Hello familia,
I am doing really well. I am soooo excited that I have a nephew! He was born a little early though and so now I have to wait even longer to meet him. But he looks really cute and they say he´s doing well. I´ve already been seeing things in store windows that I want to buy for him. Also, this past week, I got the Easter package that Mom sent me and we have been eating chocolate and kinda getting sick on it for the past week. It lasts a lot longer when there are only two of you eating it. The missionary work is going well in our area. We have a bunch of investigators, but they´re kind of all struggling to progress. Rocío didn´t come to church this week because she was "tired from her son´s birthday party the day before." She´s going to have to wait a little while longer to get baptized, but I know she´s going to make it. A family with five kids that were investigating the church in Centro just moved into our ward and the mom and one of her sons went to church this week. They seem pretty great and we really want to baptize them.
We actually did divisions again this week and I went to be with Hna. Freeman in Centro. It´s a pretty big area too, but we had a good time. She´s super cool and I enjoyed being her companion for a few days. We were knocking on doors in Centro and we rang this lady´s intercom and introduced ourselves. She said," Oh, we were just about to light the black candle for the devil. Do you want to come in?" We said "No thanks." and then she yelled," Okay, then don´t bother me anymore!" and hung up. Then we laughed really hard. I would give her points for creativity because I´m pretty sure it was a joke. Pretty sure...
I was also talking with Hna. Collette and she was trying to tell me about a store that she wanted to go to that sells earrings, but she couldn´t remember the word for earrings. She said," Ellos venden.... orejas?" Me: That´s ears. Her: Arvejas? Me: Peas Her: Ovejas? Me: Sheep! (laughing) It´s aritos!
It was pretty entertaining. It was just one of those bad Spanish days that happen sometimes. But it was pretty funny. She´s actually very good at Spanish.
Also wondering... what´s happening with the Mother´s Day phone call? I´m planning on Skyping if I can, but I need the password. I´m excited to talk to you guys and see you! SO fun! I hope you are all very happy and doing great. Thanks for all your support and prayers. I love you all! I still pridefully show our family picture to anyone who will look at it. And then they spend a few minutes trying to decide which one I am and they usually think Karli is me. Then I say," No, she has a man. I´m the one without a man." haha... And they say that we all look the same. Oh, Argentines. Gotta love em. Well, have a great week!
Love,
Hna. Seegmiller
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Je vais te couper la tet!-April 18, 2011
Hello family,
My lovely companion, Hna. Collette, has been teaching me French this week. This particular phrase that got chosen as the title of my email this week was taken from when she was telling me a story from when she was living in France with her family and this guy got really mad at her brother and yelled," Je vais te couper la tet!" at him, which means," I´m going to cut off your head!" Pretty strong words. But I thought it was pretty funny so I asked Hna. Collette to teach me how to say that in French. So I practiced a little bit and wrote it down. Later, when we were walking down the road, I would randomly say that to her in French. It turned out to be really funny for me because she would totally freak out and I just laughed, since it doesn´t really mean anything to me. Then it got even better when we went to a less active lady´s house and she told us that she understands French. So I, of course, took advantage of this great opportunity and told her," Oh, really? My companion has been teaching me French. Je vais te coupe la tet!" She looked totally freaked out and Hna. Collette looked scandalized while me and the other two family members just laughed at their reactions. It was pretty great.
