Bahia Blanca Argentina Mission

Bahia Blanca Argentina Mission

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Where is Olavarria





Olavarría Argentina Stake

AddressAlsina 3966 Y Sarmiento 2606, Olavarria, Buenos Aires
RegionArgentina
Assigned TempleBuenos Aires Argentina Temple
Unit Creation DateJuly 8, 1989
Stakehood DateJune 21, 2015
Number of Congregations5 Wards, 4 Branches


Congregations


Note from Sister Davidson - Sam's MTC Comp

Why I like having Hermana Ahlmer as a Companion

Because she is so pretty, we get A LOT of attention from everyone.  All the girls stop in the halls and compliment her hair and her shoes and so naturally they compliment mine too, so I don't feel so bad haha!  There was this one time like on our second day we were walking down the foyer by the lunchroom and these elders yelled "HI SISTER"!  And we both turned around and waved and this elder was like "Wow, look at that smile"!  I'll just pretend that he meant both of us not just Hermana Ahlmer haha.

And the most common question we get asked is... "Are you two related"?  I don't know if she likes it, but it is seriously the biggest compliment in my liiiife!  People have told us we actually look like sisters and I love it!  We were standing in front of the chalkboard in our classroom the other day practicing drawing the plan of salvation for our "investigator" Roberto when the elders in our district pointed at us and said, "It's Ana and Elsa".  Hermana Ahlmer had braided her hair that day and she is nine days older than me sooo I guess we kind of are ha!  But really, she showed me a picture of herself when she was little and she looks exactly like my cousin Brenda's daughter Alyse!  And she has a nephew that looks just like Caleb!  Who knows, we might be related!



Monday, June 27, 2016

Note to Parents - I had to share

Parents! 
Hi I love you! Talking to you at the airport was the best thing of my whole life.  I cant even tell you how good it was to hear your voices. I made it to my area called Olavarria at about 3 am on Wednesday morning. Longest travel OF MY LIFE but its good im here. Basically I love it. I keep waiting to feel how everyone says your supposed to feel and I really haven't yet. Yeah it hard, yeah I'm tired, yeah I don't know Spanish, but it's so fulfilling and so fun and so worth it! Love it. Every second. Okay actually maybe like 55 seconds of every minute. 

Sometimes I'm tired and cold and my brain hurts from translating so much Spanish in a day. But still. Its great. The best ever actually. I know its going to be really hard sometimes but I don't understand why anyone wouldn't go on a mission. I miss you guys but-dont be offeneded-im too busy to care! I have so many other people to worry about.  But anyway I love you and I miss you have the best week ever! 

Olavarria - Her first area

Hello! 
I finally made it to Argentina! It's so crazy. There are so many crazy things that I'm learning! 

Getting here was a little crazy, we had a lot of trouble with flights and tickets and luggage and because I was supposed to be the "trip leader" everyone was coming to me with questions and I didn't have any answers. That part was a little stressful. Low point of the week - waiting in the Atlanta airport for our flight to get here, we were with a bunch Argentines.There was this little girl crying to her mom. This is where I learned that I know less Spanigh than a one year old. Sad. But I'm here and we made it! 

Argentina is really weird. Its like just a bunch of different cultures mixed together. People speak Castellano,which I have no idea how to spell or understand. The words are Spanish, but the accent is completely different. Needless to say there has been a lot of smiling and nodding going on this week. 

High point of the week- My companion is Megan Bartholomew. We went to middle school and highschool together. Its the craziest thing. Also she is a "Yankee" they pronounce it like "Shankee" here, it's the term for Gringo in Bahia. Anyways, Its nice because during lessons I can understand what shes saying, so I can follow the lessons pretty well. We have a lot of fun together and she is a really good trainer. People call her Hermana Bart here becaus her last name is so hard. When the people try to say my last name with an English accent it ends up sounding like "Homer". Everyone here is obsessed with the Simpsons for some reason so they call us "Hermana Bart and Homer".  Our area is called Olavarria. The ward is so sweet and people are for the most part, really friendly! I have never been kissed so much in my life. South America is not the place for anyone with any kind of need for a personal bubble. But I love it! 

The weather here is way better than I expected it to be. We have a heater and hot water and as long as we keep up a good pace while we walk, im never all that cold! Its only June though so I think its supposed to be getting colder. 
We have a few investigators here that are progressing and have said that they want to be baptized, which is great!  I looooove teaching. I cant understand everything but its still so fun. I love when I can see it click for people. They don't recognize it at first but when I'm looking at them and Hermana Bartholomew is talking to them you can see when they start to get it. Its pretty neat. 

