Hola From the Hottest Place on Earth

Literally. I think the hot makes little Courteney, a little more grumpy. And my computer sucks so high 5! This week! We went to see Stella on Tuesday. Remember her? Happy go lucky less active who is coming back? Yeah, we sat down and she said "Okay, how can I say this?" We looked at each other like "awesome." What happened with her is that a member of her family is in our ward, and she a long time ago had a kiosco on the same street as Stella´s dad. And this member did everything in her power to put Stella´s dad out of business. Stella stuck up for her dad and somehow she had something.. a poison or something in her. She doesn´t remember ANYTHING from these months in her life. And when she looks for answers her family says that this member did it, and they don´t want to tell her because it was the hardest time of their lives. I guess Stella was literally in her bed not being able to be touched because she was in so much pain. She had to have these injections in her arms, and feet to draw out the poison.. or whatever. (I really don´t know if it was poison) But it was something like that. But now her husband and kids don´t want her to ever be near this member again...awesome. We are trying to get her to see that we go to church for Heavenly Father, because only then will she reap blessings for doing the right thing. We had lunch with her and her family though on Thursday... and they were watching Glee. I love Glee. Friday I went on divisions with Hermana Allred!!!! Back to my old area, back in my old bed, with my old investigators. Yeah, it was rough. But we went back to see Vanesa, Lichi, and Lucy.. THEY ARE GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!!! Really! They are so perfect. They have grown so much since last transfer. They are so ready. I´m so happy! It was so hard but I am super glad I am still here and will be able to see it happen! That morning it felt the same. I felt like I had never left. Of course I´m doing dishes and I hear Hermana Allred screaming and freaking out. I instantly knew what to do. A spider had fallen from the ceiling, landed in her hair, and then her skirt. I killed it though no worries. Then later we were walking and there was this HUGE wire sticking out of the road and cut her foot. We played doctor and cleaned her up so she didn´t get some crazy infection. Then I had to clean a part of her hair…because something gross was in it. haha Felt like the good old days. That night we watched 17 Milagros for Noche de Rama. After running around looking for a DVD player that would work for an hour, we didn´t get to finish it. But I bawl my eyes out every time I watch that movie. Love it. Elisa, have I talked about her before? Well no big deal. Well she is kind of crazy. Like she wants us to walk with her to the cemetery so that she can talk to the dead people because she knows that they won’t talk back... Weird huh? I was like "No thanks! We´re not into the dead. We like living" cray cray. This morning Hermana Allred and Hermana Johansen are in Resistencia, they called this morning to tell us some bad news about our mail situation. The bad news is that there are still so many boxes left over from Christmas that it has pushed back our mail so bad. We probably won´t be getting much for a while. So it´s all there, just Argentina is kind of with their mail. But we were talking and then she started screaming and I was like "WHAT HAPPENED" and then I hear "Hermana Healey????" IT WAS MY LUNDY LUND! I freaked and cried… and then she had to go and said "WAIT!" and then I hear "Hola?" It was Elder Leon!!! I lost it again and just bawled more. We talked for like a second (which is against the rules) but I was so happy to hear them. It hurt too though; it was like hearing your families’ voices for like 5 seconds. Well this week has been hot hot hot. And we are going to expect more hot to come. haha Doesn´t cool down here until March. So, kill me now. Norma came to church again this week and loved it! We just have to get her freaking married... That sucks. We are seeing her tonight so wish us luck! I love you all and thank you for all of your love and support. I know I couldn´t do this without you! Love Court Oh yeah! Been on my mission for 9 months! Whoo!

My Birthday Week!

