April 6 Letter

Dear Family,
Now I realize the subject of this e-mail may cause some confusion. Some of you may be asking yourselves, "why would a missionary of the LDS church put that as a subject for an e-mail? Allow me to calm your spirits... Yesterday, my companion and I were walking down the street to an appointment. There was a man walking in front of us about 15 feet. He turned to walk up the sidewalk of a house, knocked on the door, turned to face us and said, "Madonna and Britney Spears!" My companion and I, needless to say, were very confused and trying really really hard to control our laughter. Haha oh my word this country's so weird! I love it! WOOHOO CURTIS AND KATIE ARE MARRIED! That's wonderful! Mom, thanks for telling them congrats for me! I was way confused when they were going to get married because Dad told me they were going to in March, but never told me the date. Tell him congrats for me one more time and that I've been thinking about him all day. Caleb, Hallie and I are the only ones left out of our little group...wait...Aaron and Casey still have to get married too, right? Umm...moving on... I realized I forgot to wish Trevor a happy birthday! Happy Birthday Trevor on the 2nd of April! I know you don't like birthdays but as the Argentines say, Tomatela! or deal with it! I hope you had an awesome day! =) So conference was pretty much amazing! I didn't want it to be over! I took much comfort in knowing that you all were watching conference at the exact same time I was! I thought, oh my gosh, everyone I love, all my friends and family (or most), for once are listening to the same things I'm listening to at the same time! WOOHOO!! I was thinking when that one apostle (I can't remember which one, I think it was Elder Andersen) said that Pres. Monson's love is like the sun at midday and I was just thinking...oh my gosh have you ever been to Argentina? If it's like this sun, I don't want the love! No, just kidding, but holy cow it really is so stinkin bright and sooooo hot! Hey, why didn't I see Jim??? I was looking for him all over the place in the choir and couldn't find him! What happened? I hope he's okay! Our chapel in Centro is the stake center. Conference was satelite broadcast there and they had it in both English and Spanish. My companion and I watched all four sessions in English. We didn't have a need to sit in on the spanish sessions because nobody brought anyone to conference from our ward and all the people we invited who are investigators and said they would come didn't come. Needless to say, I was a little bit discouraged. I really tried not to be. Discouragement doesn't allow the spirit and we went out to work after the second session last night. We're now only four hours ahead of Arizona, just so you know. This last week was really great! We had our p-day Monday, of course, then we had a zone conference in Cordoba on Tuesday. Monday, durng p-day, we all made different things from our countries. Hermana Yañez made calzones rotos (SOOOO GOOD), Hermana Santos made torta de manzana, and Hermana Gonzalez made sopa paraguaya which isn't a sopa at all, it's like corn bread with onions. It was all so good and I made cheesecake with a lemon bars crust. It was pretty late though, when we ate it before going to bed and then at the mission conference the next day, we ate lesagna, bananas, and alfajors. Needless to say...all this was a little bit much for my American stomach. Especially eating so much so late at night. Throughout the whole rest of the conference, my head felt like it was going to explode. It was pounding and my face was burning hot. I tried to ignore it. After the conference, Hermana Olsen, my mission president's wife came up to me and said, "you don't feel good." I said, "no, my head feels like it's going to explode, it hurts so bad." She gave me two tylenol which I took, but neither worked. My companion told me that eating ice cream would make me feel better. Our zone leaders, my companion and I, went to an ice cream parlor in Cordoba and got ice cream. Now I can't tell you how much my stomach hurt after this. My head was pounding, I was so hot, and my stomach felt like at any minute, everything would just come right up. When we got on the bus to head back to Rio Cuarto, I just thought, oh my heck there's no way I can make it. My district leader gave me a little juice cup just in case I threw up...(?) It's the thought that counts right? After a while I fell asleep and from the testimony of my companion, she said they were talking an laughing so loud and would look at me every once in a while to see if they had done anything to disturb. To their amazement, I was zonked out dead in my seat. I was so grateful. After, my headache had subsided, but my stomach sill hurt. It carried on to the next day. I stayed in bed for a little while and rested. I didn't eat anything. I was so scared. My companion and I walked to the store and bought sprite and crackers and tea. Yes, I drank tea. Don't worry, this kind is not against the word of wisdom and oh my gosh it's soooo good! Anyway, I was feeling a little bit better at about 3, but I felt so lazy so I got myself ready and my companion and I worked for the rest of the day. This experience was the worst ever. I don't wanna be sick in the mission ever again. We've continued teaching Marly. She's an awesome lady. However, the last time we met with her, she told us that she loves talking about these things with us, but she knows her family's not going to change and then after she said she knows she's not going to change. We know she knows these things make sense. Our lessons with her have been so good. We have another appointment with her again tonight so we'll see if she's escogida! Ruth (the recent convert who got baptized the day I got to Rio Cuarto), despite her living situation (three small rooms, the tiny kitchen, the tiny bathroom, and the tiny bedroom in which they all sleep), took her homeless friend in and has been talking to her about the gospel. She told us she was interested and invited us over to meet with her. Her name is Silvia. She's a very nice woman. She told us that she really needs Christ in her life and wants to feel the spiritual things in her life. We talked to her about conference and she said she would go with Ruth. As I said before, nobody came with a nonmember. Not even Ruth with her friend who so desperately and obviously needed it. I don't know what happened. We're going to continue working with her. It will be easy since we always see Ruth and her family. I'm praying Silvia will accept more of this gospel and that Marly's heart will be softened. I so desperately want to find the people here in Centro who are ready to receive this gospel. The question isn't whether or not there are people who are ready, it's WHERE ARE THEY?! We'll find them, I know it. I've got to have more faith and treat every person I talk to as a potential investigator. Thank you all for your prayers and support. I love love LOVE this work. I'm so grateful to have a living prophet on the earth who acts as God's mouthpiece. Any nonmember in whatever part of the world would know President Monson is a prophet if they watched conference. It's so evident in his countenance. I hope you all have this same conviction in your hearts and that we can all find our "way back to the straight and narrow and stay there" as President Monson said. I love you all, have an awesome week!
Hermana Shumway