This week went pretty well. A few weeks ago, pretty much all our investigators told us not to visit them anymore so we have been rebuilding our group of investigators and now we have 14 newbies. We´re not sure if they are going to progress, but we would like to think that they are. We do know we were super blessed to be able to find them and at least tell them a little bit more about the church. We did finally have someone come to church. Rocío, a very inmature 29 year old, finally came. She had been before and she totally loved it, but it had been a few years. She showed up to church in the rain (most members in Argentina don´t even accomplish that) and loved all the classes. She is really open and tells us exactly what she´s thinking always, which actually proves to be pretty nice. She said that going to church helped her feel better and learn more than all the times we went to her house to talk to her and we were like," Duh! Can you please tell that to all our other investigators?" That is our main problem right now. People that think it´s lovely to listen to us, but they don´t want to move from their houses on Sunday morning. Even less now that it´s starting to get cold. And I´ve decided that it is going to be REALLY cold here. With a lot of wind. Should be fun... :)
This week went by really fast because we did divisions. This time, I got sent to be with Hna. Vargas in Pompeya and Hna. Collette stayed in the area with Hna. Salas. They are both Argentine hermanas and both really awesome so it was really good to work with them. And, Hna. Vargas didn´t have anything to eat for breakfast in their house so she made me a cake! Sweet. It was super good and tasted almost like Texas Sheet Cake so I´m going to try to make it for Hna. Collette´s birthday that is coming up next week. I also took advantage of divisions to sneakily buy her a present for her birthday. She has no idea. I hope she likes it. Hna. Vargas and I were able to find 3 new investigators in their area and it was really fun teaching with someone else and talking to her. Maybe she´ll be my comp next transfer... it would be a party. I also learned that it´s really important to just always ask people if you can teach them. Even if you think that they won´t accept, you never really know if they will or not. We´re going to start doing it in our companionship now.
One last story... we were walking by this young couple who were sitting outside the Bingo of Puerto and just staring into each other´s eyes, as the young people who are "in love" tend to do, when the girl just started hugging the head of her boyfriend. I saw it and was pretty weirded out, but when we had walked a few more steps, Hna. Collette asks me," Hermana, do you want to hug my head?" and I said," How did you know?" and then we laughed really hard. I guess it sounds kinda weird now, but it was really funny. We have a good time making fun of all the PDA that we see every day.
Anyway, I´m feeling very happy here in Mar Del Plata and enjoying the time I´m with Hna. Collette. She continues to crack me up. We are going to keep teaching, finding, and working hard to be able to help those people who need us to be able to get to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. It´s great and it continues to change me every day. I love seeing the way it changes everyone else too. It´s amazing. Share it with your friends. ;) Love you all!
Besos,
Hna. Seegmiller
My lovely companion, Hna. Collette, has been teaching me French this week. This particular phrase that got chosen as the title of my email this week was taken from when she was telling me a story from when she was living in France with her family and this guy got really mad at her brother and yelled," Je vais te couper la tet!" at him, which means," I´m going to cut off your head!" Pretty strong words. But I thought it was pretty funny so I asked Hna. Collette to teach me how to say that in French. So I practiced a little bit and wrote it down. Later, when we were walking down the road, I would randomly say that to her in French. It turned out to be really funny for me because she would totally freak out and I just laughed, since it doesn´t really mean anything to me. Then it got even better when we went to a less active lady´s house and she told us that she understands French. So I, of course, took advantage of this great opportunity and told her," Oh, really? My companion has been teaching me French. Je vais te coupe la tet!" She looked totally freaked out and Hna. Collette looked scandalized while me and the other two family members just laughed at their reactions. It was pretty great.
This week went pretty well. A few weeks ago, pretty much all our investigators told us not to visit them anymore so we have been rebuilding our group of investigators and now we have 14 newbies. We´re not sure if they are going to progress, but we would like to think that they are. We do know we were super blessed to be able to find them and at least tell them a little bit more about the church. We did finally have someone come to church. Rocío, a very inmature 29 year old, finally came. She had been before and she totally loved it, but it had been a few years. She showed up to church in the rain (most members in Argentina don´t even accomplish that) and loved all the classes. She is really open and tells us exactly what she´s thinking always, which actually proves to be pretty nice. She said that going to church helped her feel better and learn more than all the times we went to her house to talk to her and we were like," Duh! Can you please tell that to all our other investigators?" That is our main problem right now. People that think it´s lovely to listen to us, but they don´t want to move from their houses on Sunday morning. Even less now that it´s starting to get cold. And I´ve decided that it is going to be REALLY cold here. With a lot of wind. Should be fun... :)
This week went by really fast because we did divisions. This time, I got sent to be with Hna. Vargas in Pompeya and Hna. Collette stayed in the area with Hna. Salas. They are both Argentine hermanas and both really awesome so it was really good to work with them. And, Hna. Vargas didn´t have anything to eat for breakfast in their house so she made me a cake! Sweet. It was super good and tasted almost like Texas Sheet Cake so I´m going to try to make it for Hna. Collette´s birthday that is coming up next week. I also took advantage of divisions to sneakily buy her a present for her birthday. She has no idea. I hope she likes it. Hna. Vargas and I were able to find 3 new investigators in their area and it was really fun teaching with someone else and talking to her. Maybe she´ll be my comp next transfer... it would be a party. I also learned that it´s really important to just always ask people if you can teach them. Even if you think that they won´t accept, you never really know if they will or not. We´re going to start doing it in our companionship now.
