Hello familia,
I hope everyone is doing well. I hope it´s not too cold there. Surprisingly, Tandil has really nice weather so far so we haven´t totally died in the heat yet. I have been getting a tan though. I totally have super white toes and the tops of my feet are really dark. It´s the classic missionary tan. What can you do? I am actually in Bahía again today because we are having an Hermanas Conference! We´ve been waiting for it basically since I got here (by the way, I have 11 months in the mission today.... AAAAHHHH!) and it finally happened. So all the hermanas in the mission came to Bahía to have a special conference and help us learn stuff and practice. It´s really fun to see all of our friends and meet the new hermanas. It was good to see Hna. Tingey and LaPray again. I also saw Hna. Durham, who I haven´t seen in 9 months, and she is so much like Kylie... it´s freaky. I have to introduce them one day. So we have been having fun with that, even though we have to work today instead of have Pday. I would say it´s worth it.
This past week was actually really awesome. Hna. Wilding goes home in 3 weeks, but she still shows no signs that her death is near. She´s such a solid missionary and I am really learning a lot from her. I think I worked harder in this past week than I have in the rest of my mission and it felt so good. We found a lot of new investigators (most of them unmarried). We ended up having 8 lessons with members, 5 other lessons, 8 less actives visited, and 9 new investigators. That is definitely the most productive week of my mission, hence the reason why this is the only week, I have ever shared my numbers with you. Let´s just say they´re usually lower than that. We just kept finding people and teaching lessons because we are trying really hard to baptize someone in January. I still think it´s possible and we can do it. Saturday was kinda a rough day though because two of our investigators with a baptismal date decided not to listen to us anymore, we found out another really good investigator has to get divorced before being able to get married (which takes like two years here), and another investigator told us not to visit her anymore. So that was kinda rough. And then it rained on Sunday morning and rain= Argentines don´t come to church. But we still have excitement and we´re going to keep working hard and find a family to baptize. We´re excited. And next week it probably won´t rain on Sunday morning.
It´s actually too bad that nobody came to church on Sunday because we had really good lessons. My favorite was in Relief Society when we learned about sacrifice. Learning about sacrifice is always good because it always helps you realize that you aren´t doing enough and you need to sacrifice more. And we sometimes need a reminder. They shared the story about the young, rich boy who always did what he was supposed to do, but when Jesus told him to give away all his riches in order to go to heaven, he cried and couldn´t do it. It kinda reminded me of me before the mission. Like I always went to church and I tried to read my scriptures and pray, but if Heavenly Father really would have asked me to do something I didn´t want to do, I really don´t know if I would have done it. I´m learning a lot now about how we need to trust Heavenly Father´s will and do the things that he asks us to do. We need to sacrifice for him. Then Hna. Wilding and I were talking about how your sacrifice should be hard for you. Then if it gets so that your sacrifice isn´t hard for you anymore, it´s not really a sacrifice and we need to up the anty and sacrifice something more. And you should always be sacrificing for the Lord or you aren´t going to be able to progress. It was an interesting lesson for me. Just something to think about... what´s something you can do to sacrifice more for the Lord than what you´re doing now?
