Sister Chloe Walker Buenos Aires West Mission: 9 de Julio--the Boulder City of Argentina!

Hello all!

This has been one awesome week! First, we had transfers, which were a madhouse because almost everyone in the whole mission got new companions. I was lucky enough after only one month in Argentina to get a new companion and a new area. You know me, I just love change!!

I am in Chivicloy Sur Zone working in the 9 de Julio Rama. We only have about 20 people in the branch who come to church, but it is amazing. I love this place after less than one week. I have also decided that 9 de Julio is a little slice of heaven. But seriously, it is so beautiful here. I have been sent to the closest thing to Boulder City, Nevada, in Argentina possible. I already love the people, the area, and the rama so much! The branch is great--soooo missionary minded, basically because they have to be. They need more members. They need more priesthood. The sisters had a baptism the Saturday before I got here, and the branch president made sure the man got the priesthood yesterday, and he will have a calling next week. Then, the elders working in the branch had a baptism on Saturday of a super cute lady. A less active member of the ward came to the baptism, and after the baptism, the branch president called him into his office and gave him a calling. Nothing like calling someone to be in the Young Men’s presidency to get them to come to church the next day. hahahahahaha.

My new companion Hermana Sanchez is also amazing; she is beautiful and kind and hard working. She is from Santiago, Chile. Grandma Sue, I also love the Chilean people--everything but the accent! I couldn’t understand a word she said the first few days! Hermana Sanchez has been in this area her whole mission, and she has been out for 5 months! So I have a lot to learn from her because the odds are I will be here for about two transfers with her, and then one or two with someone else. We are able to teach and work with so much unity after only one week. I know it is hard for a Latina to get a North American companion, and Hermana Sanchez even told me she thought she would be doing all the work. So, my goal this week was to share the responsibility. Deciding where to go and talking to members to come to lessons were things we did together. The only place were the language is a problem is in lessons, but as we prepare well during studies that will get better, too.

On Thursday we got to go to the Hermanas meeting! Wow, that Hermanas meeting! What a treat! It totally raised my vision to what is possible here. Lots of work to be done in the next 9 months. I am so grateful for President Carter and Hermana Carter for all of their hard work to make the meeting so awesome. When I read talks from the apostles they all say that we need to step it up on missionary work. The church, members, and missionary work are going places they have never gone before with a force of Sister Missionaries like never before!

I have learned a lot from Hermana Sanchez about working hard and not stressing. We found some great families this week. One day when we had no where to go we said a prayer in the street. As we were walking our bikes along the dirt road I looked down one of the streets and saw a woman sitting on the wall of a house. We continued walking down our street. After a couple of minutes, I asked Hermana Sanchez if we could go back but couldn’t really explain why in Spanish. When we got to the street the woman was gone, but we clapped the house she was sitting in front of anyways. When a guy came to the door Hermana Sanchez said that she knew him. They had contacted him in the street but hadn’t talked since. It turns out one of his good friends is a member of our Branch, and now his whole family is listening to us and he and his mom have accepted baptismal dates. And then yesterday we had a cute old couple come to church together and accept baptismal dates for this month. It was great especially after how in the first lesson they tried to convince us of how Catholic there are and how they never want to change.

We have set a goal to find three more families this week. And have also set a goal to invite everyone to accept a baptismal date in the first lesson. For some reason it hasn’t been happening until the second lesson so we are going to change that! I love my area so much, and I know that President Carter is inspired, because only a man of revelation would send me to the countryside, hours away from the mission office. I mean let’s face it, I wasn’t exactly the picture of emotional stability this first month in Argentina :) I was scared last week when I found out how far away I was going, but I just had to have faith that President Carter and the Lord want me to succeed. And now I couldn't imagine a better place and companion for me.

Also cute story, we were teaching a family with two little girls 5 and 6. When we started teaching the restoration we showed them a picture of Jesus and asked who he was. Turns out they didn’t know who he was so we talked about him a little. They just listened quietly. We finished by telling them that the bad people didn’t want to do the right thing, and they killed Jesus by hanging him on a cross. Then after about 5 seconds of silence, the cute little 5 year old looked so sad and said, “Pobre Jesus”-wisdom from the mouth of babes, my friends. The 5 year old also asked us if we could come to her preschool class to teach her friends about Jesus, too. So cute! I almost died at this point. I love these little girls! They are so excited for us to come back and teach them more about Jesus. They also we so happy when we told them that they could keep the pamphlet with the pictures of Jesus.

This week is my one year mark with my mission call. It is hard to believe that it has been a year, but then I look at pictures of myself from a year ago, and wow it is obvious that I am on a mission. haha. The month of November has always been one of my favorites and this one is turning out to be no different. It is going to be so fun! I am going to learn so much Spanish! And I am going to talk to my family in a month and a half!

Marc and Nick look so cute playing soccer! I haven't replied to many people lately, but thanks Nick for the funny Zoolander quotes. Thanks Marcus for...the email that you are going to send me this week that I promise to write back to. Thanks everyone for all the emails and letters. I will try to be better at writing back. Thanks dad for the pictures!

Love you,
Hermana Chloe
xoxoxo

ps. I was really weird, but the first day I was showing Hermana Sanchez pictures, and she said, “We must have friends in common on facebook, because I have seen this exact picture before!” It was one of Bryce and I.