February 14, 2011

Hello dearest mother and family,
First of all, happy birthday to my dear sister Kayela! I hope you have a fabulous day and enjoy all your birthday festivities. I hope someone rented you a bouncehouse. I think a bunch of little kids here had their birthdays yesterday because we saw a ton of bouncehouses in peoples´ front yards.
So this week was basically really crazy, but really awesome!! My hija got here on Thursday at 2:30 in the morning and Hna. Acosta and I went to go pick her up. Her name is Hna. Araya and she is from Antofogasta, Chile, but has been studying flute in Santiago for the past six years. She´s 21 and she´s super cool, not to mention a really good missionary. She also randomly has the same birthday as my trainer, Hna. Davis (her grandma in the mission). We are having a really good time together and we have been having success! I don´t know what happened, but we have seen so many miracles this week. Also, Hna. Acosta ended up getting a mini missionary from Mar Del Plata so it´s Spanish 24/7 in our house (except for the occasional "You wanna fight? from Hna. Acosta). It´s funny, but this email is actually harder to write in English than it was last week. It´s already affecting me. ;)
On Wednesday, Hna. Acosta and I were working in Villa Aguirre (my area) and we contacted this lady and her pregnant daughter who were walking down the street. We told them that we were missionaries and the daughter asked us if people could go to our church. We were like," Um, yes. PLEASE GO!!!" but a little less desperate and a little bit more professional. More like "Yes, everyone is invited. Can we pass by your house this week to tell you a little bit about?" And they said yes! So that was the first appointment that I went to with my hija. Her and her two kids, Braian (13) and Ayelen (11) were waiting for us to arrive. So we had a great lesson with them, where the 13 year old boy was answering a ton of questions. So at the end, we asked them to be baptized in two weeks and they said they would. Wow, a golden family! There is no father so that´s kinda sad, but they are so great and really need the gospel. So now they are reading and praying a lot. When we went by for the second lesson, the mom told us that she had prayed and felt that it was true. WOW!!! Then we went to pick them up for church and they were waiting outside, all dressed and ready to go. Braian went to Young Mens and they gave him a Duty to God book. When we went by later to ask them how they liked church and Braian showed us his book and told us about how right now he´s a deacon, but then he´s going to be a Teacher. He remembered what they´re called and everything! I don´t even remember what they´re called! So basically this family is amazing and I am more than grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me meet them and baptize them. They are just so ready.
We also had Susana (a menos activo that hasn´t gone for 8 years) and her two little kids come to church this week. They are adorable and we´re helping her 8 year old get baptized this Saturday. So cute! I´ll send pictures. We also received a reference this week from the elders, saying that their investigators had moved to our branch. So we went by to see them (even though the mom has to get divorced and then get married to this guy she´s living with before she can get baptized) and we set a baptism date with their 9 year old daughter. They also came to church this week. The elders had been visiting them for two months, but they never came to church because they lived too far away. Then they moved here, two blocks away from the church. They didn´t bring their daughter though (our investigator with a baptismal date) because she was sleeping. Kinda funny. So we ended up having 6 investigators in church!!! The whole time I´ve been in Argentina, I think I´ve had two at most. So basically it was a miracle. I felt like it was a dream. And all the members were so happy to see so many people there.
Earlier in the week, I was walking with Hna. Acosta and we passed some little ten year olds. I said hi to them as we walked by and they started making fun of my accent. As we got farther away, they started yelling at us. And then one of them threw a rock and it hit me in the back! And it hurt. I was so mad. I yelled," Are you serious?" at them, but then realized that neither them nor Hna. Acosta could understand me and changed it to Spanish. ¿En SERIO? We just walked away, but I was still really mad for a few blocks. But at least now I can say that I was persecuted in the mission.
And something really random... Hna. Araya and I were passing a group of like 20 young men sitting on a corner drinking beer and when we walked by, they all started yelling, "Hermana LaPray!" Hna. Araya didn´t understand until I told her that Hna. LaPray was in this area like 10 months ago. There has got to be a good story there and I intend to find out what it is. Oh Hna. LaPray...
Anyway, so basically we are really happy with our miracles and how much Heavenly Father is helping us. I feel really blessed to be with Hna. Araya and more than teaching her what I know, I feel like I´m learning a lot about how to be a better missionary. It´s a good time to be in the mission and I´m enjoying it. I´m coming up on a year this week and it´s kinda freaking me out, but it´s been a good year. I´ve learned a lot and hopefully changed a lot. Today, Hna. Acosta came up behind me and hugged me and said," I love you, Kasidy." in English. It was probably the cutest thing I´ve ever heard. I LOVE Latinos speaking English. Anyway, happy Valentine´s Day! I hope you all know how much Heavenly Father loves you and how much I love you and miss you. Gracias por todo!
Con amor,
Hna. Seegmiller
These are the pictures of me and my hija. This Pday we went to see the Calvario, a huge statue of Christ that the people here put up forever ago. People go there to pray and leave presents so we left our nametags as an offering (no, not really). Enjoy!