Hi!

I´m happy. I´ve been humbled here in Argentina. I have flaws I didn´t even know I had which is great. Now I can change them. I love the people of argentina. I love watching them understand. I´m not afraid. Sometimes I tell my comp...man if we ever came here and weren´t missionaries...whoa...I feel protected and I know that we can become powerful tools in the hands of the  Lord, when we are humble. 

We´re working hard with the family Figueroa. They are reading the book of mormon and praying but didn´t come to church this past sunday for health problems. Seems these problems happen a lot unfortunately and we´ve been praying for ways to help them give one degree more. They are a beautiful family, but it´s like their experiencing the "great awakening" here and need a push. I see them in the temple, and felt sad that they couldn´t be at church. We´re having a family night this week with another member family. That should be good. 

I love teaching what it means to me obedient. I´ve learned that being direct with our investigadors is the only way to help them truly repent. As I´ve applied the atonement in my own life I´ve seen that the presence of the spirit is much stronger during lessons. Sometimes we assume that people already know, that it´s obvious...BUT IT´S NOT. Sometimes we too, need to be reminded. 

Happy news....our family in Bragado. Cecilia and David. The miracle family I found doing an awkward contact in the street. Don´t know if I ever told you about how we found them, but you´ll all know one day. Well yep! One month after leaving Bragado they were married and baptized. All they want to do is go to the temple now. 

I´m soooo happy! It doesn´t matter that we can´t see the final results for every effort we have given, but I know that one day we will. I´m just happy to serve the Lord. 

Hope everyone is happy and well. Enjoy the summer.Be productive. Read your scriptures before anything else. 

Love you!

Hna Cleveland

Feliz Dia!!

Dear family,

 

Happy summer! I hope you´re all happy because I´m a happy missionary! We had what is called a capilla abierta (open chapel) where everyone from everywhere can come see the inside the church and stuff and there´s an organized program about Christ and what it means to me mormon. It´s a super stellar program that is happening in all south america. We had more than 20 new investigadors come and it was a special moment. I´m sure if you good america sur capilla abierta, you can find our pictures from here in Hurlingham, BA, ARG :) Try it because I can´t ha. My comp took all the pictures this night and there´s a problem with her pendrive...sad that you can´t see.

 

I know that the Lord blesses us with miracles. It was interesting how we were sitting in sacrament meeting and a man walks in, super confident and takes a seat. We had never seen this man before, but afterwards we were talking and he told us that he just felt like he needed to come to this church. That a long time ago two elderes gave him a passalong card, and he actually called and asked for them to sent the missionaries but now one ever showed up. Time later, he´s having a rough time, and decided to just come to church. It was super interesting. Also something interesting, his girlfriend of 4 years is from Utah. We´re excited to pass by their house this week. Marcelo coming to church was a miracle.

 

The young family we´re teaching, gladys and mariano are so close! They´re praying and reading the book of mormon. Mariano LOVE the capilla abierta, and was super excited to do family history work too. Mom the ward loved the book you made me. I think you´ve inspired quite a lot of people with the project. I never got to spend time in the family history booth but everyone afterwards was asking me about it. So thanks! Just praying a lot for Mariano and Glady, that they can take a leap of faith and trust more in how they feel than in everything else they´ve "heard of." When I study and teach the restoration, it just makes sense. The truth makes sense and the spirit testifies of truth. We´ve had powerful lessons with them, and it´s been a privilege to feel the spirit along with them. Lots of prayers for this family.

 

We continue on this week with a new president starting saturday. It will be a great experience and I know we will learn so much from President Robertson.

 

Sorry it´s short but at least I got to write mom and dad so that makes up for this letter not being aweomse.

 

I love how in the mission, there are moments of confusion and self pride, there are rough times that test our faith and we go through the refiner´s fire, become more humble, and start to see the miracles...then the puzzle starts to come together and we start to think "ooooh, so that´s what the Lord had in mind" I know that this is His work, and that there is no other work more important. I´m so thankful to be a missionary here in Hurlingham.

