Good Bye Photos

On the left is my convert Edwardo and on the right my convert Martin and the boy will soon be baptized his name is Gabriel were working with his dad first.

This is the photo of my amazing ward they helped me so much I am so glad I had 6 months with them

This is Ana she is a member and she is the bomb I love her. And I want her to come live in the states with me. She want to serve a mission but she is only 18. I don't think she is going to make it on a mission some man is going to come and snatch her away she is awesome.
On the left is my x mission leader he was always so patient with me from the first week I got here. He served a mission in Bolivia and is genius in the gospel. Next is our investigator Luis he will be baptized soon he knows the gospel is true its just a matter of time. Next is Oracio he is a bomb member he always helps us with our lessons. Then in the middle is my convert Ariel he was the one that was on drugs hardcore but he is clean now and he has a million friends in the church. Then we have Ana another awesome member. And then me and then Jose our new mission leader. He put together all of our baptisms and loved every second of it.
This is a picture of me and my investigator he is getting baptized on Saturday but I won't be there cause I am here. But it's ok i have a baptism here as well. If any of you are wondering yes that is his hand around my waist. Talk about awkward! haha!! my comp made fun of me forever for that one.
My dream one day is to own a motorcycle they have them everywhere here. So we took a picture of this dream :). To the left Ids Fabian he is in the bishopric and the young men president he is the bomb. On the right is Patchy we eat lunch with him and his family every Sunday he very funny and his family knows how to play the guitar.
Me and my companion Hermana Castillo our last full day together she is the bomb she really is.
This is the family we eat with every Sunday. My last day we just sang and played the guitar for hours it was bomb. One day I will come back and visit them. The grandma the one I am sitting next to said when I get off my mission I can come back and marry any one of her grandsons. haha :) she was always so funny about that!
This is one of my converts family's the dog that the little boy is holding is named Shayla for my middle name. They are a darling family and the gospel has changed there life so much.

Fils Vera what can I say Hermano Vera is blind but he is the happiest person I know. And Hermana Vera I think would make a really good Gertrude Mcfuzz she loves to wear purple.

Transfer Changes

Kara was recently transferred to a new area. She spent the first six months of her mission in the same area so it will be a good change for her.
Here is what she had to say: Now I have a new comp and I'm in San Pedro. She is a Latin and her name is Hermana Gaitan. And she doesn't speak english. I'm learning a lot of Spanish because I live with all Latins now. It has only been one day and my brain is so so tired. But I learned a lot of new words. My pension (house) is huge. We have a baptism on Saturday so that is exciting. We live in the middle of nowhere. But my old comp use to live in my pension and her members always came and visted her. So I know the members of the other branch but we will see about mine. It's going to be fun I know it :)

Last Pictures Before Transfer

Its me and my companion buying stuff at chango mas (there so called Walmart) to make gorilla turds (no bake cookies)


These are our shutters. It was really windy one day and I wasn't paying attention cause I was so into my studies but our shutters were blowing back and forth. And then all the sudden I heard this big loud bang they had fallen off the hinges and fell two stories. They shattered into pieces and we decided it would be fun to put it back together even though we have no idea how. We fixed two of them and can't figure out the third and have yet to hang them up even though they feel 2 weeks ago haha the life of a missionary.
So my zone leaders call me a penguin cause one day we were eating ice cream on p-day and they kept saying paloma. I thought they were calling me one so I turned to my comp and said what is a paloma cause they keep calling me one. For all you that don't know its a penguin or a dove now they call me a penguin. And on Thursday I received bird food from them they so funny! So we made bird feeders and hung them outside our house it was way fun.
Our washer broke we thought there was a gas leak cause it smelt so bad but it was just our washer. We didn't have money to buy a new one so are zone leaders did. And one day they will get reimbursed.
Edwardo got baptized about two weeks ago he is the son of Carmen my first convert and the brother of another convert martin. I was so happy for him his dad died and he said that in a dream his dad came to him and told him to be baptized so he was. He is 12 years old and he calls me fat all the time and says I should go running he is really funny, like I would ever run!

Karina got baptized on Saturday she is the mother of Anahi she got baptized a month ago but Karina has had a tough life and her husband cheats on her with lots of other women but she has found happiness and wants to start a new life with her kids. I'm so happy for her :)

Ana is a member I love her so much she comes to all our activities!!