One last story... we were walking by this young couple who were sitting outside the Bingo of Puerto and just staring into each other´s eyes, as the young people who are "in love" tend to do, when the girl just started hugging the head of her boyfriend. I saw it and was pretty weirded out, but when we had walked a few more steps, Hna. Collette asks me," Hermana, do you want to hug my head?" and I said," How did you know?" and then we laughed really hard. I guess it sounds kinda weird now, but it was really funny. We have a good time making fun of all the PDA that we see every day.
Anyway, I´m feeling very happy here in Mar Del Plata and enjoying the time I´m with Hna. Collette. She continues to crack me up. We are going to keep teaching, finding, and working hard to be able to help those people who need us to be able to get to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. It´s great and it continues to change me every day. I love seeing the way it changes everyone else too. It´s amazing. Share it with your friends. ;) Love you all!
Besos,
Hna. Seegmiller
Monday, April 11, 2011
Hello from Mar Del Plata-April 11, 2011
Hola Familia,
So this week was filled with creepy men, new investigators, and surprises...good and bad. It really was impressive how many creepy men we met this week. The first one was a reference from the elders. I guess they didn´t realize how creepy he was or they probably wouldn´t have sent us to his house. But we went and he came out and we told him that we´re missionaries and we´d like to share with him and his family. It was kinda windy that day so my skirt was kinda flying away and I was trying to do everything I could to keep myself modest. He just chuckled and said," Oh, your skirt´s flying up." Then he said he was busy then, but we could come by later. And then he asked us if we were single. We said yes, but we´re missionaries and he said," oh, because I´m looking for someone...." Oh boy. "Well, have a good day, sir." And then he told me that I have a nice voice. Wow, I´m so flattered. So we said good bye and then Hna. Collette laughed at me as we walked down the street, never to return to this creepy man´s house again. But maybe some nice elders will find him again someday. Then we had even more men yell at us than ever before "Oh hey rubia!" "Oh que ojos celestes!" "I want to learn about God!" and one taxista stop and ask if he could drive us somewhere because we were so beautiful. Then to top it all off, on Sunday morning when we were walking to church, this old guy sees us and says," Hey, you dropped something!" so I look behind me to see what I had dropped and he says" Un pétalo." Well, I had no idea what a "pétalo" was so we just kept looking at him like we were confused and he said," What? You didn´t like it?" and walked away. We asked some of the young people at church what the guy had said and they explained that he was saying that we dropped a petal... because we´re flowers. Oooooh, now I get it. So anyway... it was just a week full of creepy men. I hope we have less this next week.
We found two families this week. We went with the elders to meet a family that they had found from a less active lady in their ward. We went to teach the dad, the mom, and their 13 year old daughter. They are so cool and really excited about all the new stuff that they were learning. We went to their house on Tuesday and Thursday and taught them the first two lessons. We were so excited about them and sure that they would get baptized. Then we had a Family Home Evening planned in the church on Saturday night and we had the other family there and the dessert made and we were waiting outside for our lovely investigator family to get there. We had even called a few hours earlier to make sure that they remembered and they knew where the church was. When they didn´t show up on time, we called them and the dad answered. I said his name and that we´re the missionaries and when he realized it was us, he hung up. When we called back, it went straight to his voice mail. We were trying to be optimistic about what had happened, but it was a pretty sad moment. So we still haven´t figured out what happened to them, but hopefully we will be able to go teach them again. They are so great.
