Be grateful that you have a working inodoro :))

FELIZ NAVIDAD for real this time!!! AHHH I cannot believe tomorrow is Christmas!! I hope you all have some wonderful plans for Christmas eve tonight and remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas! To remember the birth of our beloved Savior! And feliz cumpliaƱos to my brother Micah!! Can ́t believe your 16 and can drive now.. please dont wreck my car while im gone lol....


This week was really good!! It started off pretty slow... On Tuesday and Wednesday it was actually hard for us to find people willing to receive us, which is something we don't normally struggle with. Rejection is not my favorite thing, but I know that is a part of missionary life and something that missionaries all over the world face. Our struggles with the obra this week really caused us to HAVE to rely on the Lord for His help. 

On Wednesday Hna Folau and I decided to do a fast for our people and the work. WE really wanted to find a lot of new people ready for the gospel and wanted the investigators we are already teaching to really start progressing by going to church. Well after that fast our entire week turned around! We found a lot of really awesome people with great potential - including a family!! Ahhh I really really have been wanting to find a baptize an entire family here and I think the family of Yolanda and Gustavo might be the one!! Espero!! I know that there is power and strength when we turn to the Lord in our times of struggle with fervent prayer and fasting. 

One of our people Andres agreed to be baptized this upcoming Saturday! He is someone the missionaries have been working with for a while - since July!!! Hna Folau and her companion before me had dropped because he really wasn't progressing and wouldn't commit to baptism (dropping someone just means that we stop passing by their house and teaching them etc.) But then the other week we were near his house we decided to stop by. Hna Folau and I both had a feeling we should start teaching him again so we did. Andres already has all the lessons and has been to church several times in the past but has problems feeling ready for baptism. This past week however we began to see a change in him as we taught very clearly and bluntly the importance of baptism. It is the first covenant we make with God and necessary to receive salvation. And this week we really began to see his attitude and desire to be baptized change! He agreed to be baptized this Saturday! And then this past Sunday he CAME TO CHURCH!!! WOOHOO!!! Haha it was a Christmas miracle!! WE actually had 2 people at church because the President of our rama invited his mom as well who isn't a member. Hna Folau and I were so happy!!! I know there is power in fasting!! The Lord really does watch over us and siempre listens to our prayers :))

Other than that our week was great :)) except for what happened to us on Friday morning.... 
Haha bc Hna Folau and I are both still pretty fresh in the field our intestines and stomachs are still getting used to the foods in Argentina. SOO.. it is kinda really important and nice to have a working toilet in our apartment (if you know what I mean). Well lately our toilet has had problems flushing and on Wednesday it STOPPED flushing completely :(( This was obviously something we needed to solve bc ya know toilets are kinda important but we were so busy on Thursday and didn't have time to call anyone or figure out a way to fix it. We both kinda just prayed and hoped it would figure itself out and start flushing later. Haha this was our mistake....

Friday morning I woke up to the sound of running water. I thought one of us just accidently left the sink or the shower on so I started to get out of bed. Haha but sadly I was wrong... it wasn't our sink or our shower it was our INODORO (toilet). I screamed as soon as I sat up because there was WATER creeping in our room. Our bathroom and hallway had flooded with water overnight and the water was starting to come into our bedroom!!! And when I say water, I dont mean clean lovely filtered water.. I mean water from the toilet toilet mixed with our own poop and pee. SOOO cleaning up that mess was fun. And the only thing worse than having to mop up a poopy floor was the smell that the mess left behind :)) Thankfully our toilet stopped running for some reason (I don't understand the toilets here) and we called a guy that works for the church to come fix it. The only problem was he lives in Salta Capital so he didn't get to Mosconi until 6 pm. Haha I will never take a working inodoro for granted again lol. He told us that the problem was we were putting toilet paper down the toilet and most of the toilets here aren't built to get toilet paper. So he showed us how to use the bidet we have next to our toilet haha and said NOT to flush anymore toilet paper down. Lol soooo now I am trying to get used to using our bidet but its a work in progress. Haha I really hope and pray that is the one and only time I have to deal with a flooded toilet on my mission. But in Northern Argentina you honestly never know...

Anyways sorry if that story was a little tmi but it kinda gives you an idea of the normalities of Mosconi haha. Regardless, I am soo grateful and happy to be a missionary here during this time!! Getting to meet and serve the AMAZING people of Argentina as a representative of Jesus Christ, makes all the other struggles of the mission life worth it. I hope that you guys all have a wonderful Christmas and remember the REAL reason for the SEASON!!! Christmas is not about the gifts or for Argentina the food but about our Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for my Savior and all He did for us. He is the light of our world and the only way we can receive eternal happiness. May we all try to be a little more Christlike during this time of year as we remember His birth!! Love and miss you all!! FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

Con amor,
Hna Tate

The Hnsa in my district

decorations at the chapel :))

typical meal with members - some sort of meat, pasta, and eggs.  there are ALWAYS ALWAYS eggs ... in empandas, on pizza, in chicken.  good thing I love eggs.  :)

the Cruz family!! we eat lunch w them on Tuesdays


Christmas Tree in Mosconi :)

Decorations at the Plaza!!



the ONLY thing wrong w Hna Folau is that she goes to the U (#gocougssss)

CHRISTMAS PHOTOSHOOT in our pension!!!  THANKS MOM and MARMEE for the decorations!! When we turn on Michael Buble, turn the AC down to 65 and put on sweats it almost feels like Christmas jajaja






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