Baptisms

Martin was baptized he is the son of my first baptism Carmen. And this weekend his little brother is getting baptized. He is amazing it was hard for him to decide to be baptized he knew it was true but he was scared. So we all got on our knees and prayed. His mom prayed first and then him. His mom Carmen begged the lord to give Martin the answer to be baptized. We all cried and then he prayed about it. It was amazing but he still wasn't sure. That night he prayed by himself the next day we came over and had a whole lesson planned for it. We did the lesson then he told us yes about the baptism. He said he received an answer the night before. I know the Lord does answer our prayers and its amazing.
Oh Ruben what can I say about Ruben? I taught him once 2 months ago. He is the boyfriend of one of our members. He wanted to get baptised here so his girlfriend and family could be there. We talked to the Hermanas in Buenos Arias where he livesd about what has been taught so we could baptise him. Turns out the Hermanas didn't want him to be baptised here and didnt give him permission even though he wanted it here. To bad that we dont need there permission! Our zone leaders said yes he could be baptized because he had all the lessons and this is what he wanted. He came in from Buenos Arias at 7 and got baptised at 7:30 it was amazing he was so so happy!!

More Pictures to share

Kara's photos of fun
Kara says she loved conference and that she had two baptisms over the weekend. She also sent a lot of photos to share so enjoy. The captions below each photo are by Kara.

The week before Anahi's baptism we went to her house for her birthday party she just turned ten.
haha and on a side note this is my sunburn from two weeks ago . It is Herman Rider on the left, me in the middle and my companion on the right. Can you say ouch? haha but now I just have a huge farmer's tan.
This how I study in the morning. It's my thinking cap! haha are you surprised you all knew I was weird
This is my awesome zone. I'm going to miss them! Most of them left this transfer but I still have my comp so I'm good.
Me and my companion Hermana Castillo at conference at my church. We found a cord yeah so we got to watch it in English.
This was Anahi's baptism in between the conference session on Saturday. I love this family we should be baptizing her mom and her brother next week they are in this photo as well
my companion Anahi and myself
This is Ariel he has been my investigator for as long as I have been and longer. He loved drugs and alcohol nobody had hope for him. But when Herman Castillo came we talked and we decided on some goals for him. He use to smoke 20 cigarettes a day and drink every weekend he also loved coca its like cocaine. But we told him we believed in him and we knew he could do it! We met with him about 5 times a week and now he is clean, sober and baptized. He was baptized on Saturday and I don't think I will ever forget that amazing day!
This is Ariel with some awesome members of our ward that helped him out so much. Our x-mission leader Rodrigo is standing next to me he got released a week ago. He helped with everything especially Ariel. He went to Bolivia on his mission and got back a week before I got here I'm going to miss him being our mission leader. But Jose the one standing next to my companion is are new mission leader and he works so hard and is amazing as well.
This is Hermana Rider and me she just went home to SLC today and I'm going to miss her so much! I lived with her for 3 months she is amazing.
This was from today we walked around central and looked things. Everyone was doing transfers so we had nothing else to do. This is a picture in the grounds of one of the Catholic churches we went to. They have a million statues inside I'm really confused how they can all be the same religion but worship different statues. It just doesn't seem correct to me haha I guess its not suppose to!

P-day FUN

Today we went on a bunch of tri's. We went to 3 different places it was so much fun! Tucara, Paramerica, and Urmawaca. I don't know if they are spelled right but at one I climed into this cliff like cave thing that was made out of sand rock it was so much fun. The 2nd place we saw the indian ruins again. And the third we climed this big set of stairs like rocky haha and bought a really cool chest set with bomb chest pieices.

Kara's First Baptism

Hermana Morris and Hermana Castillo with Carmen Castillo who is 60+ years old
Carmen's story is amazing Heavenly Father really wanted her baptized.

After her interview with are district leader to be baptized she was praying asking if she should really be baptized because she had already been baptized. And she got a strong prompting to read a chapter in the scriptures. She said it hit her like a ton of bricks! She was suppose to be baptized in this church because we have the power!

The day of the baptism she had to work late because the person to cover her shift didn't show up and the next person didn't show either. It was about 4:30 and she was thinking maybe this was a sign that she wasn't suppose to baptized. But then she decided it was Satan and she really needed to go get baptized! So someone finally showed up she ran home picked up her family and came to her baptism. She was an hour late but she was baptized and she has the strongest testimony now. I love her and I love the lord for converting her!!!

Kara also reports that Carmen's son is also one of there investigators and will be getting baptized on the 2nd.

Kara's Letter from 9/13/10

Kara said that Elder Faust from the Presidency of the 70 came and spoke to her mission. Above is the picture of the whole group after. Kara is standing next to her new companion Hermana Castillo.

