Bienvenidos a San Fernando!

January 5, 2015

HOLAAAAAA!!!!!

Wow! What a week!! I can’t even express how much I already love San Fernando! I don’t know if I mentioned it in the last email, but it is provincia. Now it’s not suuuuuuuper provincia, but its still definitely for sure provincia. It’s sooo different from Capital! It’s been a nice change. It’s so much more tranquilo. 

So last P-day in San Fernando was just nuts. After P-day was over we went over to a less active member’s house. He was kinda crazy so that was a pretty fun experience. Then after him we went to visit a recent convert’s house. I didn’t know much before hand, just that he’s a recent convert of about 6 months and his name is Jorge Luis. So we walk in and we’re just sitting there chatting when my companion was like "We would love to share a scripture with you, is there anyone else home?" And he’s like "Yeah my wife is." So he calls for her to come and join her and from the kitchen I hear her respond, but the voice was the voice of a man sounding like a woman! Next thing I know, a man dressed as a woman comes out with a tray of coca colas for us all. So we introduce ourselves and start chatting and the whole time I was thinking there is no way this can be real, but at the same time I was like but maybe it is, who knows, because I have seen MANY transvestites in Argentina. So we keep talking and they want to know if they could get married and have children and my companion wasn’t saying much so I was like well, I gotta answere si o si. So after a little while I was like "Next time we come we’re going to bring the Family Proclamation and read it together." So they got pretty excited for that. Then my companion was like "We actually wanted to share a scripture about the family where are the chicos?" Then when they called for the chicos like 5 guys jump out from everywhere and no where from like the ceiling and everything (like the lost boys in Peter Pan) and everyone just starts clapping and saying "BEINVENIDOS A SAN FERNANDO!" Then I look and see that one of them has a camera. I seriously died I was laughing so hard!! It was the funnies thing EVER!! It was just a few recent converts from the last like 6 months or so that got together to do a little joke. It wasn’t anything rude. I thought it was absolutely hilarious. So basically right from the first day I just LOVED the members and the area! It’s seriously so great!!

Members playing a prank on Hannah!

Another story: New Years I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. It was completely dark and when I walk into the bathroom my foot steps into water. My first thought was "This cannot be happening." So I turned on the light and the whole bathroom floor was COVERED in water. Like a good inch of water in todos lados. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you think about it, it’s a lot. So I look directly at the toilet thinking the water was leaving from there, but it wasn’t so I was super confused. And then I look at the window, nope not raining. So then I look at the part where you flush the toilet (in our apartment it’s on the wall and not outwardly connected to the toilet) and I touch the wall underneath it and the water is just cascading down the wall. I was like Oh crap how do I even open that up and fix that, I do not want to wake up Hna Gomez. So I just tried flushing it and BAM problem solved. It totally stopped the water leakage. It was sooo weird!! So then I look around at all the water and I’m not, yeah I’m not cleaning that up right now. So I just went back to bed and then in the morning I started on the task. The whole thing was pretty funny.

The pranksters at church.

Okay, honestly I just have so many stories that I could share from this last week, but I just can’t write a novel and bore you all. Basically this week was an incredible week of miracles. We had like 5 investigators in Church, but due to some circumstances only one actually has her baptismal date planned (Diana, she’s incredible!!) but it was an absolute miracle to have so many there because now we have so many possibilities! We tried to do our part and work really hard, but in the end we didn’t even do anything, all the miracles that occurred last week were Heavenly Father’s doing. I can’t even believe how blessed we were. It was such an awesome week. My companion is incredible. She is just the cutest thing in the world. She teaches so well with such great sincerity. She’s seriously retraining me in the mission. I’m learning so much from her.

Hannah loves her new companion!

So I know I say this all the time, but my favorite part of the mission is seeing so many miracles. Every baptism I have ever witnessed in the mission is a grand miracle. Every person we find, every lesson we teach, the same, grand miracles. I love being in the mission. I love witnessing so many miracles. As our faith increases we see more miracles! God is a God of miracles! In every aspect of life! Look for them! :) You’ll be happy and realize that you truly are His child and in the palm of His hand. Remember, when we love the way the Savior does, miracles happen. And of course, Stay Anxiously Engaged!! :)

xoxo,

Hermana Van