We are here! We are here! We are here!

Right about now I´m thinking this is the hardest keyboard I have typed on y et. And I´m in Argentina! It´s a shame I didn´t bring my camera with me and you could see all the things I´m seeing here. Day one was overwhelming. Sat  next to these two Argentinian princes (but really) and had several disucussions about the word of wisdom, book of mormon throughout our 10 hr flight. They got a kick out of our spanish(the plane probably had about 30 missionaries. Geez a lot!) Anyways, it was good.

More the the culture shock I´m experiencing "mission shock¨" This mission is so different. And it´s my mission! Only the best mission in the world! President Carter has got to be the strictest person I know in a good way. He reminds me of Uncle Larry alot. An accountant, successful, hardworking, no exucuses kind of guy. Him and Sister Carter are great. Another huge difference, I have gone from meticulously searching for that one person to suddenly living in a place where every person is that "one person." It¨s overwhelming. Mom and Pops don´t worry. President basically placed me in the richest safest place in the mission. Sister Salas and I are opening a new area here in Castelar. It´s the roads that kill you I tell you! I´m working on not tripping on the time, don´t want to get sent home for breaking my foot. Lame.

Well we put five people on date this week and had five at church. That would be 10 huge milagros! E y P ( in their 80s) are super sweet and are excited to be baptized in two weeks. E has a huge personality. They last time we visited her she wanted to measure the length of my legs. I´m tall. All the old people call me rubia (don´t know what the problem is here. everyone struggles with cleveland!

My favorite experience of the week was sister salas and I were walking, crossed paths with a couple women chatting up a storm. Kept walking...but still, minutes after I could not get that cross walk out of my head. I asked hma what she thought (litterally, didn´t have the words to say more ha) and she told me "you´re right. I felt something too. Let´s go back." Ended up finding a sweet woman, walking home who had had a history with the missionaries in the united states. She invited us over for a lesson. When I walk by people in the streets now without giving them a passalong card I feel guilty. These people literally are standing right in front of me waiting for me to say something. Serving in utah has helped me value more the circumstances I have here. I´m here to invite EVERYONE to come unto Christ. that´s my purpose.

Well, all in all I´m great. Alive. Still a little on edge with stuff. Took the train today for the first time. How many ppl can you shove into one station? Too many!!! Counted. Everything´s different, but good.
 I have never respected a sister missionary like I respect sister salas. She is meticulously obedient and does everything out of love. Lucky to have her. she is the best!

Love, Hermana Cleveland

Shout out to my friend Royce!! Oreo night is still alive. STILL! and it´s the greatest. Didn´t get it before...no one can get it  unless they´re here I think. yep.

(the mission has oreo night every thursday after planning...really random but I like oreos so all is well)

Fun Happenings

Fun happenings of the week. 

We had a family share some homemade slush with us and the hermano accidentally poured too much dye into my companiera's cup to make it green. She had green teeth the rest of the night. Our cita ended up canceling and the only positive we could see out of that is we avoided teaching a lesson with green teeth. Really awkward haha. The kids started calling sister arias hermana hulk.

Get this. We had a service project in the yard of a progressing family and we layed down sod, only we worked the dirt for hours before that. It was fun being with everyone but o we were zombies afterwards. That was hard work. The service project was for a family which first, finding them was a miracle and is a whole other story and second, it really opened theirs hearts to hear the gospel. We have a fhe with them tonight. 5 kids, it's going to be fun. Miracle family.

I feel like in the last 2 weeks I've done a lot of lawn mowing...4. Sister arias had never touched a lawn mower in her life so..o! You should have seen her face! She was laughing and smiling the whole time! The most random, happiest moment of the week, watching her mow grass!

Yesterday I was talking with an inactive member- Ana. We were having this conversation and it was all really random. I knew her mother wasn't a member. The whole time I was really concentrating on how I could really make a connect with Ana and her mother both. A small thought of mentioning family history work came to my head and at first I thought of how to connect it to our conversation. And there was no connection! Now that's the worst. I decided to come out with it anyway. Why not? Topic switch! And nowww we're going to talk about family history! It felt right. After I asked her if her of her mother had ever been interested in family history she looked at me with this shocked expression. Turns out  they had a conversation earlier that day, and her mother is super interested in doing family history work. she told me we had to be on the same wavelength (which we absolutely were not! ha!) and was super energetic about the whole conversation. The spirit helped me out. Felt good.

Every time I take the leap of faith I see the blessings. Finding the family lope was a miracle. Finding anyone here in layton is a miracle. I've learned I can do better...I need to have more faith sometimes. There's no feeling like following the spirit! Blesses my life and everyone I talk to when I do.

Love,

Hermana Cleveland

Hulk Sister!!