Well, I am doing well and honestly loving the mission. I feel like it took me a while to get here, but now i finally understand why people always talk about their missions the way they do. We´re going to keep working hard so that people can accept the gospel and start changing their lives. And we just get to sit back and watch the miracle that Heavenly Father works in them. It´s pretty amazing. Well, have a lovely week! I love you all. Write me letters...:)
Love,
Hna. Seegmiller
Monday, January 17, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Tandil - Un lugar en el mundo-January 3, 2011
Hello hello family,
So I am now in Tandil and it has been a pretty crazy week. We actually didn´t get very much time in our area, but Hna. Wilding told me that it is really small. I guess I should be used to that by now because all of my areas have been tiny. It´s kinda fun though. Well, first off, I got to Tandil last week at 2:00 in the afternoon after riding in the hot, nasty bus all day. It was a good time. When getting off the bus, I thought to myself, " Well, at least I won´t have to ride it for another four months." Here´s a tip: never say anything like that because someone is listening and will prove you wrong. We got a call on Wednesday or something saying that me and Hna. Acosta (one of the hermanas from the companionship we live with) need to go to Bahía on Monday for a leadership conference that the mission is having. Then we also found out that we are going to have the Hermanas Conference the Tuesday after that so we are going to have to ride that stinkin bus for another 8 hours back to Bahía. I must be being punished for something. But I am really excited to go to Bahía and back to la Falda to see Hna. Olsen and the Abuelitos. Oh, and going to the leadership conference means that I am training next transfer. I´m getting a new missionary as my comp and I´m supposed to teach her stuff. I´m excited, but also scared. It should be a good experience. I guess I´ll get more details about it later, but I at least I have five weeks to prepare. :)
Also, the crazy experience of the week (along with me having a really bad cold the whole week and Hna. Wilding getting really sick to her stomach every once in a while... she just got her gallbladder taken out a few months ago) was trying to get Jorge baptized. He´s an old man who has been ready for a while but had a ton of problems with his wife and something always happened so that he couldn´t go to church. But when we went to his house, we felt like we should set his baptismal date for that Friday, the 31st. He accepted and we started running around, trying to arrange everything for it. The members were excited and he was ready and we got everything prepared. After a few setbacks like his wife´s daughter accidentally sending Jorge a message telling him that his wife had died (she takes care of two grandmas and the other one had died, but she sent the text message to Jorge instead of the other family... also, who sends a text to tell them their grandma died?!) and having to take her to the hospital and having all the paperwork take five hours, Jorge wasn´t able to come to his baptism. We went forward with faith the whole time, trusting in the Spirit and believing that it would happen. We aren´t exactly sure why it didn´t happen, but we do know that we did everything we could to make it happen and I think Heavenly Father is pretty impressed with our effort and happy with us for what we did. And we are still very sure that he will be getting baptized. It´s probably one of those stories that you never want to have on your mission (getting ditched with the font filled), but I actually feel pretty good about it because I know we were trusting Heavenly Father and doing what He wanted us to do. And that´s a really good feeling.
Tandil and being comps with Hna. Wilding and living with the other two hermanas, Hna. Cassidy Clark and Hna. Acosta, is pretty much really fun. I´m enjoying it a lot and I´m sure when we start working for real this coming week, Hna. Wilding and I will be able to get a lot done. The gospel is true and Heavenly Father loves us and knows what we need. Sometimes we just need to trust Him. I love you all and thank you so much for your support. Enjoy the pictures!
Love,
Hna. Seegmiller
Monday, December 27, 2010
Navidad in the mission- December 27, 2010
Hello Familia,
I am sending you some lovely pictures from our Christmas festivities. We spent Christmas Eve with the abuelitos and their son, who was visiting from Mendoza. It was fun. We had an asado (tons of meat on the grill) and a large fruit salad. I kinda had a cold though so I couldn´t really taste what I was eating and it was really hard to eat because I couldn´t breathe if I had stuff in my mouth. But it was still fun. Then the Abuelitos made us stay there until midnight so that we could toast with them and then watch the fireworks. Hna. Olsen and I were dying falling asleep on the table. We drank Pineapple Fizz and watched the fireworks outside. There weren´t that many, but it´s supposedly "prohibited" in Bahía so there were a lot if you think about the fact that there weren´t supposed to be any. Then we went home and did a quick version of our very own Live Nativity (because both our families do it) and recorded it. We had to switch out a lot because there are only two of us and there are a lot more parts in it than just two, but we made it work.
We also had our lovely mission talent show for Christmas this last Wednesday and it turned out really well. Hna. Olsen and I did a song and dance to the song "A Professional Pirate" from Muppet Treasure Island. We rewrote the lyrics (in Spanish, which was actually really hard) to be "Cuando sos una misionera" (when you´re a missionary). It could be funny to some people so I´m going to write all the lyrics. For those of you who don´t speak Spanish, maybe you can use freetranslation.com? It´s also weird because it´s Argentine Spanish.
Cuando estaba en la casa, saliendo con los chicos,
Mi mamá me dijo," Ya tenés 21 y pico.