Kara also reported that she had 9 investigators show up on their own on church this past Sunday. That is pretty impressive!

Kara also says: "I baptized Carmen Castillo it was my first baptism and the spirit was insane. We should be baptizing her son in 2 weeks if all goes well. But my mission is the bomb and we work our butts off everyday and my Spanish is getting better."

Kara also says she has learned to do a rubrics cube all by herself. I asked Kara what is some things she likes about Argentina. She said she enjoys Sunday lunches when the brothers in her ward get together and pull out there guitars and play folk music in Spanish. She also enjoys seeing horses randomly walking down the street. She said they are very pretty and it makes her want to get on one and ride it.

Kara's Letter from 9/6/10

Kara wrote this week to say she is very excited. She has her first baptism this weekend to Carmen. She says that she and her companion have the best numbers in the district but she puts the credit to loving the people! And also that the members and investigators they already have are finding them new investigators. And that the investigators are coming to church on there own without a member with them.

Kara says that the sun has finally come out while she was playing soccer and that she is no longer white but RED. Gotta love those sunburns.

Kara says they were able to find a new family through a referal. She says the family doesn't talk to each other and the dad goes and gets drunk all the time. The mom wanted help with her 13 year old son he seems to be sad all the time. Kara explained that they can help but that the family needs to unite. So the mom, son, and daughter are all coming to church together. They love it so much and the mom is going to divorce the dad. The dad has 4 other families beside this one and keeps bringing this family down. Kara explained the family proclamation to them and how the 3 of them can have unity and love each other.

Kara also says they found another family last week. They said they couldn't go to church because they had to go to there other church. But Kara and her companion went and visited them everyday during the week. I guess it payed off because they surprised Kara and her companion and showed up to church on Sunday. And they loved it. They talked about FHE and how they need to have one and since Kara was teaching them about unity as a family it fit perfectly.

Kara says God is blessing her everyday on her mission. She says she understands Spanish a lot better now but that her companion Hermana Castillo had to kick her the first few days because she was not use to talking so much. But now she loves it and all the members think she is funny because she speaks so bad. And that she laughs at herself a lot but that the members are helping her to learn Spanish better.

She says she is teaching some members English. She says one family wants to learn English and the piano. So in trade for English lessons from Kara and piano lessons from Hermana Castillo they are teaching them guitar, Spanish, and a rubrics cube!

Kara says she loves her mission and does not want to be anywhere else in the world right now!

It is great to hear that she is doing so well :)

Kara's Letter from 8/23/10

I got a new companion today she is from Illinois! I love her to death! It's weird to be able to have an opinion about things. She asked me what I like to do on my p-day I didn't know because my old companion just planned everything for us my say didn't matter to her. My companions name is Hermana Castillo she looks like a native speaker but she isn't. She is 9 months into her mission now. And she loves to play football so we will get a long great!!

This week was really good I did a split with a Hermana in a different area and she came to my area. Her name was Hermana Compos she doesn't know any English but we had an amazing day! And I realized that I knew a lot more Spanish then I thought, I just lacked confidence in it. She had 4 splits that week and she said I was her favorite because we were both learning so much and trying so hard it was amazing.

My new companion said the key to baptisms is to love the people. She said were going to have a ton of baptisms. All we need is love and she is full of love. I love it! The president of Argentina is in town and were going to see if we can pass by and take a pic with her!!

I taught the plan of salvation this week to some families it was amazing to see there change and see how much they loved the idea. I'm finally happy on my mission and its a really cool feeling. I can understand almost everything in Spanish about 90%. And I don't have to translate anymore the words make sense in Spanish. I love it.

Oh and we live on the 2nd floor of our house and we have an extra mattress. So on p-day we slide down the stairs. It is a blast we just came up with last week.

Love,

Hermana Morris

Kara's Letter from 8/16/10

This week has been amazing and this transfer too. I have an investigator named Carmen she has been an investigator for 9 months and couldn't be baptized because she wasn't married to her husband but he died last month. Our goal is to baptize her children with her. So we're teaching one son and two grandchildren because they are the only ones that will listen. The spirit is so strong when we teach them about where their dad is now.

When my companion realized that everyone who didn't have a chance here to learn the gospel will get to learn about it in the spirit world she was like "what am I on a mission for if they will all learn it latter." I tried to explain it to her but she didn't get it and then she just let it go. Oh my companion I love her.

