share it even when all their family members need it so badly! When people really understand the gospel and all the wonderful things it offers, they want to share it with everyone they know. I think that´s what I´ve learned on the mission so far. The gospel is everything. That´s why we are here. We are here to get closer to Christ and bring others with us. I hope that is what I´m doing right now.
Something really cool that happened this week was that we taught a lesson to this lady who was busy sewing some dance costumes by hand, putting the sequins on one by one (way impressive - I would never have the patience) and we taught her about the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. We read Moroni 10: 3-5 with her and she was totally fascinated by it. She started reading the rest of the book while we were just sitting there for like ten minutes and she asked if we sell the book because she really wants one. So we´re going back to her this next Saturday because she´s really busy during the week and we shall see what happens with her and with all the other people we taught this week. We really need people to start coming to church this week if we want them to really progress. We shall see.
In the meantime, I´m having a good time with Hermana Davis and we´re working hard and eating a lot of baked goods and candy and ice cream and fruit and bread. I really like the bread here. Surprisingly, I haven´t had that much meat. I think it´s really expensive right now. We eat a lot of pasta though. Our patriarch´s wife fed us some milanesas de soja (kinda like breaded chicken, but it was made of soy!). Pretty weird, but I had some real ones with a little family with four really cute kids. The Argentines are taking good care of me and so is Hermana Davis. I pray for all of you and I love you and miss you a lot. I think I need a better picture of our family, but everyone loves to see the picture I have. I also love to look at it and remember how much I like all of you. I have an hour to email so any of you who want to email me, I now have time to read it and would love to hear from you. I love you all so much and am very excited to spend eternity with you.
Cuidese,
Hermana Seegmiller
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