Vos podés estudiar o podés tener bebés.
¿Por qué no utilizás la belleza que tenés?"
Oh hey ho ho
Podés ir a un pais, conocer a mucha gente y comer lo que te dan,
Seguimos subiendo aunque caminamos mucho
Cuando sos una misionera, viste es lo que hay.
(Yelled) Vamos hermanas! 6 meses a sexy
Por ejemplo, una hermana, los miembros la adoran,
Pero a los elderes, cuando llaman, les molestan,
Si mirás al corazón, las va a conocer,
Y todos prefieren una hermana a un élder!
Oh hey ho ho
Hay que aprovechar. Siempre hay una compi que le gusta cocinar,
Lleva la pollera que deja cuando baje,
Cuando sos una misionera, No tenés que llevar un traje!
Pudiera estar trabajando, Prefiero andar en la lluvia
Pudiera ser pelliroja, Pero sin siesta, soy más rubia.
Ahora estudio mis escrituras, pero pudiera haberme graduado.
Y yo pudiera haberme casado.
Se dicen que misioneras son sensible y debe evitarlas
Yo digo que son re-buenas y no hay que quitarlas.
Nunca nos pegamos, ni miramos a las chicas.
Bautizamos a todos - los pobres y las ricas!
Hey ho ho
No vamos a la misa,
Aprendemos mucho, nos matamos de la risa.
Somos hijas de Dios, no lo vamos a negar.
Cuando sos una misionera,
Serás linda y osada.
Lo que pides, te será dada.
Serás linda y suerte,
Y tendrás buena suerte
Y lo más importante,
Cuando sos una misionera, siempre tenés la mejor acompañante!
Yeah, that´s the end. sorry if you didn´t understand any of it, but I thought it was pretty clever. Just picture Hna. Olsen and I dressed as pirates and singing that song (without music, we couldn´t find any) for our mission president and about 70 elders. Pretty entertaining.
Oh, also, I got transferred. I´m in Tandil now to help Hna. Wilding finish her mission. It´s a pretty place, but the branch only has 20 members so it looks like we´ve got our work cut out for us. I think I will like it and I´m living with three other hermanas so that should be fun. Well, I hope everything is going well in America. I do miss it, but Argentina is nice too. Love you all so much! Thanks for the support and the prayers!
Hna. Seegmiller
I am sending you some lovely pictures from our Christmas festivities. We spent Christmas Eve with the abuelitos and their son, who was visiting from Mendoza. It was fun. We had an asado (tons of meat on the grill) and a large fruit salad. I kinda had a cold though so I couldn´t really taste what I was eating and it was really hard to eat because I couldn´t breathe if I had stuff in my mouth. But it was still fun. Then the Abuelitos made us stay there until midnight so that we could toast with them and then watch the fireworks. Hna. Olsen and I were dying falling asleep on the table. We drank Pineapple Fizz and watched the fireworks outside. There weren´t that many, but it´s supposedly "prohibited" in Bahía so there were a lot if you think about the fact that there weren´t supposed to be any. Then we went home and did a quick version of our very own Live Nativity (because both our families do it) and recorded it. We had to switch out a lot because there are only two of us and there are a lot more parts in it than just two, but we made it work.
We also had our lovely mission talent show for Christmas this last Wednesday and it turned out really well. Hna. Olsen and I did a song and dance to the song "A Professional Pirate" from Muppet Treasure Island. We rewrote the lyrics (in Spanish, which was actually really hard) to be "Cuando sos una misionera" (when you´re a missionary). It could be funny to some people so I´m going to write all the lyrics. For those of you who don´t speak Spanish, maybe you can use freetranslation.com? It´s also weird because it´s Argentine Spanish.
Cuando estaba en la casa, saliendo con los chicos,
Mi mamá me dijo," Ya tenés 21 y pico.
Vos podés estudiar o podés tener bebés.
¿Por qué no utilizás la belleza que tenés?"
Oh hey ho ho
Podés ir a un pais, conocer a mucha gente y comer lo que te dan,
Seguimos subiendo aunque caminamos mucho
Cuando sos una misionera, viste es lo que hay.