A surprise that we got was when we went to see Rocío, our investigator from a while ago, who took my Restoration movie and wanted to watch it. We went to her house to at least get my video back (because we were pretty sure that she was going to drop us) and she said that she knew that we were going to come and she had just been waiting for us. So we went in her house and she said that when we had told her the baptismal date of April 16th like 3 weeks ago, it stayed in her head (even though she had totally rejected the date). And she had been praying and watching the Restoration and reading the Book of Mormon this whole time, trying to figure out what was right. And she told us that she felt like Heavenly Father told her that she needs to be baptized. She´s been to church before a few years ago. Hna. Collette and I just looked at each other, pretty confused, but said that if she wants to reach the goal, she can and we will help her get there. So now we´re planning on baptizing her this Saturday. Life on the mission is pretty much crazy. But we´re excited for her.
We´ll have to wait and see what happens with the rest of our investigators. We hope that they can all progress. And we´re going to keep trying to find new ones. The ward is really great and so ready to help us. We´re trying to work the best we can. Also, the members told us this week that President Monson talked about how the young men need to be preparing to get married. So then I got a lot of jokes about how they´re preparing now and they´ll probably be ready by July when I get home. Oh, members... they just want gossip. They´re probably already stalking my Facebook to see if I have any prospects. :) Well, thanks for all the support and the prayers. I feel good being here in Mar Del Plata and we´re going to be working hard this week, helping Rocío and finding more people who need the gospel. I know I need it and am so grateful that it´s a part of my life. Heavenly Father loves us and is in charge here. We´re going to be so much better off if we just follow what he tells us to do. Love you so much!
Cariño,
Hna. Seegmiller
So this week was filled with creepy men, new investigators, and surprises...good and bad. It really was impressive how many creepy men we met this week. The first one was a reference from the elders. I guess they didn´t realize how creepy he was or they probably wouldn´t have sent us to his house. But we went and he came out and we told him that we´re missionaries and we´d like to share with him and his family. It was kinda windy that day so my skirt was kinda flying away and I was trying to do everything I could to keep myself modest. He just chuckled and said," Oh, your skirt´s flying up." Then he said he was busy then, but we could come by later. And then he asked us if we were single. We said yes, but we´re missionaries and he said," oh, because I´m looking for someone...." Oh boy. "Well, have a good day, sir." And then he told me that I have a nice voice. Wow, I´m so flattered. So we said good bye and then Hna. Collette laughed at me as we walked down the street, never to return to this creepy man´s house again. But maybe some nice elders will find him again someday. Then we had even more men yell at us than ever before "Oh hey rubia!" "Oh que ojos celestes!" "I want to learn about God!" and one taxista stop and ask if he could drive us somewhere because we were so beautiful. Then to top it all off, on Sunday morning when we were walking to church, this old guy sees us and says," Hey, you dropped something!" so I look behind me to see what I had dropped and he says" Un pétalo." Well, I had no idea what a "pétalo" was so we just kept looking at him like we were confused and he said," What? You didn´t like it?" and walked away. We asked some of the young people at church what the guy had said and they explained that he was saying that we dropped a petal... because we´re flowers. Oooooh, now I get it. So anyway... it was just a week full of creepy men. I hope we have less this next week.