I´m 21!!!!!! You better believe it was a great week! On Thursday night I was upstairs talking to the elders about our day (We talk to them every night, it kinda is a bother) And Hermana Petersen was downstairs for like EVER. I had no idea what was going on. But I started to go down the stairs to brush my teeth and she FREAKED and turned off the lights. I sat down on the stairs and looked down and she had decorated the downstairs for my birthday with sticky notes!! It was so sweet! I loved it. That night we had a Noche de Rama with the ward and a few people were there! One being Stella!!! (I´ll get to her later..) But she bought me a shirt! so sweet. Hermana Sayas made me a cake and we played games! There was of course a scripture for an inspirational thought. haha but we mostly had fun. Then on Saturday...(Really the worst day ever..) Ended quite beautifully! We went over to the Duarte family and they had made a birthday dinner and birthday cakes for me and Lucas! Lucas is Olga´s son, and his birthday was the 11! It was really fun. The cake literally had a firework on it and it scared me to death. All in all, I had a wonderful birthday! And everyone gave me earrings. haha I am very grateful. Stella. We had a note from one of the Elders for her and her family from like... forever ago. So we decided to try and find her and deliver it. We found her address and met this lady who had to be like 97 years old. I asked and she said her name is Stella Arrua. Perfect.. Why the elders wrote a 97 lady I have no idea! But I don´t judge. So I gave it to her and I guess it said another name inside and it was for her granddaughter! So we found the real Stella and she was pretty nice but short with us. On the record it says that her husband doesn´t want her to be mormon anymore.. Awesome. So we tried passing by when he wasn´t home AND HE WAS THERE! We were terrified and Stella looked at us and then at him and then back at us like CAUTION. But hello! He ended up loving us! We talked and he even let us share a scripture with him! He said he wants us to come back another night when he isn´t working. They told us that he was so close to getting baptized and then the elder who he liked left so he said no.. Haha That sucks. But we are determined on baptizing their whole family because of the gospel.. and we are just like a bonus for the package. haha But then SHE CAME TO NOCHE DE RAMA!! It was so great! She walked home with us that night (because we were carrying cakes) And she told us that she told him that she was coming back to church, and he is totally okay with it! What do ya know? Miracles do happen. I love Stella. Norma. We met Norma really by just chance. She at first didnt seem really interested but we still asked her if she would get baptized and she said that she wants to learn more but if she knows for sure than she would. Great! We passed by for a second to see her on Saturday before Sunday so we could get her excited about church and made set plans with her. She at first gave us the wrong number.. haha Nice try Norma. I always check before I leave! And then I really thought that was that. We passed by for her on Sunday and SHE CAME! She was up, she was ready. Granted her dog followed her the whole way and went inside the chapel... I didn´t know what to do... But oh well She came and loved it. She is really nice and sweet. We had interviews with Presidente yesterday! It was really nice. I always love interviews. He shared with us a message about the Book of Mormon and asked to hear our testimonies of the book of Mormon. At the beginning of the meeting!!! Great way to start off bawling. I of course had a wonderful meeting with him, and we spent a few minutes looking at a few pictures of his family from Instagram, then I left still crying. Ha The assistants were there because Hermana Heyman couldnt make it and gave us a training while we did interviews and they all thought it was weird the hermanas always cry. Whatever they don´t understand. I always feel so much better after talking to President. He told us who our new Mission president will be.. The Heymans go back home in July and we will have a new president from South Jordan Utah!! What what! He speaks english but he was born in Buenos Aires. So him and his wife both know both languages! That is awesome! But really sad. Who else can say during their mission they had 4 mission presidents? This week was really good! Thank you for all of my messages and the love! I am sure that your letters and packages are here and still in the mailroom, Because Argentina is weird with their mail. But don´t stress! Thank you for all of the birthday love! Love you! Hermana Healey

"I Don't Know about you - but I'm feeling 22 - not really 21!"

