Hi family!!

Dear Family!

I am doing well and my companion is doing great! This has been a great week of knocking on tons of doors. My companion is helping me a lot when it comes to teaching and contacting. They do it a lot different here than what I learned in California.

With my companion, Hermana Silva, on a warm day.

With Presidente and Hermana Parreño and Hermana Silva

 My companion is really great.  She is from Paraguay and is 34 years old.  She joined the Church 4 years ago and has a miraculous conversion story.  She was raised Catholic but when she got older she started to explore all kinds of religions.  She was living in Buenos Aires at the time, working.  One day when she went home for a break she found the Book of Mormon on their book shelf. She started to read it and she couldn't put it down. She asked her brother where the book had come from and he told her that two American missionaries brought it to their house.  She found the address to the church in the back of the book and went looking for the missionaries to learn more.  And know here she is, on her mission.  She is an incredible example to me of having hope that one day we will find someone who is ready to learn about the gospel.  She has a strong testimony and is so dedicated to this work.  I know that I am going to learn so much from her.  I am already learning how to teach by the spirit to the needs of the people.

Yes, we live just 6 blocks from the Mission home.  Its great to be here in Villa Mitre.  The town in large and is right outside of the city of Bahia Blanca.  We do a lot of street contacting and knocking on doors. Because my companion has been here for 6 months everyone knows who she is and where we live.  Now that I am here we are obligated (great!!!) to knock on all the doors again because they don't know me! haha :)  There are many religions here in Villa Mitre. There is like a church on every other block. It reminds me of what it would have been like for Joseph Smith.  There are a lot of Catholics, Evangelists, and Jehovah Witnesses.  We run into the Jehovah Witnesses once in a while.  I am learning a lot about what other people believe and how to use what they believe to know what to share with them.  My companion is great at relating to their confusion and mistrust of religion.

 The weather here!! Its freezing and has been raining all week. it should start warming up soon..I hope :)

The ward is helping in giving references.  It definitely is harder though having members in our lessons because the work schedules for everyone are so different.  But we are trying really hard to include members in the missionary work.  I am trying to help the members in THEIR missionary work. Each member is a missionary.  That is so neat that the theme of the stake conference was on missionary work and family history.  I truly am learning that our work as missionaries can't happen effectively without the work of the members.  After my mission I want to work with the missionaries and help them fulfill their calling. I also want to invite the family, each of you, to find a less active member or a non member to hear from the missionaries. 

My district here in Villa Mitre

With the APs. Elder Bird is from Kaysville. He lives by Katie.

We are teaching a man named Adrián.  He is honestly seeking for the truth after years of going from church to church.  I don't know how Hermana Silva found him though.  I pray each day that he has the faith to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true.  The Book of Mormon is so powerful and when one prays sincerely about it they will know that it is true.  I have also taken Pablo's challenge on reading the Book of Mormon each day.  It is remarkable for me to take the time to read it.  Its incredible to be able to share what I read each day with people I talk to in the streets.  Whenever I meet with someone and talk with them I am reminded of what I read that morning because it seems like it what that person needed at that moment.   I promise you that as you read the Book of Mormon it will guide your day and help you in those moments that you really need inspiration.

Graciela's Baptism

We had a baptism last week! I seem to come right when a person is about to be baptized (with Jordan in Brentwood and now here). The woman that was baptized was Graciella.  She truly has been converted to the gospel. She knows the Book of Mormon is true and reads it everyday.  We went to her house this week after her baptism and found her studying the Gospel Principles book and the Book of Mormon together.  She has such a hunger to learn.  Tomorrow we are taking her the Book of Mormon with the Doctrine and Convenants and Pearl of Great Price so that she can look up the references she finds in the Gospel Doctrine book! She is great! We are starting to teach her son and daughter in law. Lives truly change when the gospel enters people´s hearts.

Well, I love you so much! I have to go and shop for our food.

I love you so much!! Write to you next week!  Also, the mail system here is on strike and so nothing with come through.  You don't have to worry about sending me anything for a while since it won't get to me for months :)

Hermana Zubeldia

PS: Sarah, Elder Bagley just arrived last week from the MTC.  he asked me if I was the sister of Sarah. I asked him how he knew.  He said that by my last name he knew that I had to be from Kaysville.  He graduated from Davis High with you. Sarah do you know him??