An ARGENTINIAN "normal"

Hola amigos!! I CANNOT believe Christmas is NEXT WEEK!! WHHATTT!! Idk about you guys, but for me time has really flown by! Today I am finished with the first transfer of my training!!! So that means I only have 6 weeks left with Hermana Folau :(( AHH crazyyyy!!

This week we had our Christmas conference and it was a BLAST!! Our zone left at about 4 pm last Monday for Salta Capital. We really lucked out because the APs (assistants to President) got us our own private colectivo (bus) - comparable to a charter bus from the U.S. Our conference was with the northern part of the mission (about 100 missionaries), but our zone Tartagal is the farthest north from Salta capital. We drove about 2 hrs south and picked up another zone called Oran and then arrived in Salta capital about 5 hours later, 11pm. Even though it was a long bus ride, it was actually fun getting to travel with other missionaries:) We then spent the night in a hotel with some other Hermanas in our mission including the trainer of my trainer (mi abuela) Hermana Casariego and she was the sweetest!!

Then Tuesday we went to the stake center in Salta for the conference. They fed us some donuts for breakfast (bless!!!) and then we got to listen to talks from President, his wife, other missionary leaders and watch a little of the Christmas devotional. One of my favorite parts of the conference was getting to really focus on the birth of our beloved Savior. We watched a video by the 12 apostles reciting the Living Christ and idk if it was just because this video was in english (the ONLY part of the conference in english haha...) but I could feel the spirit really strongly testify to me of the truth of this message. We are extraordinarily LUCKY to have this knowledge of the life, love, and purpose of Jesus Christ. He is our Savior, Redeemer, the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God and I know "His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come." I invite you all to really read and reflect on the message and truthfulness of the Living Christ this Christmas season. He is the REAL reason we celebrate Christmas.

After listening to all those messages we had almuerzo - an Argentinian dish of some sort, although I'm not sure what its called - but it was basically chicken with hard boiled eggs and vegetables in the middle. That might not sound that tasty, but trust me it was haha. Then we had a little talent show with a lot of Christmas musical numbers. Idk if its bc im a missionary or bc i'm so far from home but I have especially appreciated Christmas music this year!! It warms my heart and invites the spirit. Then we had a white elephant gift exchange which was SO FUN!!! Haha we all sat in a ginormous circle of all 100 or so missionaries and they took our name tags and put them in a bag. Then they chose them randomly and we had the choice of either choosing a present from the table or stealing a present from the people who had already had a turn - but we only had 10 seconds to do so. Haha everyone went crazy anytime anyone stole a present from anyone else - it was a good time. Then al fin Presidente dressed up as Santa Clause or as they call him here Papa Noel and gave all the missionaries regalos with treats inside!! It really felt like Christmas!!! President and his wife also surprised us with letters from our families and loved ones and I don't think there was a single dry eye in the room. For many of us this is our first Christmas away from home and so getting notes from our families was really special and heartwarming :) President and his wife are seriously the sweetest and I am so grateful for them and all they do for us missionaries.

But sadly all good things have to come to an end, and our colectivo showed up at 8 pm to take us back to Tartagal. Haha CRAZY story though - so we were driving back in our private colectivo for a couple of hours, minding our own business and these buses are like 2 stories so they are super tall - sometimes we can hear tree branches scratching on the roof of our bus which is a lovely sound. Anyways, we got to Oran at about 1 am and were about to drop off missionaries that lived there when all of a sudden the window on the roof of our bus popped open and started dragging some low hanging electrical wires in the street...and we kept driving. Well, after a couple of feet one of these wires snapped lighting a big spark off in our colectivo. This caused the nearby electrical pole attached to these wires to fall over and all the power in the houses nearby to go out... (including the apartment of the elders who lived here lol). Needless to say we stopped driving and the drivers came upstairs to see what happened. Haha it began to smell like something burned and died upstairs. Lol most of us began freaking out a little bit and then the driver assured us ohhh this is normal... Haha I'm learning that Argentina has a new normal a little different than what I am used to lol... But its all good :) no missionaries were injured and now I feel like we qualify to have our own episode of the safety zone haha. We waited around for about an hour or so for the electricians to come fix the power and so we didn't get to Tartagal until about 4am WOOO!!! :)) Haha gotta love missionary life - especially traveling in a huge mission like Salta.

Other than that the rest of this week was pretty good. We have a lot of awesome people we are teaching - we average about 25-30 lessons per week!! On Thursday Hna Folau and I had an experience that really reminded me of my purpose as a missionary. We were looking for the house of a lady we had contacted on before but she lived in an area in Mosconi I had never been before. Then a wind storm came out of nowhere and so it was hard to see where we were and we got lost. We decided to ask for directions and I saw this green house on a corner and had a feeling we should go over there. So we clapped outside this house and a sweet lady came out. She turned out to be a member who had not been to church in a while because her husband had been really ill. She told us 10 days ago he passed away and she was having a hard time. It broke my heart to hear this. She said she had been wanting to go back to church and get in contact with missionaries but didn't know how. I know that it was Heavenly Father that lead us directly to her. I know that this work I am doing really is the Lord's work and my purpose is simply to be an instrument in His hands. Missionary work is not only about finding new people to baptize but also about reactivating and strengthening the members here in Mosconi. I know that God has a plan for each and everyone of us and is mindful of our needs. As we pray to Him and trust in His plan we will receive guidance, peace, and comfort.

I love this gospel with all my heart! It really does change lives! I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember to focus on our Savior during this Christmas season!! Feliz Navidad!! Thank you for your love and support!!

Con amor,

Hna Tate

My zone w President