Merry Christmas Eve!!

Since yesterday we had our big party in Resistencia, one of our Christmas presents is being able to email today! Thank you to the moms who e mailed and complained :) I am still in Bella Vista.... But now instead of Bella Vista 1, I AM IN BELLA VISTA 2. Seriously I thought it was a cruel joke. But no, I am still here, but now I am taking over Hermana Johansen and Hermana Lund´s area. With.... A DAUGHTER. That´s right. Your baby has a baby. She is really nice! Her name is Hermana Petersen and she is from Idaho! She has about 7 months on her mission and she was serving in Washington this whole time!!! (Vancouver Washington Kate, I know I was hoping Tacoma as well) She is wonderful and brilliant and already knows everything so it is really nice! She is just having a hard time at getting used to the hot... and not the beautiful winter snow she was in about 3 days ago. haha We are now living in a new pension so that´s weird. It´s a lot smaller and there are all of these things that I want to fix... Like the bathroom door pretty much doesn´t exist so that´s exciting. But I will take care of it. ha We haven´t been able to work in our area together yet but we will today! So far I know that there is 2 investigators. So it´s better than nothing!!! I was serving with Hermana Allred and Johansen in my old area all last week and that was just plain torture. I miss Vanesa and her family and all of our investigators. Oh well, I´m going on an adventure! -Bilbo Baggins Everyone keeps telling me happy holidays and I keep forgetting tomorrow is Christmas.. that is so sad. One of the days when I was working with Hermana Jo and Hermana Allred we went on a "tour" of my new area. We went out and visited the Familia Vargas. The mom is Betti, and she and her man have 7 kids. And they aren´t married. But two of the 7 just got baptized and literally Betti is more active then the members in our church. She wants to be baptized so bad bur her man... (I don´t really know what to call him) doesn´t want to get married... shoot me in the face. It´s really so sad. But we´ll find a way. I refuse to leave here with out baptizing Betti. So yes, my Lundy Lou is gone! She is in Santa Fe right now. But it was so great to see her yesterday and hermana Elton and all of our friends! Yesterday was really great. Fine, I will play along, it´s Christmas. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day!!! Our Savior loves us so much and this is the day when we can remember Him and what Christmas really is all about. I love you all and I hope you spend lots of time with the ones you love! Merry Christmas! Love Hermana Healey

