Buenos Dias mi Familia y mi Amigos,

 

My dad told me in an email that I had written spanish words in my email, so I decided to add a couple more. Today we are getting a new group of Norte Americans and I am excited to see how much I have learned since my first day here. The elders in my district want to play a little trick on them and not speak any english to them on their first day. Haha I don't think it will actually work because they are way too nice :)

 

Different things about my week

1. Feeling much better, I received a priesthood blessing from my district leader, Elder Billings and I have graudally been feeling better every day.

2. Last Saturday after proselytismo one of our elders found out that his father had died, we had a little testimony meeting in our district. It was pretty awesome. TODAS PERSONAS were crying. It was at the beginning of my cold so I used so many tissues that it was so gross. Crying plus running nose equals a whole box of tissues gone.

3. I really look forward every week to going to the temple. At first I thought it was a little odd what they do there, more and more I appreciate the calmness and quietness of that experience.

4. My hair has been super gross. Greasy. The water here, I guess is different from home. My hair did not react well. For the last 4 weeks I have tried everything. Finally on sunday, I mentioned it in relief society and Hma Openshaw (President's wife) said that she would give me some baby shampoo and it would fix it. YAY! It is such a small thing but I am happy to have clean hair.

5. Pretty much everyday I play pingpong during actividad fisca. Yesterday I was playing with Elder Hilton and we were playing around the world pingpong where you spin after you hit. I spun right into the huge metal trashcan. I have a nice colored bruise on my arm now. Our elders think that my companion abuses me. Hehe.

6. The elders in my district (Alma distrito) tease me alot, they act like my brothers :) I love them alot. They are teenage boys and sometimes I just shake my head.

7.  Katrina asked what we eat here at the CCM. We eat alot of meat. It is alright. Sometimes it is annoying that they give us it on the bone. There is like no meat on it sometimes and all fat. We have french fries sometimes. Every morning we have cereal. Every single morning. I don't love cereal that much. I do like their lentil soup stuff. I did not like the fish or the mushy cornbread lasagne. We eat alot of fruit. It is really good. Everyday they have bread. I really like it when they put cheese and chicken in the lettuce. After lunch every day it is our job to clean the comedor. It is kind of annoying that the cooks always give me less than the elders. I am hungry too. Sometimes I don't eat it all but sometimes I wish I had more.

8. My companion and I are good. I felt like she wasn't giving her opinion and I felt like I decided everything. I hate deciding everything. We talked about it in companionship inventory and she has gotten better at in her words "not being a doormat".

 

Our last weeks proselytismo was so  sososososo much better. We went back to the same area from before. This time we were much more relaxed. We met so many old ladies that gave us hugs and kisses. Here they do the greetings with a kiss on the cheek. We even got into someone's house. I asked to use their bathroom. It was these two older sisters. They weren't interested in the church. I think they had had lessons before because they knew a little about us. They said we prayed alot. I thought that was kind of funny. Anyway they live in this little house and they sew for a living. It was so nice to see something familiar. I am from a family of seamstresses. Unfortunately I didn't know the words for the sewing stuff. I hear stories about how I need to bring toilet paper with me because alot of houses don't have it, well I was happy to say that the bathroom was very well equipped. Although I couldn't find the flush until I realized it was a pulley thing in the hole in the wall. We met some people that were really nice to us and that always makes us happy. We met 3 people that wanted us to come back another time and talk to them about our message. We give their names and addresses to the missionaries assigned to their area and they go and teach them. One woman said that when we knocked on her door, we knocked on her heart. My heart just about broke. I can't say alot in spanish but I said "Puede embraso" or Can I hug? She unlocked her gate and we gave her big hugs. I felt really good to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. There are many people in this world that are lonely and need a hug. One last experience. Towards the end of our time on the outside. I really wanted to go to a store and buy some food. Real Argentinan food. So we went into this little grocery store. It was so much fun. We bought this chocolate. Delicious. Anyway but while we were standing in line at the one register, in front of us was this little boy about 4 or 5 and his grandpa. It was so adorable. The grandpa was bending down because his grandson wanted a hug. I just smiled. Grandpa wanted him to say hello to us and give us kisses on the cheek. He was so shy. :) I just wanted to eat him up he was so cute. Anyway I told him who we were and he really didn't understand that we spoke pretty small amount of spanish. He kept talking and telling us stuff. I really have no idea what he said. I nodded and said si alot. I got the feeling that he was interested in religion and so we handed him a pamphlet and he seemed really excited about it. It was the best feeling. Okay proselyting story over :)

 

This sunday or the next sunday I will give a talk in church in spanish. I am kind of nervous but I have already started writing it. It is about repentance. Buenos Suerte!

 

I have a testimony that Joseph Smith Jr. talked to God the Father and Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and I learn more and more about how it can solve life's problems. I know that I am here for a reason and there are people that I need to influence and people that I need to learn something from. Sometimes I think about what the person next to me will learn from me and it makes me want to be a better person. I love my family and I know that even if I die on the mean streets of Buenos Aires I will be with them forever. They are my life and my joy. I have had to ask for miracles this past couple weeks and it is amazing how the Lord provides. He will give you what you need. I know it. I was sick when we had to go out and talk to people. I thought no one will want to talk to me because I am gross and everyone  will stay far away. I had no problems. I blew my nose a couple times but the Lord worked a miracle in my life. My intentions were pure, I wanted to share the true gospel and He provided a way for me to do that. I love you all and can't wait to hear from you.