We have been teaching Mayra for 3 weeks now she is 17. She loves and embraces everything that we teach her it is super awesome. She came to church on Sunday for the first time and loved it so much. She is so amazing. I can't wait to baptize her she is amazing!!

We have a a women named Fabianna she is 23. She lives in a cinder block house and one side doesn't have a wall. She has a 2 year old little girl. When we were teaching her that God loves her she said "if God loves me then why do I have to live here with my daughter?" We told her that we all have our challenges are for a reason. A couple of lessons later she prayed and in the prayer she thanked Heavenly Father that she has food to feed her daughter. Even with how bad off she was she was still grateful. And it has been freezing here so no wall is a big deal. IF someone with no wall can be grateful and still enjoy life then we can to. It makes me look at things differently. My trials are not that bad there is always someone worse off!

Hermana Morris

Hermana Conference

Kara was able to attend a Hermana conference and meet all the sisters in her mission. She said she had a great time. She also says the Spanish is coming along better since she is speaking it more. She also reports that her mission is the hardest thing she has ever done! But that she loves Argentina.

Also this last week she says she played soccer for 4 hours on her p-day. So now she is sunburnt and tired but she loved it. Also she says she tried Argentina stake for the first time and loved it. And that she is learning to cook a lot of food.

She also says that there investigator Jorge has set a baptism date for September. She says they had been teaching him for a while (2 months) and finally had a softened heart after hearing someone bear their testimony to him.

This taught me a lesson that I need to share my testimony more often with others. It is good to hear that Kara is doing so well :)

Picture FUN

So Kara must have had extra time this week and sent me a few photos to share with you. I hope you enjoy them since it took a while to get them in the right format to post. The captions below the photos are what Kara wrote about each photo. So Enjoy!When Argentina was playing in the world cup for soccer there was no one on the streets. It was dead and when we clapped at peoples houses they would either get mad or not answer. Argentina lost and a lot of people cried it was really funny they just looked at me and say "you don´t understand how I feel." I said you are very right I don't! Then they would say "well the US lost last week." I would just laugh and say "yo se esta bien (I know all is well)." Oh man I love Argentina :)
I believe this is my 2nd day in the mission I saw this really cool looking plant and wanted a pic those were very hard days I had to get use to walking everywhere everyday and the area is huge but I love it so much now!!!!This is my trip to the Indian ruins it was so much fun. I bought a bag while I was there. The Indians live in these really small mud houses. I learned that the reason missionaries don´t live in mud houses here is because there is a certain beetle that lives in them and if he bites you will have heart problems the rest of your life. Crazy! But our whole zone went it was so much fun. Look I was even taller then the door hahaha
At the Indian ruins they had these cactus's. It's crazy how big they are there were tons. And when we were standing on a ledge one of the Elders shoved one of the dogs and he almost fell off into a field of cactus. I hate dogs but that would have been so so sad to watch!
One of our investigators was telling us she couldn't go to church cause she had to walk behind Mary. I was so confused because there are status every where of Mary but they are in the ground. So how do you walk behind her?? Then I heard music playing this Sunday and realized they walk all around town holding this statue of Mary and playing music. It's super weird but they do it every Sunday. HA HA and they think we have a weird religion!
I don't even know where to start! It was really cold and i put my pants on the mini heater and walked away. I came back in and there was smoke everywhere. I melted my pants and the heater. Our only heater! But it still works it didn't really heat anything up in the first place. That same week while I was at church I was sitting up against a heater and my skirt got burnt. It was so sad I loved that skirt now it looks like a pee stain yuck!!!

This is Hermana Vilma and I eating these buñuelos. They only make them in Jujuy. And they are amazing!! Hermana Vilma is the Relief society president in our ward. Some inactive members came and made them for an activity and they are divine!!

I don't have any baptisms yet but its a work in progress. I made a goal this week to only speak Spanish this is my 3rd day and it is so so hard! But I'm learning so much faster!! The only investigator that is going to church every week is Ariel. And Ariel won't stop doing drugs. We made a potential baptism date for him on the 3rd of October but he needs to stop doing drugs.

We have another investigator named Carmen she has wanted to be baptized for a long time but she wasn't married to her husband. And he has not divorced his first wife. We tried to teach him and have him do the paper work to marry Carmen but he wouldn't. He died about 3 weeks ago. So we were reviewing the discussing for baptism with Carmen and come to find out she doesn't remember any of the lessons. So were re-teaching everything and she is praying to know if she should be baptized. Oh I love Carmen!

Anyways I got to go I love you all. I promise I'm doing my best. Out!! :)