(Yelled) Vamos hermanas! 6 meses a sexy
Por ejemplo, una hermana, los miembros la adoran,
Pero a los elderes, cuando llaman, les molestan,
Si mirás al corazón, las va a conocer,
Y todos prefieren una hermana a un élder!
Oh hey ho ho
Hay que aprovechar. Siempre hay una compi que le gusta cocinar,
Lleva la pollera que deja cuando baje,
Cuando sos una misionera, No tenés que llevar un traje!
Pudiera estar trabajando, Prefiero andar en la lluvia
Pudiera ser pelliroja, Pero sin siesta, soy más rubia.
Ahora estudio mis escrituras, pero pudiera haberme graduado.
Y yo pudiera haberme casado.
Se dicen que misioneras son sensible y debe evitarlas
Yo digo que son re-buenas y no hay que quitarlas.
Nunca nos pegamos, ni miramos a las chicas.
Bautizamos a todos - los pobres y las ricas!
Hey ho ho
No vamos a la misa,
Aprendemos mucho, nos matamos de la risa.
Somos hijas de Dios, no lo vamos a negar.
Cuando sos una misionera,
Serás linda y osada.
Lo que pides, te será dada.
Serás linda y suerte,
Y tendrás buena suerte
Y lo más importante,
Cuando sos una misionera, siempre tenés la mejor acompañante!
Yeah, that´s the end. sorry if you didn´t understand any of it, but I thought it was pretty clever. Just picture Hna. Olsen and I dressed as pirates and singing that song (without music, we couldn´t find any) for our mission president and about 70 elders. Pretty entertaining.
Oh, also, I got transferred. I´m in Tandil now to help Hna. Wilding finish her mission. It´s a pretty place, but the branch only has 20 members so it looks like we´ve got our work cut out for us. I think I will like it and I´m living with three other hermanas so that should be fun. Well, I hope everything is going well in America. I do miss it, but Argentina is nice too. Love you all so much! Thanks for the support and the prayers!
Hna. Seegmiller
Monday, December 20, 2010
¡Feliz Navidad!- December 20, 2010
Merry Christmas, family! (No it´s not Jordan, it´s Kasidy!) He made that lame joke on his email so I decided I would make it too. Was it funny? :)
Well, there is actually not much to report. We are just preparing for Christmas and getting more and more excited as the days get closer. Argentina, on the other hand, mostly still has not noticed that it´s getting closer. Thank goodness for Hna. Olsen and the Christmas spirit that we can share in our house. It´s recently gotten deathly hot so I´m going to be sunburned for the Christmas pictures, but we are having a good time. We love opening our presents from Mom every day and counting down the days until Christmas. We are also going to have a mission activity (complete with talent show) this Wednesday and we are very excited about it. Needless to say, we are planning something ridiculous to perform... more news to come on how it went. We are also going to have some type of game and a spiritual part. It should be really good and we are excited.
We did have our Navidad activity at the church this past week and it was kinda lame. Everyone showed up like an hour late and we tried to watch the Joy to the World movie from the church, but it wasn´t in Spanish so no one could understand. Everyone started yelling," Missionaries! Translate it!" I just waved my hand around and said," Jesús" and they all laughed. Ni loca was I really going to translate the whole video! But our branch president tried to change it and figured out that the remote didn´t have batteries. Luckily, someone had some in their purse and we could put the subtitles on, but the words were so small that nobody could even see them anyway. Well, Hna. Olsen and I enjoyed the video. :) Then we had some refreshments. The best part about the activity though was that the entire Detlefsen family came so we got to hang out with our mission president and his whole family. They are so cute and it made me miss my family a lot. They have six kids too and they´re all cool and good friends with each other. But it did give us hope that some day we are going to go home and all our brothers and sisters are going to come see us (Jordan is excused... all the other siblings better be there. Plus, I´m still up for the moonbounce at my homecoming party...) It was fun though and some of the branch members came.