Practicing the Piano...mother, i can see your smile

Hola!

So it seems no one in the spanish ward plays the piano so I've played at 3 baptisms. And played for the primary last week. It's fun. The sister and I are being asked to sing a lot as well.

This week...don't even know when to start. I love my companions! They are my best friends.

Us visa waiters are actually leaving on the 17th of June. 

Tonight we're having an fhe with a familia. Teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a family who feels like my family. I am visiting them again after my mission, and will write them during my mission. I love them. They're daughter is investigating the church, she is attentive and is learning fast. It's a blessing to watch people progress. Accepting to be baptized requires faith. It's interesting that we want to know it all before we make important decisions. There's no faith that way. And who knows it all anyway? We need to be willing to act. The  blessings will follow.

This week was a special one because for the first time Sister Aris willingly and openly shared a meaningful part of her life with me. Now we talk all the time, but this was a different. I feel close with sister Arias. I really do love her and know she loves me. (familia she hugs me randomly all the time, if only you could see!) We don't have a lot in common- but the important stuff we do. Same team.  We both want to be good missionaries and we both love our families. The language gap requires that I really focus. I've noticed the difference. Listen with love.

I love you all. I have been blessed beyond what I deserve and that's for sure!

Love, Hermana Cleveland

pics. Sister Adorable is adorable no?!

TUES

Happy Memorial Day!  

Ok! Yes I am aware it is TUES. Great day tues. We have sister's training today in Salt Lake so we're about to head over there. We worked pretty hard yesterday morning with bikes and lessons and them realized all the family history centers and libraries were closed for the holidays. Nice. So yes, it's tuesday.

Hopefully everyone knows by now but my visa is in. Have it and I'll be gone within 3 weeks! Not ready to leave....I love these families.

So the work is a moving. We basically white-washed a new trailer park yesterday and found 12 new investigators. Miracle! Also went out with Sister adorable and walker this week (hermana arias was sick) and we literally shouted the restoration to the rooftops (7 men were working on the roof) My confidence in the language is growing. 

Another miracle this week, we decided to go to an area where we had no investigators- nada. On the map it looked like an empty, gray area. So went to the area, decided we needed to pick a specific house, knocked, and guess who answered?! Vicky answered that's who! Little, tiny Vicky. She opened the door and said "ok, who sent you?" She was shocked to know that we not only randomly picked this area, but we also randomly picked her house. She is a sweet lady. Bore her testimony with us. Apparently it had been a very long time. Miracle.

Had the opportunity to sing with hermana walker and adorable in sacrament meeting. We sang "Nearer my God to Thee". We love singing. Sometimes when we're tracting and we're teaching people who are more distracted, we're offer to sing a hymn for them. Music invites the spirit. It's a different take on teaching new investigators. They are more receptive afterwards and we're able to have a different conversation.

It's a short one this week..hopefully the pictures make up for it.

Be good to one another! If life weren't hard we wouldn't have nearly as much fun! 

Love, 

Hermana Cleveland

Pictures. I pet a horse. Took a picture with my comp next to this awesome water fountain in the back of a trailer home. yep!

Walking the Streets of Temple Square. Ahora!

Hola familia,

We were able to go to the temple this morning and yeah, that's a highlight for the whole transfer. Love my district and the sister's I'm with.

I'm now comps with Sister Arias from Guatemala. Pushing spanish this transfer.

Here are two funny things that have happened this week (with sister Arias)

- Randomly plucked a flower off a tree and started eating it. Normal, I gave her a weird look and she said "Whaaat? Is good!" 

- This week a gardener had pulled a weed and she ran to it and thought it was a nice plant. At our next investigator's door, she genuinely offered them the plant. "You want? You can have!" And then continued to tell them how to plant and water it. It was so funny! All so genuine!

She has me laughing all the time. The other sisters too. Sister Walker and Sister Adorable. This transfer needs to stop moving so quick!

So this week I've been studying prayer and how to know when I'm receiving answers to them. Been writing down my prayers this week. Focusing on remembering what I'm praying for. Figure the more I remember, the more miracles I'll be blessed to witness. The change I didn't expect (at least not this much) is that I'm noticing blessings I haven't paid attention to before. I sure take a lot for granted. Seeing more blessings motivates be to share I have more with others. I feel like my mind is going crazy! The more I realize, the more energy I have to find. FINDING here in my area has been a struggle and has tested my faith. But I'm starting to feel like I'm finally getting over myself. All I want to do is talk anyone who will listen. It's the weirdest feeling walking down the street and looking (peripherals and all ha) for any sign of a moving living person. We found 5 new investigators this week! That's a miracle!

Well family, I love you. Hopefully you all can tell, I love my mission! Life is no breeze, but when you're working hard for something the positives can't be beat.