Feliz Noche De Brujas!

Hola people back at home who actually celebrate Halloween!

I can´t believe it´s been a week already, and it's Halloween again.  Raro... but, that´s time...

 Things here are going great. Love my comp. She´s awesome. Today for p-day we carved squash because I wanted something Halloween. I had bought a Happy Halloween sign in Chango Mas, when I was in Formosa, but that was about it. So, the past week I have been making trick or treat bags for my district. 

We only have three sets of missionaries, and all of us are from the States except my comp. But she was more then happy to celebrate with me.  The patriarch of our Ward (who might I add, gave me a lecture about how Halloween is not a holiday here, so why would we celebrate it) bought us some candy and treats for Halloween. :) lol, he´s a softy at heart.

Hermana Arcos and I with the candy patriarch gave us.

The weather here so far has not gotten extremely hot - I´m super grateful for that... but I´m terrified for what people call HOT here. The days I think I´m going to die, they keep telling me "it´s nothing"... OH GREAT!!! Lot´s of rain... not a lot of mud, love that.

Resistencia has a WALMART! Superstoked about it, but it´s across the street from our area and we haven´t been able to leave our area for two weeks. So.... I wait patiently.

This Saturday is Mission Conference.  It doesn´t happen often, (almost never) but all of the missionaries in the mission are coming to Resistencia for a special conference given by Elder Christoffersen. We are expecting ten Hermanas in our apartment, not including us. And we have to be in the Chapel at 8:30 I think. So, 12 girls, one bathroom, one shower, and 2 hours to get ready... I´ll let you know how it goes... Wish me luck!

Oh... The language. What language? I feel like I´m not progressing, I don´t know what it is... but I´m trying super hard to be patient, and learn as much as I can. With that... and the Lord... I´ll get the language. Just with time. I can read it better then I can understand it. No sé, I´m hoping for a miracle. :) lol

I want pictures of the pumpkins, and the awesome makeup. If you go to the family party, tell everyone hi for me. (and dad, tell all the trick or treaters of the ward hi for me too. :) This is weird for me... I know it´s Halloween, but it doesn´t even feel close to Halloween. There is NOTHING HERE about Halloween, I was lucky to find the Happy Halloween sign in Chango Mas. Well, anyway. Have fun tonight, whatever you are doing, and PLEASE, be smart. S-M-A-R-T, if it doesn´t feel right, It´s most likely the spirit telling you that you probably shouldn´t do it.

Love you so much, Trust in the Lord, Be smart, be safe.

Feliz Noche De Brujas!!! (Night of Witch)

Hermana Erin Griffeth

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HEAVEN!!! :)

lol Chiste..

Hola Familia!


Transfers happened quick... and now they are over. I´m in the Lovely City of Resistencia, Argentina. I know! I´m super excited about it. ´My companion's name is Hermana Arcos. She´s 23 and from Buenos Aires North. She´s learning English. She doesn´t speak it very much... But can understand a lot. We are learning from each other. Also, she´s had 2 more transfers then me.

The view from my apartment... which by the was is Huge! I have my own room to change in... it´s weird

Left to right... Hermana Arcos y me. Hermana Papenfuss (She´s headed to El Dorado, the place with the Awesome water falls... and is the new companion of Hermana Lao) and Hermana Hall... she´s from Highland and headed home last thursday. she was the companion of Hermana Arcos.

          
                                           Hermanas de parque. Hermana Quezada y Rojas


Our area is much smaller then mine in Formosa. It was super big, but they split it this week into two areas and put some Elders in that area. SO... Once again, I´m with Elder Garrett. He´s been in my District (so far) for my entire mission. lol :) I think it´s funny. What I don´t like about it though... I have a constant reminder of how much I haven´t learned. Also, my District Leader has one more transfer then I do, and his companion came with me to Argentina. Entonces. We are a young district.

                                                      My district... before transfers
There are a lot more contacts here then there are in Formosa, so I´m learning how to knock on doors (clap at doors) and talk to people. It´s kind of fun, and kind of hard. Most of the people say that they are Catholic, to which we reply "we share our message with everybody". We get a lot of finger wavers from the door. And yesterday we received a "I´m not your Hermana!" lol :) It was pretty funny, but, what can you do?


Not much more to report. Today has been fun - we played ping pong, and had Tacos! They were awesome, and tasted just like home - with homemade tortillas. Fantastic. Just what I needed to start a new area.


I love you all and I pray for you guys everyday. Keep up the amazing work. Trust in the Lord. I´m reminded everyday how much he has blessed me. The more I´m here, the more I´m grateful for a family centered in the gospel of Christ, for Temples close by. And for a washer and dryer. :D


Love you all,


Hermana Erin Kaye Griffeth


Keep the Faith

One... week... later...