 

Love you all! How is your scripture reading? Let´s go!

 

Love,

 

Hermana Cleveland

 

pic...this is hermana medeyro from argentina, we´ve become best friends although we´ve never been companions...we were hoping but bueno....You´d all love her, she´s great!

Lice

Dear family,

Lots of stuff this week. 

Just renewed my visa today. I can´t be in the country until July 2015, then they´ll kick you out. That´s good. Another wasn´t sister wasn´t so lucky. They canceled her visa. Don´t like us americans that much...kicking us out! 

President Carter leaves the mission next saturday and we´re expecting a new President. I love President Carter, but I¨m sure President Robertson is great too.

Being a missionary in argentina during the world cup is crazy. We´re not allowed to leave the pench every time there is a game. We´re not allowed to watch it, but that really doesn´t make a difference considering all the wall-punching, kicks and screams we hear, it´s easy to tell what´s going on. 

This week we had a sad experience. We visited a recent convert/less active in our ward. I learned once again how important it is to excersize our faith and to do the little things. After he was baptized, it was easy to come to church late (he didn´t have a member friend), then he started working and it was easy to just stop going altogether, being the only member in his family, he started living the "easier" lifestyle (which is a lie, it´s a whole lot harder to do wrong than right), he stopped reading altogether and rarely prayed. His visiting teachers never visited, and the only contact he had with the church was the missionaries. Yesterday he told us that he wouldn´t be coming back.

We can´t afford to not read out scriptures everyday. Sincere daily prayers HELP us. Doing our visiting teaching is a commandment. Love your neighbor, love God with all your heart! Why would we ever stop doing these things or waste time thinking of "good excuses" for not doing what we should do? There is no good excuse. We´re studying the recent conference talks as a mission and Elder Hales talk about obedience is as direct as they come. When we are disobediente and stop serving God, we are showing that we love satan more. It´s simple. I know that the only way to show our love for our Heavenly Father is by our obedience to His commandments. Commandments that only help us be happy. 

I´m thankful to be here in Hurlingham. Every day we pray to find a married family. We´ve found two and we know the Lord has prepared more. There is nothing happier than seeing how the gospel changes a family and watching them understand what it means to be an "eternal family."

 

I love you all!

Hna Cleveland

ps. yep, the title means what it says. But it´s all good and normal.

Zona de Caseros

Ok so here´s the heads up for the week. 

This week was a learning experience. I think we saw the direct results of not planning very well and thinking the ideal side of things and not the reality. Towards the end of the week we didn{t have many lessons. A lot more time walking and a lot less time teaching. We need to magnifty our calling and find those members who can help our investigadores progress. We saw the fruits of our labors (isn´t that phrase so churchy?) on Sunday when Gladys and then Paola and her two kids came. It was a miracle! I feel like the Lord is blessing our area and us because were not content with where we are. While we made mistakes this past week, I think the Lord let us stress ourselves out a bunch and make up for all the bad planning we had done and then blessed us. It is the best feeling seeing a family at church. We need to make the extra efforts and make sure to involve the members. They are the reason why we saw people at church and why we will see them next week at church as well. I´m so excited because we´re working with families!!!!!

It is THE BEST feeling seeing peope at church, loving it, and then making friends with the ward. I see you all doing the same thing with the sister missionaries in your ward which makes you the best! Thanks for helping us out. 

Well yep! That´s this week. I love you all?

Love, Hna Cleveland

Transfers?

Dear Family, 

CAMBIOS!!! I was all ready to stay in Bragado until August but the Lord had other plans for  me. After campo campo campo, for 10 months straight, I´m going to back to where I was born. That´s right folks! The CITY. ....drastic music placed here..... Dad you called it, I didn´t see it coming. My new area is called Hurlingham and it´s the richest area in the mission. These people have money.