Also, this week, we talked to a little family that was sitting on a corner. We could tell that they didn´t really want us to talk to them, but we decided to talk to them anyway (haha...story of my life here in the mission). So we started telling them who we are right when this really loud motorcycle roared by and they all yelled at them like," Come on! You have no respect!" and this little grandma who was sitting there with them says," I would kill them!" Everyone looked at her kinda surprised until one of the daughters says, " She doesn´t go to church" to us. It was pretty entertaining and I laughed for a while.
On Christmas Eve (la Noche Buena), we are going to hang out with the Abuelitos. They bought a parrilla so we can have some meat and we are pretty excited about it. I have absolutely no idea what we are going to be doing on Christmas Day, but I am so excited to talk to you guys and I hope everything works out well. It´s basically the highlight of our month, but I have an idea that you guys aren´t quite as excited as we are. We talked to the siblings of some missionaries here and they all forgot or didn´t really care so that made us feel really good. Just pretend you´re excited if you´re not.
Well, I am happy and excited to spend this very Argentine Christmas with the Abuelitos and Hna. Olsen. It´s going to be a good time and we already decided that Hna. Olsen and I are going to do our own reenacted nativity, probably with a lot of improvisation. We shall see how that goes. Gracias por todo, familia! Les amo muchísimo.
Besos,
Hna. Seegmiller
Well, there is actually not much to report. We are just preparing for Christmas and getting more and more excited as the days get closer. Argentina, on the other hand, mostly still has not noticed that it´s getting closer. Thank goodness for Hna. Olsen and the Christmas spirit that we can share in our house. It´s recently gotten deathly hot so I´m going to be sunburned for the Christmas pictures, but we are having a good time. We love opening our presents from Mom every day and counting down the days until Christmas. We are also going to have a mission activity (complete with talent show) this Wednesday and we are very excited about it. Needless to say, we are planning something ridiculous to perform... more news to come on how it went. We are also going to have some type of game and a spiritual part. It should be really good and we are excited.
We did have our Navidad activity at the church this past week and it was kinda lame. Everyone showed up like an hour late and we tried to watch the Joy to the World movie from the church, but it wasn´t in Spanish so no one could understand. Everyone started yelling," Missionaries! Translate it!" I just waved my hand around and said," Jesús" and they all laughed. Ni loca was I really going to translate the whole video! But our branch president tried to change it and figured out that the remote didn´t have batteries. Luckily, someone had some in their purse and we could put the subtitles on, but the words were so small that nobody could even see them anyway. Well, Hna. Olsen and I enjoyed the video. :) Then we had some refreshments. The best part about the activity though was that the entire Detlefsen family came so we got to hang out with our mission president and his whole family. They are so cute and it made me miss my family a lot. They have six kids too and they´re all cool and good friends with each other. But it did give us hope that some day we are going to go home and all our brothers and sisters are going to come see us (Jordan is excused... all the other siblings better be there. Plus, I´m still up for the moonbounce at my homecoming party...) It was fun though and some of the branch members came.
Also, this week, we talked to a little family that was sitting on a corner. We could tell that they didn´t really want us to talk to them, but we decided to talk to them anyway (haha...story of my life here in the mission). So we started telling them who we are right when this really loud motorcycle roared by and they all yelled at them like," Come on! You have no respect!" and this little grandma who was sitting there with them says," I would kill them!" Everyone looked at her kinda surprised until one of the daughters says, " She doesn´t go to church" to us. It was pretty entertaining and I laughed for a while.
On Christmas Eve (la Noche Buena), we are going to hang out with the Abuelitos. They bought a parrilla so we can have some meat and we are pretty excited about it. I have absolutely no idea what we are going to be doing on Christmas Day, but I am so excited to talk to you guys and I hope everything works out well. It´s basically the highlight of our month, but I have an idea that you guys aren´t quite as excited as we are. We talked to the siblings of some missionaries here and they all forgot or didn´t really care so that made us feel really good. Just pretend you´re excited if you´re not.
Well, I am happy and excited to spend this very Argentine Christmas with the Abuelitos and Hna. Olsen. It´s going to be a good time and we already decided that Hna. Olsen and I are going to do our own reenacted nativity, probably with a lot of improvisation. We shall see how that goes. Gracias por todo, familia! Les amo muchísimo.
Besos,
Hna. Seegmiller
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