We found two families this week. We went with the elders to meet a family that they had found from a less active lady in their ward. We went to teach the dad, the mom, and their 13 year old daughter. They are so cool and really excited about all the new stuff that they were learning. We went to their house on Tuesday and Thursday and taught them the first two lessons. We were so excited about them and sure that they would get baptized. Then we had a Family Home Evening planned in the church on Saturday night and we had the other family there and the dessert made and we were waiting outside for our lovely investigator family to get there. We had even called a few hours earlier to make sure that they remembered and they knew where the church was. When they didn´t show up on time, we called them and the dad answered. I said his name and that we´re the missionaries and when he realized it was us, he hung up. When we called back, it went straight to his voice mail. We were trying to be optimistic about what had happened, but it was a pretty sad moment. So we still haven´t figured out what happened to them, but hopefully we will be able to go teach them again. They are so great.
A surprise that we got was when we went to see Rocío, our investigator from a while ago, who took my Restoration movie and wanted to watch it. We went to her house to at least get my video back (because we were pretty sure that she was going to drop us) and she said that she knew that we were going to come and she had just been waiting for us. So we went in her house and she said that when we had told her the baptismal date of April 16th like 3 weeks ago, it stayed in her head (even though she had totally rejected the date). And she had been praying and watching the Restoration and reading the Book of Mormon this whole time, trying to figure out what was right. And she told us that she felt like Heavenly Father told her that she needs to be baptized. She´s been to church before a few years ago. Hna. Collette and I just looked at each other, pretty confused, but said that if she wants to reach the goal, she can and we will help her get there. So now we´re planning on baptizing her this Saturday. Life on the mission is pretty much crazy. But we´re excited for her.
We´ll have to wait and see what happens with the rest of our investigators. We hope that they can all progress. And we´re going to keep trying to find new ones. The ward is really great and so ready to help us. We´re trying to work the best we can. Also, the members told us this week that President Monson talked about how the young men need to be preparing to get married. So then I got a lot of jokes about how they´re preparing now and they´ll probably be ready by July when I get home. Oh, members... they just want gossip. They´re probably already stalking my Facebook to see if I have any prospects. :) Well, thanks for all the support and the prayers. I feel good being here in Mar Del Plata and we´re going to be working hard this week, helping Rocío and finding more people who need the gospel. I know I need it and am so grateful that it´s a part of my life. Heavenly Father loves us and is in charge here. We´re going to be so much better off if we just follow what he tells us to do. Love you so much!
Cariño,
Hna. Seegmiller
Saturday, April 9, 2011
General Conference! -April 4, 2011
Hello family,
So this week turned out to be pretty lousy. It was probably the worst numbers week of my whole mission. We´re kinda lacking investigators right now. We´re trying to find new ones, but it has kinda been resulting in a lot of walking and sleeping really well every night and a lot of zeros in my agenda. Everyone knows that missionary work is like that. But everyone here also says that Puerto is an awesome ward and that we can have a lot of success here. I totally believe them and am excited to see it, but we have to fight through the dry periods first. But Hna. Collette and I are still excited and ready to work and to find all those people who we know are ready here.
It probably didn´t help the week that much that we did divisions with the hermanas who work in Centro and I had to stay in Puerto. Hna. Diaz from Chile came to join me. She´s going home with me in July and I´m not sure it was the best idea to put us together. She has counted how many Pdays we have left in the mission (15 now...aaah!) and she didn´t hesitate to tell me. I´m going to try to forget that now and go back to letting Hna. Collette convince me I have a really long time left. That was a happier thought. The real bad thing about being with Hna. Diaz is that it meant that I was in charge and I still had no idea where I was going in this huge area. I tried to lead the way, but I got totally lost and made us walk like 15 extra blocks, only noticing that we were going the wrong way when we almost got to the beach instead of the big road. We walked in the complete opposite direction than where we needed to be going for like twenty minutes. Oops. But it just made me feel really stupid. I just wasn´t ready for this area with 100 streets after three areas with like 20 streets to memorize. I have no doubt that I will figure it out though.