I feel like I´m in deja vu. In my first area, Castelar, I did everything my comp told me to do, but  maybe didn´t do it very well, maybe I didn´t understand why. Now I understand why and I´m able to do well. It´s different, but I like that. It´s definitely challenging me in ways I have almost taken for granted serving in the campo.  The ward is amazing. It was a little shocking to see so many. When bishop dropped the cane for the  many who hadn´t come to clean the chapel, for not paying a full tithe, for not giving more of themselves (he pulled it off with love) I got a little emotional. The spirit was present. I´m thankful to have two perspectives and so closely together. A bipolar moment has allowed to me to blatantly see the good from both sides.  I love Bragado, but I´m set out to make Hurlingham my favorite area now. I was looking in the carpeta and saw the name Hna Bustamonte with a full month of 5,6,10, 6 investigadors in church attendance. I read that in a week they found 15+ news and were able to have 20 other lessons, 10 w/member. I saw all this and I thought, there´s nothing stopping us from doing the same. Shows us again that it´s the missionaries who make the difference. (if this doesn´t make any sense, caseros has had a bad rep for being a tough area. Every transfer meeting when caseros pops up on the screen we here the oooooooo. I think it´s  dumb, but this doesn´t even matter cuz the zone  is changing a ton. Success!)

I´m companions with Hermana Solis (chile again!). Who´s awesome. She wants so badly to learn english, so we set goals for that. While I´d love to keep practicing my spanish, but I´ve had my time. She deserves a chance too. She´s consistent, she believes in the people, and she is very sincere. The people believe what she says, I think we just need to pick things up a bit. Lengthen and quicken the pace. We talked with everyone this week. There are few weeks in my  mission where I could say without any doubt that we did everything we could to talk to everyone. Someone always manages to slip by. Practicing my door approaches. It´s touch entering houses here. In campo everyone just sat outside. But the good news is that there is public transportation!

Right now we have one progressing investigador, Jose. He´s the first investigador I´ve had to have a Buddhist background. Really focusing on the basics and trying to understand what he´s saying. He speaks a whole other language that I´ve never touched. Maybe that´s how new investigadores feel hearing our normal church lingo. While we don´t understand him very well, his intentions are clear. Any one who rides their bike to church by themselves 2 sundays straight after finishing work at 7 am is interested. We´re praying and looking for different teaching ways to help him understand the restoration better.

What else.....o, I´m off bikes. after a year. I feel new haha, walking a little like the hulk ha. Sore. Feels good.

lunch with members EVER DAY? Where am I, Utah? 

It´s 10x colder here in the city. You get to the point where you can´t feel your feet and it´s  like your legs are two stalks hitting the pavement. 

In the Hurlingham ward we have older missionaries who´s assignments are specifically to help the ex-missionaries in the ward. Apparently it´s tough.It´s an experiment missionary calling for matrimonios.

Saying ¨see you later¨ to Daniela was a special moment. It was actually a little funny, I gifted her my Jordan sweats and my bball t-shirt anda then she went around a gifted me her argentina bball t-shirt. Her mom even gave me a basketball haha....? Like the two twins from parent trap when they show both sides of the picture of their parents. Without thinking we gave the same gifts....special!

I was alittleworried about Agustina....but I have the faith the m issionaries will take care ofher. 

Is this the longest email ever?

ok...I love you all! I´m so happy! Still learning lot. Take a moment to count your blessings. How´s your reading going? Let´s go!

Hna Cleveland

Transfers! there´s a big power point....it´s fun

MAY

Dear family,

It was a miracle to see Daniela be baptized. She is one of my most worthy converts, and it´s also a little different because I feel like my life experiences really  have helped her apply the gospel to herself. We´re similar. I never thought that small, mediocre talents would end up being a blessing on the mission. Simple things, like singing, or juggling, or playing basketball...