 

Con Amor,

Hma. Beatie

(Krista)

Hola! Family and Friends,

I am proud to announce that I know more spanish now than I ever have in my entire life. It took me a while to get going but I am feeling more comfortable in the spanish language.

Exciting random things from the past week

1. Bottle of shampoo fell on our toilet and cracked the toilet seat cover.

2. My blankets fall off my top bunk bed almost every single night so I wake up cold.

3. Going through the temple in spanish is very strange

4. My district is the best and all the elders have this strange obsession with this shack they can see through our window. Apparently it is a grill but the elders swear they catch dogs and cook them up.

5. My new roommates desperately want to teach me spanish but it is a little frustrating when they repeat the same word that I do not know over and over again. I still don't know what it means even after the 10th time. It is better now, we had a little talk.

6. We now have 6 girls to one bathroom so if you want in you have to be fast and a little stubborn.

7. The strangest elder here has a little crush on me and it is a little weird.

8. We have really good talks, devotions and firesides. They are all pretty much the same thing but they call them different things.

9.On sunday we have a movie every night, it is usually something like Joseph Smith prophet of the restoration or a talk or something. We really like it because it is a movie and it is in english!!

10. The elders got in a little trouble because they were wrestling at night and one elder in my district got a concussion. Another elder in my district two days ago got his finger kind of pulled off, super gross. He had to go to the hospital. It was kind of exciting for the rest of us.

11. During Actividad fisica hma Nielson and I were throwing a football back and forth. She doesnt like as she calls it "american football" but I convinced her to practice. I threw so hard with such strength that when she tried to catch it her finger got jammed.

12. We have 2 teachers Hmo. De Oliviera and Hmo. Krasnoselsky. One in the morning and one in the afternoon/evening

So this week. On the saturday after I wrote last week we went proselyting on the mean streets of Buenos Aires. It wasn't my favorite thing but I think every week we will get better. I wish I had had a companion that was older and knew what to do and could speak the language. Here we are with about 2 weeks of language study our by ourselves trying to get people to talk to us. We had one kind of funny experience. We had this lunch that the ccm had given us and so we were looking for a place to sit and eat. There was no park or any tables so we sat on these steps next to the sidewalk. Little did we know that it was a bus stop, so people started hanging out next to us. This guy sat down near us and asked us how we were or something. So we are trying to communicate but it is not working very well. You get used to how your teachers talk and I am sure they talk slow for us so I really had little idea of what he was saying. I asked him if he believed in Jesucristo and pointed to a cross tattoo he had on his hand/arm. He proceeded to pull up his shirt and nodded emphatically pointing to a lovely mural of Jesus Christ on his chest. I was so happy that we understood each other that I was like si si si Jesucristo. We gave him a pamphlet but he had to get on the bus so we didn't get to talk to him much. That day we handed out 4 pamphlets and knocked on almost every single door in our area. The people are mostly nice but most of them did not want to talk to us unfortunately. There were so many dogs....I really don't even know. Luckily all the ones that are wild running in the street are good and don't pay us any attention. The ones behind fences though are are kind of scary. When we got on the bus the elders that were there had not had any luck and so I felt a little better until we got to the next stop to pick up some elders and some of them had taugh 3 lessons and placed 4 book of mormons. I was also tired, really tired. I am not super excited to go out again but I am resolved to talk to more people that walk past me.

I am sick with a sore throat and a bit of a cough. Hermana Openshaw is never around!! We are supposed to talk to her when we are sick but she is always so busy.

I love you all and I do have a testimony that Jesus Christ's gospel is on this earth. It was restored to Joseph Smith Jr so that we could have all the blessings of living by God's commands. The Book of Mormon is a testament of Jesus Christ and His visit to His people in America. He loves all His children and wants them all to "Come unto Him".

Love you all,

Krista Beatie

Dear Friends and Family,

I put off writing the update of my mission until I had answered all my letters. That may not have been a good idea, now I only have 8 minutes to update you on the last week in Buenos Aires. This may actually be good because it will be short haha.

 

One of the first things I learned on the airplane was that it is Buenos Ahhhrrreess. With a rolled r.

 

So the latinos only stay here for 2 weeks and then they enter their mission field. So on tuesday the missionaries left and we lost our 2 roommates. We loved them so it was kind of sad but we know that they are doing good. They gave us gifts of pudding and yogurt haha. One hermana wrote me a note in spanish and hopefully my spanish will improve enough to be able to read it. We got 4 more roommates last night and so it was a little crazy with everyone trying to put their stuff away and get ready for bed. I planned on taking a shower last night but it was so crazy that when the bathroom was empty and we went to wash our faces a hermana was like can I use the bathroom. Uhhh yeah I guess hold on a minute haha. Well all is good here. we had a bit of a scare when there was like 20 planes/helicopters flying overhead. Is there a war we don't know about. I know the Lord will take care of my family while I am away so I don't worry about that too much.

 

Next week I will write this letter first haha.

 

I have a testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ, I know that this is the true gospel. I know because I get a warm comforting feeling in my chest when I think and pray about it.

 

People are yellling wrap it up.

so love you all,

Krista

Maybe photos next week and I know I said that last week but it did not happen this week :)