But on a very happy note, we had General Conference!! It was amazing as always. I really think it is even better as a missionary, even if it means that you have to watch it with a bunch of elders. They set up an English room for us who speak English and it´s so awesome to hear the Prophet´s voice and to be able to sing in English! I loved how the Prophet talked about temples and imagined all the temples being filled with people in the coming months. It made me really excited that I´ll be able to go again too. I loved getting answers to questions that I had. But mostly I loved seeing all the prophets and apostles and listening to their strong testimonies and realizing that this work is going to keep moving forward. There is nothing that we can do to stop it. The church is going to keep growing. More and more people are going to come to accept the gospel and let it work miracles in their lives. And i just feel grateful to be a part of it. I also realized that I just have to make sure that I am strong enough so that I can help as much as Heavenly Father needs me to. Pretty amazing. Well, thanks for your prayers and your support. I´m going to be working hard to get to know Puerto this week and finding some new investigators. I know that we have tons of help and I am very grateful for Hna. Collette, who continues to make me laugh constantly. Also, we made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies today, due to the request of our district leader for our meeting ("You´re women so you love baking.") It was a little taste of home, even though I had to cut up a chocolate bar to make the chocolate chips. :) Well, I´m still loving the mission and feel very glad that I made the decision to come. This is Jesus Christ´s church and the world needs to know it. Your friends need to know it... so tell them. :) Love you all!
Hna. Seegmiller
So this week turned out to be pretty lousy. It was probably the worst numbers week of my whole mission. We´re kinda lacking investigators right now. We´re trying to find new ones, but it has kinda been resulting in a lot of walking and sleeping really well every night and a lot of zeros in my agenda. Everyone knows that missionary work is like that. But everyone here also says that Puerto is an awesome ward and that we can have a lot of success here. I totally believe them and am excited to see it, but we have to fight through the dry periods first. But Hna. Collette and I are still excited and ready to work and to find all those people who we know are ready here.
It probably didn´t help the week that much that we did divisions with the hermanas who work in Centro and I had to stay in Puerto. Hna. Diaz from Chile came to join me. She´s going home with me in July and I´m not sure it was the best idea to put us together. She has counted how many Pdays we have left in the mission (15 now...aaah!) and she didn´t hesitate to tell me. I´m going to try to forget that now and go back to letting Hna. Collette convince me I have a really long time left. That was a happier thought. The real bad thing about being with Hna. Diaz is that it meant that I was in charge and I still had no idea where I was going in this huge area. I tried to lead the way, but I got totally lost and made us walk like 15 extra blocks, only noticing that we were going the wrong way when we almost got to the beach instead of the big road. We walked in the complete opposite direction than where we needed to be going for like twenty minutes. Oops. But it just made me feel really stupid. I just wasn´t ready for this area with 100 streets after three areas with like 20 streets to memorize. I have no doubt that I will figure it out though.
But on a very happy note, we had General Conference!! It was amazing as always. I really think it is even better as a missionary, even if it means that you have to watch it with a bunch of elders. They set up an English room for us who speak English and it´s so awesome to hear the Prophet´s voice and to be able to sing in English! I loved how the Prophet talked about temples and imagined all the temples being filled with people in the coming months. It made me really excited that I´ll be able to go again too. I loved getting answers to questions that I had. But mostly I loved seeing all the prophets and apostles and listening to their strong testimonies and realizing that this work is going to keep moving forward. There is nothing that we can do to stop it. The church is going to keep growing. More and more people are going to come to accept the gospel and let it work miracles in their lives. And i just feel grateful to be a part of it. I also realized that I just have to make sure that I am strong enough so that I can help as much as Heavenly Father needs me to. Pretty amazing. Well, thanks for your prayers and your support. I´m going to be working hard to get to know Puerto this week and finding some new investigators. I know that we have tons of help and I am very grateful for Hna. Collette, who continues to make me laugh constantly. Also, we made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies today, due to the request of our district leader for our meeting ("You´re women so you love baking.") It was a little taste of home, even though I had to cut up a chocolate bar to make the chocolate chips. :) Well, I´m still loving the mission and feel very glad that I made the decision to come. This is Jesus Christ´s church and the world needs to know it. Your friends need to know it... so tell them. :) Love you all!
Hna. Seegmiller
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