That's right, TSwifts song will work for me next year! This week was really great!!! Happy 2014!!!! How weird is that! I really can´t believe that it is 2014. To bring in the new year, Hermana Petersen and I worked all night, then we came home and then we planned, and then we did all of our laundry! But at midnight we took some 2014 pictures on our bunkbed and listened to God Bless America. My home, sweet home. We have met a lot of people here in Bella Vista 2, and we meet more and more everyday. I know that a few of the times we meet people who are just very sweet and maybe just needed a visit or to see some smiley girls to brighten their day! Let´s just say we met a lot, a lot, a lot of old people this week. For some reason we have been drawn to them. They have all been so sweet and just in need of a friendly visit! I know that as being a missionary that it is also a part of our calling to help those who are in need and comfort those who stand in need of comfort. We met a really funny old guy who just needed someone to talk to, his nickname is Pipi. Yeah. Pipi. He was so nice. He talked ALOT. There was one time where he wanted us to live with him and his wife because we could be their grandchildren. That was nice of him. In the end he told us that he really needed this visit because he found out that his doctor said he could have cancer, and he had been worrying about it all day. But he felt better when we talked to him. He was so adorable. Pipi. Yeah. I laughed a little too. Hermana Johansen and Hermana Lund told us to visit a kid named Exequiel, his mom was baptized 10 years ago and hasn´t been in 10 years. But she had said that her son wanted to learn. So we visited him and it went great! We really wanted to meet her but she said she didn´t want to meet us at first. The other day we stopped by and she came out to meet us. I can´t tell you how nervous I was. I literally thought she was going to beat me up. She is very very intense. But she let us share the first lesson with her and we talked about church alot. She suddenly had a change of mind and said she wants to come back now, but she is embarrassed because she has picked up some bad habits. But she really wants to learn everything all over again... Fine by us! So we start, and first thing we talk about is God is our Loving Heavenly Father, she holds up her finger and then says "So, tell me the name of God." Crap. I just thought in my head... You wouldn´t be a JW would you? Then she told us her family is JW. She wants us to explain that. I was shaking so bad. Not because of her question, but because she literally terrifies me. She said that she always has so many questions but no one ever comes back to answer them... Wonder why... But I´m determined to face my fear.. aka her. I will help her to come back to church and her son will be baptized. They didn´t come to church but they invited us to have lunch with her on Saturday. Let´s just say that I watched the food being prepped, and I´m surprised I´m alive right now. We had Noche de Rama on friday!! And the lame elders decided that we were going to play a game. And I had to do it first. So I being the loving, willing to help missionary said "Sure Elders! Just don´t make me look stupid!" The game was using your mouth only to find candies in FLOUR and take them out. I refused, and tried to run. But then Maxi (The little boy from the Vargas family said he would do it with me) So I did it. He kicked my trash. He was so fast. I´m so lame. But I´ll put a picture for all of your pleasure. It was so disgusting. It was like having pancake batter up your nose and in your teeth. But it was really funny to watch everyone do it. We are trying to make our pension more homey. So you bet your bottom dollar I bought a shower curtain and some new desks for our studies. haha I refuse to live in this cave of loneliness. I´m making it nicer. Then watch I will leave in a few weeks. haha Not funny. We have interviews with President on Sunday! I´m wayy excited! I can´t believe it´s time for interviews again! And the Duarte family said we could have brownies and ice cream on Friday for no important reason really... Just some things to look forward to. We´re living through this heat some how! I hope everyone had a wonderful wonderful New Year! And for the record... I made New Years Predictions that I sent to Spam and Kam and one of them was that Trista was next to get married. Revelation. Love you all! Court

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

SCORPION

Yep. The day has come. I killed a scorpion. The other night Hermana Allred was brushing her teeth and I was writing in my journal already in bed, when out of nowhere I hear her yelling. I instantly reach for something to kill a spider. I run in there and she is so mad. She is furious, and our hand towel is in the sink. That´s right. When she was about to wipe off her mouth after brushing her teeth she looked at the towel and saw a pink thing with legs. IT WAS A SCORPION. Granted it isn´t black and huge like I imagined, but stil, I killed a scorpion. I first tried drowning it in this bowl thing. That didn´t work. Then we drowned it with Clorox. And then flushed it. And yes of course I still am so terrified that it will come back alive and crawl out of that toilet and sting me one day. So we have been visiting a less active family, the Farias family. They have been less active for quite a while. The dad sometimes goes and his daughter Pamela who is 8. NO ONE KNEW SHE WASNT BAPTIZED. That´s right. She isn´t. And she wants to really bad. But her parents really haven´t done anything about it so it´s weird. But we have been visiting her and teaching her all the lessons because she turns 9 in like 6 days. And her baptism date is planned for the 30. So let’s all pray that her parents don’t go crazy and that this actually happens! She is such a handful but adorable at the same time. We walked to church with her because her dad didn´t want to go this week and she sang with us One Direction the entire way. She´s wonderful. But we are hoping that everything goes well for her baptism on the 30th. Right now her parents are okay with it but we feel like we are walking on egg shells with them. Tomorrow we have a multi zone conference with the missionaries from here in Corrientes and another place! I´m really excited to spend the day in Resistencia tomorrow and learn more. We have a really awesome investigator named Vanesa, she really is so great. She didn´t come to church again on Sunday which is so heart breaking but she is still progressing and doing so well. She has amazing questions and everything just clicks and makes sense to her! She just NEEDS TO GO TO CHURCH. Carlos and Graciela are really awesome as well! They aren´t married, just live together and no desire to get married soon because she thinks she is too young. Their situation is really difficult but they are so great. They are both Catholic and everything we teach they are understanding and saying how it makes so much more sense than the ways in the Catholic Church. They both are teachers, and Carlos is so intelligent. Every time he opens his mouth he says "Una pregunta" And I swear we both catch our breath and expect the worst. But then when we answer his questions he talks about how much it makes sense and of course Heavenly Father would do things this way! It´s really great when they catch on and truly listen and understand; we just have to get them married first. Ha! No pressure. Next week is Thanksgiving? No way. Love Hermana Healey