Anyways yeah Life is good! I am learning so much from hermana Bart and Im stoked to be here!

Sister Bartholomew
Hermana Bart - Her Trainer

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Estoy Viva!

Hello! 
I have made it to Bahia Blanca FINALLY. After 3 flights and 60000000000 hours with almost no sleep, we are here. I met my president and he is the cutest man alive. I have also run into Megan Bartholemew and Daniel Tree. No sight of Amber yet and I have no idea who my trainer will be but I'm pretty sure it's not her. Triste. My P day is Monday now so I can talk to you all then! I also am very aware that I don't know any Spanish. Wish me luck! 

Tami and I have just learned that her friend Amber that has been out for 6 months just got transferred to large city the size of Miami and will not be training Sam.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Traveling

Sister Ahlmer is on her way to Argentina today. Tami and I got her call from the airport at 1 pm. She lands in Atlanta and then off to Buenos Aires where she will take a bus to Bahia Blanca. She can't believe she made it this far but grew so much there in the MTC.

Bridger in his talk he gave at Moab Boys Camp said that the greatest impact in his life is how hard Zack and Sam prepared and were willing to go on their missions.   So we told her about this and that Bridger was her first convert. She laught and said how great living the gospel is!!

Great Stuff.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Heading out next Wednesday

Hello!


This is my last W. Day at the MTC! I cant believe how fast the time has gone by. I definitely thought that I would know more Spanish by now. The MTC has really helped me to get a better idea of exactly what I don't know to say, haha I'm sure ill have tons more embarrassing stories after I get to Argentina. This week has been really great, other than getting food poisoning once, I have been really healthy. My companion and I continue to laugh at ourselves all day and it's really entertaining. An elder in our district was practicing the door approach and told our teacher that he had a Messaje that would change her life forever. Messaje means massage, not message. We thought it was pretty funny. Other than that not much else has gone on! Just lots of teaching and studying and teaching and studying. Oh except there is this new thing where in certain missions sisters can wear pants and in some it is REQUIRED that you have some. So we were fitted for pants this week and they should get here before we leave. Not super stoked about that but I guess I don't really want the zika virus either. Anyway I hope everyone is having a great summer! Mine ends in 4 days so soak up the vitamin D for me! 

Hermana Ahlmer

Weidos

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Pants and Pants

Okay so this week has been nuts and its only monday. Anywasy basically we are required to have dress slacks in our mission so the MTC is giving us 2 pair which is great but they are 98% cotton so when we wear them were going to burn to death. Anywasy because its our last week here they said that we can take a sec to email you for a few things. I need a misqito net and apparently they dont sell them down there but everyonhe is freaked over the zika virus so I need one for sleepin with. I dont even know what that is or looks like but im figuring that dad does. the lightest most tini thing you can find is preferable because my bags are sooooooo fuuuuullll. and now we have to take pants too. Also, they have said that they prefer for us, if we arent wearing pants in the summer, to wear long skirts. I have 0 of those because they werent allowed until now. Mom, if you can find some light weight long dresses or skirts please send them my wayy and Ill send some of the shorter ones home. Take Savannah with you if you want. Basic skirts would work the best but please stay away from dress barn. lol I am serious. Called to surf, Clad and cloth, piper and scoot, all of those places have way cute stuff, freak you can even ask sydney if you want. Okay second thing, we got our travel plans on Friday and we have a 24 hour day of straight travel. I would love some drugs for the 17 hour flight. I dont know how I will do it without movies and music. HELP ME. okay so yeah if you email me back in the nest 2 minuets ill be here to answer questions!

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Bednar New Song

Everyone!

Hello! This week was soo good. Well it started off kind of hard, because I had a really bad sinus infection. The MTC is not a place for healing. I never sleep and our little jail cell classrooms are the perfect place for spreading germs. Im almost all of the way better now though because my companion and roomates insisted that I go see a doctor. So he put me on some type of perscription and now I'm pretty much good! Also, one of the presidency wives was very insistent that I get a blessing so the Elders in my district gave me one and I know that has helped a ton! 