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I loved them! I even got a letter from kyle.. I hope I don´t have to wait another 2 1/2 months for his next one. Blaine however is climbing up there. I received your video (no sound), but it was received and I´m so greatful! Thank you! I watched it 3 times. :D And I can imagine the chipmunk voices singing Happy Birthday. For my birthday Hermana´s de Parque came over and we had a lunch. They gave me a jewelry box and a pen with a blue heart on top. Lol, it was awesome. I also got a video of them singing happy birthday in English.  Two are from Chile and the other from Uruguay... lol you can imagine. I wish I could send it, but this email won't let me send more then a certain amount. Which is why I was a little surprised to receive the video. I bought a cake for myself. (only the cake -no frosting -no nothing. Hermana Medero thought it was crazy that I didn´t want anything on the cake, but it was fantastic. Got it from chango mas (walmart here is under a different name). And I took a picture with you guys (un photo) and Hermana Medero. Later on in the week, familia Zalazar bought me a cake and I got a picture with all of them, SMILING! People here don't smile all that much in photos, - I don´t know why, they look better with smiles.
Familia!

It was an awesome cake. It had dulce de leche and that flaky pastry in the middle. Awesome! I have yet to receive your package, but today is our district meeting, where we receive letters and packages. I´m hoping today.
We have transfers coming up on the 19th.  I´m panicking because my companion has been here 5 months, and my two transfers with her are almost up. So I think either she or I transfer... I´m praying not, but the Lord knows where he wants us. If she goes, I have a whole lot of responsibility to train my new companion, and I don´t think I´m ready. I still can´t understand most of what people say, and as for talking the language, forget about it! No sé... all I can do is say," El Señor sabe" and have as much faith as possible.
Guess what!?! My rain boots... no más. They ripped in 3 different spots.. I tried to fix them with duct tape, but water kept getting underneath. Needless to say, I´m buying new ones soon. I´m super sad about it, because everyone loved them.

We had a baptism last Saturday, Ayelen (Ashelen)- she´s 9. It was amazing. Silvia still hasn´t been confirmed and it´s been four Sundays. We had the zone leaders ask President if she needs to be baptized again, we find out today.
They don´t celebrate Halloween here. They have a name for it, Noche de brujas (Night of witches), but apparently they don´t do much. raro.. I told them that it is huge in my country. Chango mas had a Happy Holloween sign, so I bought it, that is about all they had for Halloween. It´s weird to me. Entonces...
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, he knows what he is doing. I love you all.
Erin
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Happy Birthday to Erin!

From October 3, 2011

Click on the picture and sing with us, everyone!

The Perfect Combination

Oh what an awesome week. I can´t tell you how much I loved Conference this weekend, and boy did I need it! Not only for the messages, but to be able to understand people for the first time in four months! lol. I listened to every word... and I can´t tell you how much I missed american sarcasm. lol. I loved all the talks. I always love listening to the speakers. President Monson´s talk about the temples... man you should have heard us. When he anounced that the Provo Tabernacle was going to become a temple... shocked! Just saying.. I suspect it´s not going to be a big temple, because there isn´t that much room on the property, but I´m so excited for it none-the-less. And, when he anounced all the awesome places and then, Star Valley, Wyoming, we all laughed- but there was silence from all of the other people, because they didn´t know where
Wyoming was. It was pretty funny. I´m super stoked about all the Temples. And I can´t wait to finally attend one again after my mission. We have a Temple about two hours from here, in Asuncion Paraguay, but we are not able to visit it, unfortunately. So, the next time I go to the Temple will be in the states. I loved all the bajar la caña talks. lol :) Those were pretty funny. All around, an awesome Conference.

Found out this week that we have seven people that need to be married in order for them to be baptized. One, we are waiting for the papers and the rest don´t want to be married, so unfortunately, we have to drop them... it stinks, but we are hoping that they figure out sometime soon how important it is to be sealed as a family.

It got HOT this week... So Hot. I can´t even tell you how much I sweat. I have to keep a handkerchief in my hand all day. It cooled down a little bit because we had another rain storm, but it´s becoming hot again.

My birthday so far has consisted of Hermana Medero singing happy birthday to me in broken English and kind of on tune. :) but that´s about it. I´ll send pictures next week. The Hermana´s de paque are coming over to our apartment to have lunch for my birthday. But another day on the mission. Nothing too exciting. I´ll try to do something fun, but our p-day normally consist of email, store, clean the appartment, clean our clothes (which takes a long time.. ask Kim), and sleep (if we are lucky). So, I´m hoping for sleep as my birthday present, since we won´t receive a p-day next week because it´s a holiday. You´ll receive an email from me on Tuesday, which gives all of you one extra day (*cough* *cough* Kyle, Blaine).

I love you all with all of my heart. I´m understanding more of the language, but still missing the important parts. I´m hoping to follow the words of the Prophets and open my mouth more. We´ll see how that goes. Trust the lord with all your heart. Mom, Dad, be safe in Washington and don´t electrocute yourself. :D Good luck!

Erin

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