Gobble Gobble

Happy Turkey Week! (Sorry I am late with this one - my bad!) I don´t even think turkey exists here, and if I so, I don´t know if I would want it. But that just means you all better have a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast. Let me take you back to last Tuesday. So last Monday it was hotter than heck. I swear. I died. I´m dead right now. But that night, it rained so hard. The other Hermanas slept over in our pension because we all had to catch our bus at 3 in the morning. So we were sleeping and I just kept feeling something fall on my head and I, being freaked out because of Argentina, was so sure it was falling cockroaches. I kept touching my head and feeling nothing. But it was enough to wake me up at 12:50. Awesome. And the storm was going insane! Our house was being lit up by the lightning outside and the thunder was so loud. It felt like I was in a carwash it was so loud. So I try to go back to sleep and it happens again! This time more than once! I look up... IT WAS RAINING ON MY HEAD. Yep. WE have a leak. Right above my bed. I freaked out and woke up Hermana Allred and then we couldn´t fall back asleep. We got on our bus and all of the missionaries from Goya and Bella Vista were put together so that was nice. But it was 3 a.m. so we were all sleeping. Then all of a sudden I wake up and Hermana Lund is sleeping in front of us with her umbrella covering her head because there was a leak on the bus as well. haha So we all got rained on this week. Thought I would share that with you all because I was so mad. We had the opportunity to do service this week! We were pulling weeds and raking and cleaning up around the capilla. The church grounds are so big because they might expand the building if we keep getting more to come. So we were cleaning that out and I got to wear jeans. I know. Weird for me too. We were with the other hermanas, the elders, and the Pte of the district Pte Gimenez. AND HE KEPT FINDING COCKROACHES AND THROWING THEM AT ME! I´m not lying he is a child. A six year old boy. I screamed and ran and wanted to die. I had one on my back. ON MY BACK. But it was really great to be able to do service here. We haven´t been able to do service here because no one ever lets us do it. haha But it was so nice to be able to clean up the grounds for the Lords church! Vanessa didn´t come to church on Sunday. It was really disappointing. We were really counting on her and we thought she really meant it this time. But she didn´t. It´s hard when they don´t come. BUT! Adriana came! All on her own! We called her that morning and she said she would try and she did! She really is progressing and we think she is genuine in her desire to be baptized. The only problem is she is not married and she is living with her boyfriend right now. She really wants to get married but we don´t know if he does. We went over chastity to her and like 20 of her family members, which was the most intimidating moment of my life, but they all took it well! It made sense to all of them! She said she wants to talk to him about getting hitched sometime soon. We hope it happens sooner than later! But she loved church! She is so awesome. Speaking of the Sabbath, So I gave a talk in sacrament on Sunday about the importance of Every Member a Missionary. I tried my best. haha I told them the story about how before we were members we went to look at the temple lights and that same night was when Steve was talking about our family in stake conference, then the next day Steve, the bishopric, and the missionaries came to our house! I talked about how the ward was always so willing to help our family and it helped a lot with our conversion. Now imagine this with me if you will. I am talking and I reach for my scriptures, and I look down. A HUGE SPIDER IS ON MY BOOK OF MORMON. I can´t freak out! Everyone is looking at me! So my mouth drops and my eyes widen and I am screaming inside. The spider then JUMPS on my talk, and I don´t even remember if I was still talking or if I was laughing. I think I was being inappropriate and laughing, and I kept trying to get Elder Fiabanes attention to kill it for me. He finally got why I was panicked and killed it. But then I finished my talk with poise. Afterward everyone laughed. Oh well. I guess that´s what I get for being terrified of the creepy crawlies. Pamela didn´t come to church with us on Sunday. It´s hard because she is the only one in her huge family who ever wants to go! So I´m sure she gets sad and then doesn´t go because her family isn´t there. But I hope that she can go next week and keeps going after her baptism! It´s still planned for the 7th! So everyone pray that this happens. I didn´t get to write yesterday because it was a holiday here in Argentina. And they pretty much closed the entire city down! It´s like this, Hey Salt Lake City! It´s Martin Luther King Jr Day so we´re closing everything. Have a good time in your homes bored out of your mind! For any reason, any holiday, they close everything in the world. But whatever! I´m definitely missing home around this time of the year! Hermana Lunds mom sent her spice cookie mix so we made some pumpkin spice cookies yesterday! They tasted just like home! There is so much I am thankful for and I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Love always, Hermana Healey

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS!

Not!!! So it sounds like everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner! I´m so happy to hear that. We had training in Goya on Wednesday and we are the luckiest zone in the mission to have the only senior couple! We had a wonderful feast! We had some chicken, so at least it was still a bird, gravy, corn, rolls, and chips and salsa. And because Hermana McCoy knows how much I love salsa, she pulled me aside before we ate and told me she made me an extra batch to take home! It was a Thanksgiving miracle! I was so happy! It´s gone now so that´s sad. We also got t-shirts for the zone! My nickname is Happy Healey. You better believe I´m the happiest person here! Paul Walker died? In a car accident? Ironic. We saw Gisella and Sergio again this week. Remember them? We haven´t seen them for a few weeks but we felt like we should drop in so we did! Luckily they were home! It was really great to see them! I really love them so much. She said she would get baptized on the 28 of December if she knows that is what Heavenly Father wants. It´s hard because I swear everyone is expecting these big signs that light up and spin and say "Gisella! Be baptized! Okay?" I guess that is what I have to work on more is to help people to realize that we just don´t get those types of answers sometimes. haha But she really is so sweet. Our sweet Pamela came to church with us again on Sunday! She had a good time too! It was pouring rain and we were scared that no one would be at the chapel. But we had a lot of people there actually! And it was a really good testimony meeting! A lot more people bore their testimony than the usual 6 of us missionaries. haha But Pamela had a good day. And everything is going good for her baptism on Saturday! We have to go clean out the font today. So that´ll be disgusting. It hasn´t been used in a while. And the most recent convert is Enzo! And he is going to baptize her! We are all really excited. He is so nice. I know that Pamela is going to be so strong for her family. She already is such a strong member and has so much love for this gospel. I hope she keeps being an example for them. I love her so much. We were walking and all of a sudden she says something that sounds close enough to the real words... "You´re insecure, don´t know what for" Then we all joined in and sang You Don´t Know You´re Beautiful in front of the chapel yesterday. English music is the best. Thank you One Direction. Well we are just really excited for our Pamela’s baptism this week! I love you all and hope that you all have a wonderful week!! xoxo Love Hermana Healey