Life of a Sister Missionary Named Hermana Romeril: November 2014

Hello family! Yesterday we were in Córdoba all day because we had a zone conference and there were so many missionaries there! I met one of Hermana Rivera’s old companions. She's hilarious! I saw Hermana Wooley and she is doing really good. At the conference there were about 20 to 30 missionaries who were going to leave this transfer and they all gave their testimonies. One elder said, I remember when I had six months and my mission and I was listening to all the missionaries who were leaving and I sat there and thought, the day when I give my goodbye testimony is never going to come but here I am. The time goes by so fast I was sitting there thinking, that's exactly what I am thinking that time is never going to come. But I know it will. It's Thursday already! Can you believe it?! Yesterday we had a really neat experience and opportunity I told you last week about the English Institute. Yesterday night at 8:30 we went to it again, but this time it was with adults from ages 21 to 59. There were about eight students there. It was really fun! They asked us questions about what we do and things about our countries, what we like to do,what are families are like, it was a lot of fun to be able to talk in English! It was cool too because the students were able to feel a little bit how I do not being able to speak perfect Spanish! There was a 21-year-old name Ishmael and whenever he asked questions he would always relate it to California. He asked us if we were able to have a boyfriend here in Argentina and it was really funny. After Hermana Gonzales said "I think Ishmael is now an expert on California y la vida Hna Romeril!" After the class that English teacher gave us a thank you gift and it was perfume! I was like what! It was really nice. It's really neat having opportunities like that. I really love Argentina <3.

Today was up-and-down. Really reflective today. In the beginning of the day we did all of our studies and I was feeling really discouraged – I was feeling stressed out because all of the people we had is investigators are not wanting us to come back anymore and it's sad… I felt pretty down this morning. I was reading in my book of Mormon study third Nephi and I read the part where Jesus Christ came to the earth and he was talking to the people staying in 3 nephi 17 "I perceive that ye are week, that you cannot understand all of my words which I am commanded of the father to speak unto you at this time. Therefore, go unto your homes and ponder upon the things which I have said, and ask the father, in the name, that you may understand, and prepare your minds for the morrow and I coming to you again" I read that and I felt like heavenly father was giving me counsel. He already knows of my imperfections and my weaknesses, he just needs me to be humble so I can learn and be the missionary he needs of me. After that I felt like we could follow with the rest of the day. We then had weekly planning with Elder Toledo and Blotter and then I got really bad diarrhea (sorry so graphic haha)and came home and I took my medicine and we planned and now I'm writing in my journal! My companion told the elders I got sick… Changa.. I didn't want them to know. So the elders called us tonight and asked us if they needed to go to the pharmacy? Soup? Something? My companion yelled Gatorade so they're bringing me Gatorade ha ha. It's a little embarrassing that they know but it's okay. It is what it is. It happens all the time with me. The diarrhea part. :) I feel very happy to be with my companion Gonzalez. We work really well together. She's really hilarious too. I can really count on her and I feel so grateful to have her at this point of my mission.

I hope you all have a wonderful week off. Please tell me everything that you do this week. I love and miss you all!

Love, Hermana Romeril

Thanks for the new top Mom!

I got one of the packages! All of the American missionaries ate the Swedish Fish with me :)

Hola! Today is going to be cool – we're going to do English academy because one of the members here has her kids in this English Academy and they told the Prof. there's a missionary(me) who's from the US and the professors wanted to meet with me and talk in English with me! I think it's a pretty neat opportunity. Hola! So the English Academy went really well. We didn't talk with the adults this week, we talked with some Chillens:) chiquillos. We are going to go back next Wednesday to talk with the adults in English. I'm really excited it's such an awesome opportunity we have.

Today is Saturday the 15th. Today we are going to white out our area which means, start out from nothing. There's a whole huge slab of our area that we haven't worked on since I've been out here. So yes, we're going to tract all day. The weather is already super hot and very humid and to be really honest, I'm scared to start all over. Last night we were planning and I was trying to think of names to visit and I got so stressed looking at our huge list and thinking and realizing that we have nobody who is really progressing on the list. I told my companion that and I just felt like a horrible missionary. She gave the idea of going contacting all day and we talked and agreed on it and she said Hermana, I know we are going to find a family of four at least to be baptized this month. Do you want to put a last name to this family? I told her she could and she said how does Alvarez sound? I agreed and she said, tomorrow we are going to find her family Alvarez. This morning during studies we sang the song I'll go where you want me to go and then we planned out which neighborhoods we were going to go visit – today we are going to be working and giving everything we have to find this family. We are going to pack our lunches and we are going to go with our Books of Mormon, invitations, and our name plaques and we are going to go out and give everything we have today and we are going to represent our families and Jesus Christ. Even if we don't find anyone today – not one person, we will be able to return home with honor tonight at 9:00 PM I'm going to bring honor to the two names I wear on my plaque – Romeril and Jesus Christ.

So we did it today! We found our family Alvarez even though the two families we found didn't have that last name ha ha :-) I'll tell you about the two families. We were walking to the farthest neighborhood in our area and we were walking around and we saw a mom with her two little kids. We started talking to her, just giving her an invitation, and she asked where we were from and then she asked why we would be here in Argentina so far away from our families. We got the chance to tell her about what we do and then she asked us if we could visit her this upcoming week and we were like yes! She told us she's an alcoholic and she's trying to get off of alcohol, but that she can't do it alone and that she said she thinks we are her answers to her prayers! I think she and her husband are in the process of splitting up and I think that's why she started drinking.she was really looking forward to us coming this week. We invited her to church but she is going to be traveling tomorrow but she said after the trip :-) we're visiting her on Wednesday!

After that we were walking home and we have been walking for three hours already not finding anyone in the siesta and we walked in the street and we felt like we should walk back and go to this particular house. When we walked by the house a motorcycle pulled up and we talk to this lady name Carolina and she gave us the day we could visit her too. She's a single mom as well. I feel really good with what we did today we walked so much and our lunch appointment canceled on us and we didn't eat all day except the oatmeal I had in the morning. It was so hot… Some of the time I caught myself thinking I wanted to go back to the house because of how tired I was. But every time I thought that stuff I imagined Jesus Christ walking along my side and help me to keep going the whole way.

I'm still having my stomach problems but Hermana silva, the mission nurse, has me on a special diet and I'm already feeling better. I have a list of foods that I can eat and the list isn't very big… but it's making me healthier and slowly it's helping me feel better, too. I feel healthier for sure and my weight has been dropping with me running every day and eating healthy. One of the jackets that I got from Tillys before I left was too tight for me at the MTC and in catamarca. It now fits my arms and I can button it up!

I don't know what my plans are for Thanksgiving yet but I think we're going to be doing something with elder Toledo and elder blotter ..we are like family out here… We've got to stick together.

I love seeing daddy with his golf girls, they really do love him and he can lighten up quite a bit when he is with them :-) it's really cute... that's the best! I still remember golf with him and he would drive the golf cart so crazily fast and you felt like you were going to fall out of the cart ha ha Ha

I love you guys so much and I think about you on the daily. The distance doesn't change the love I have for you guys, if anything my love grows for you each day. You're amazing. Have the best week ever, okay. I love you.

Kelbs

Me on P-Day