Anyways, we taught a lot more lessons this week so thats been really fun. I am learning so much. Sometimes its frusterating to have a language barrier and not be able to say exactly what I want to say, the way that I want to say it, but it a lot of ways its actually a huge blessing. It really forces you to think about what you are teaching people, and the real importance behind the lessons. Its easy for me to simplify the lessons to the understanding of a 5 year old because that is exactly the level of my spanish speaking skills at the moment. I say so many embarassing things sometimes I just sit there and laugh at myself. its great.
    
Okay so last week my mom said that I don't talk about enough spiritual stuff so Im going to do my best. If you dont want to read it you can scroll down to the pics at the botttom haha. SO this Wednesday we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Bednar and prepared his new song called 'One by One' for him. He spoke to us and I have learned so much from his talk I wish so badly that all of you could have been there. So his whole talk was based on these scripture passages

3 Ne 11: 6-17, Luke 15: 4-7, 8-10, 11-24 and 3 Ne 17: 11-24.  

These are all parables of a 'One' as Elder Bednar put it. They are all stories about Christ and how he focused on individuals, each individual person. A one. He told us about how along with these parables, there are so many other exapkmles of the ways that Heavenly Father and Christ know each of us individually. The very first word spoken in this latter day dipensation from Heavenly Father was 'Joseph'. The more that we think about that the more significant it becomes. He knew who Joseph Smith was by name, just like he knows each of us by name. He talked about how the knowledge that we are a 'One' can fuel our desire to share the message with others. Really when you think about it, how great is it that we have the knowledge that we are individually important to a Heavenly Father that is all powerful? We know who we are and whose we are. Why keep that information to yourself? I have only been a missionary for 4 weeks and I cant speak spanish and I dont know all of the lessons in order and I dont know how to find scriptures off of the top of my head. But what I have learned  have learned and witnessed though, is how amazing it is when you get to be the tool that Heavenly Father uses to help someone understand that they are a 'One'. I am a called representative of Jesus Christ and becasue I have that blessing, I get to be the person that gets to witness people feel the spirit for the first time, and learn about their purpose in life for the first time. Its pretty neat. I want to encourage everyone to really try and find people in your life that need to better understand that they are a One, help them out. And if its yourself, read those passages. The more that we learn about the Characteristics of Christ the closer we become to him, and the closer we get to becoming like him. Its all so important I swear. 
   
Okay anyway, Life's good I love ya all! Thanks for all of the love and support!

Mom's Box of Fun




Zack and California

Sam! 
I hope that you had an amazing day!! So I just had a pretty cool experience that I wanted to share with you!!

So today I was talking to a guy in Spanish and he asked me about my mission and he asked about the church. It was so cool because I felt like a missionary again. I basically taught him all about lesson 1 and invited him to pray about it. But the real thing that I wanted to tell you was even though I still remembered the lesson and I could teach it something was different. I could feel it. There wasn't the same power behind my words that there was before. I 100 percent believe that you as a missionary have a special power about you to teach the gospel. Make sure you're always remembering that. Even though you're still in the mtc teaching fake investigators you still have that power that even your instructors don't. Use it!! 

Love ya!! 
Zack

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Funny Spanish

Hola!
this week has been pretty great. Hermana Davison and I have been teaching lessons like crazy. The Spanish is becoming less stressful and more just funny. Like in our TRC the other day I was trying to explain to an investigator that 'yes, most people don't think that coffee and tea is bad for you, but we don't believe in it' . And it was lost in translation so really it came out like 'No coffee and Tea isn't bad for you, most people just think that we believe that.' Yeah, so basically we spend a lot of time laughing because it really is just hilarious sometimes. Well nothing too crazy happened this week, other than just lots of learning. i love the devotionals here. i wish that everyone could hear them! We aren't supposed to tell anyone but Elder Bednar wrote a new primary song and the MTC choir is like debuting it or something and so we have gotten to see/sort of meet his son and his cute little grandkids. he is coming to speak on Tuesday and everyone is stoked. Its like Tom Cruise is coming to the MTC only BETTER because of like spiritual uplifting and guidance and what not. Its pretty exciting. Well I love you all! Thank you all sop much for all of the love and support. It means so much. Being a missionary is the greatest blessing. I love how much I am learning about the gospel and about myself. My testimony of prayer has been strengthened so much these last few weeks. Probably we pray 75 times a day. Its cool. Heavenly Father knows who we are and he wants us to succeed! I love you all! Have a great week!
Hermana Timm


Hermana Hollingsworth
Hermana Frandsen