. I think of how long Daniela  has sought an answer, all the while living the commandments. A lot of work and faith. The day before her baptismo, we saw trials. Her basketball coach semi-kicked her off the team for not playing in her games this past sunday, her dad was furious and hasn´t supported her decision to be baptized. The two situations obviously were very stressful. I remember, she was traveling from chivilcoy to bragado and called us. I was on the phone with Daniela for nearly 30 minutes. Just talking about everything. I let her know that IT IS POSSIBLE to be a member of the church and play basketball. She laughed at that. In the end we jus tlet her know that we loved her and that   she would make the right decision. I just admire her so much. Something that was an answer to prayer, the same week as her baptism, she mentioned that her middle name is ruth...Did I already tell you this? As a family you should all go to the Index and read what it same underneath´s Ruth´s name. Reminds me a lot of Daniel´s experience. It was game-changer of an experience, and she ended up reading the book of Ruth with her mom the same night. So cool! The Lord finds small ways comfort and strengthen us. One way being the scriptures.

Well, while Daniela´s baptism was the highlight of highlights, gotta dim the lights a little bit and say that we only saw oscar this past sunday...all those who committed to come to church didn´t come....and there wasn´t rain or bad weather or anything! It was a sad surprise. A lot of work on our part this weak to help them recognized that they didn´t keep their committments. We´re working on finding and increasing our teaching pool. It´s possible and it´s what the Lord wants, now we just need to do our part. Praying for families who´re married. We´re going!

Well, that´s the news...

I love you all! 

Love, Hna Cleveland

Oscar, Abel, Daniel´s mom, Daniela, yo, hna morales

HappyDayAf​terMother´​sDay

What a great mother´s day!

Some great and not-so-great experiences this week. (but for the most part really GREAT) 

Emilse didn´t come to church :( It´s sad to think that people use the rain as an excuse. We need to teach well enough and really prepare out investigadors so they can understand and develop the will power to keep their committments no matter what.

We really prepared ourselves for divisiones this week. Because we put a lot of thought and prayer into what we were hoping to teach and also accomplish in our area, the Lord blessed us. We found people who not only want to listen, but have the disposition to do their part. We were happy to finish the week with 9 people with baptismal dates. We´re just working on helping them all progress. I feel like I was bolder in these divisions than I have been. Really correcting and teaching someone is loving them. I was direct with my comp, hna redford, I was direct with the people. If they don´t know we´re here to baptize and invite them to follow Christ, it´s not very fair for them, or for the people who are prepared and waiting for us to find them. Saves us and everyone a lot of time when we´re just bold (+loving!) from the start.

This past week we also had an Hermana´s conference. All of the sisters from campo (there are about 20 of us) traveled in a overnight bus to Buenos Aires and there we stayed with the Family Ashton (another matrimonio) who cooked us breakfast. They´re really sweet. Sister Morales and I were able to give a short talk/activity about our focus as missionaries for all the sisters. A topic that gives way for laughter, but is also serious and personal for each person. It really was a success. I was surprised how well it went and how different it was than what we had planned. Shows us that the spirit is the greatest teacher there is, and will let us know what we need to say for the Lord´s work to progress. I mentioned my first companion Hna Salas, she really helped me see what my mission could be. She was a perfect example of someone completely focused on the work. My first transfer here in argentina is actually very personal and sacred to me. I don´t share it in every ocasion. There were a lot of¨"happy tears" as grandma would say. Even president cried!  I´m excited for you all to just know everything.

Well, talking to everyone was so fun! I really liked the sharing part. Felt like I was able to get a feel for how everyone is doing. Usually we´re completely rushed for time, but this time I felt calm. Maybe it was because were were focused on the more important things. I hope everyone remembers their committments. I know that it´s not easy, but it´s worth it. Mom, maybe consider making reading charts for everyone. I forgot to tell you this, but I couldn´t believe it when Anna told me there´s a reward for every chapter in the BoM! Maybe the reward should be less material and more like "time" rewards. Friend time, TV time, shopping...you get it. While it´s strict, it might´ve helped me prioritize and develop the habit of reading everyday from the start. Reading the scriptures really is the most important part of our day. Of course what really helps us is the example that you and dad give. It´s just a thought! I´m not a pro mom like you.

Well I love you all!

love,

Hermana Cleveland

PICs

1. Hermana Edwards....she´s cousing with the edward family. Reminds me of Laurana a bit. It was fun to chat at the sisters conference this past week.

2. the bible bar?