Argentina

March 24, 2015

I´M IN ARGENTINA!! 

Hola, just a quick note to say i´m alivee! Buenos Aires isn´t too different from the US, but everyone speaks spanis!! even the people that don´t look hispanic so it´s totally awesome. my companions are the sister training leaders (hermana forte y hermana espinosa) so you know it´s going to be good when you learn from the best! I´m serving in LA BOCA! home of a big soccer team. the people here are very friendly and willing to talk when i strike up random conversations. They always tell me my spanish is so good, so that´s nice. oh, and one old man told me I can marry his son. haha. and for breakfast we had the most delicious pastries. its just totally great i can´t wait to send pictures!! 

Chau!

-Hermana Haight 

March 24, 2015

Arriving in Argentina blue!

President and Sister Ayre

Buenos Aires Temple

Your Missionary Has Arrived!

March 24, 2015

Dear Family,

 
We are thrilled to report that your daughter, Sister Haight,
has finally arrived safely in her mission here in Buenos Aires.  She was picked
up at the airport, and after a brief tour of Buenos Aires, was brought to the
mission home for a luncheon, followed by an interview with the President.  You
should expect to hear from hour missionary on her next P-day, which will be on
Monday, March 30.  Thank you for your prayers and support.
 
President and
Sister Ayre
Buenos Aires North Mission

Act of Kindness

I received the following email and a cute picture of Courtney with her companion! It was a wonderful surprise and I was touched by Sister Mendoza's kindness.

Hi!
I live in Utah and was walking around the outside of the Provo temple today after church and met your daughter and her companion Sis. Bendorf. I asked to take their photo to send home. Since I have a son on a mission, I know how it feels to get an unexpected picture of your missionary.  It was nice to meet them both. 

Sister Valerie Mendoza 

Pictures

bendorf, haight, mella, bushman, preston

chocolate strawberries from hna bendorf's parents

gracias por la package!! so cute. and muy verde!

This is what the cafeteria looks like!! with REAL MISSIONARIES

LOOK HOW IMPRESSIVE THIS PHOTOGRAPHER IS

March 16, 2015

Hola!

This week was very spiritual and I learned alot. But I feel like it doesn't make for as good of a letter to just say the words that other people have said, but i'll try my best.

Thank you so much for the package! How sweet. so dang cute. Muchas gracias por los pictures tambien!! Almost forgot what you guys looked like. ;) and your words of encouragement. I'm so impressed by all your experiences and absolutely love the quotes and scriptures you share. and the funny stories too. its all good!

Oh on Saturday I only said like 11 english words all day. The rest in espanol!

So my companera is literally the best ever. We had companionship interviews with a member of the branch presidency and he said he has never seen a companionship so equally matched in abilities and balanced. I know I am so dang lucky that Hermana Bendorf is such a hard worker with a powerful testimony! and hilarious. If this is what marriage is like, I'm stoked! but anyway whenever we go to the bathroom we time each other to see how fast we can go. and the unit of measurement isn't minutes and seconds but instead the first vision in spanish. "vi una columna de luz...." and when we come out we ask "how long was that?" and then answer "three first visions long!"  And so the other day we were headed to the bathroom and I was standing outside reciting the first vision really, quite loudly so that she could maybe hear it, i don't know. and I look down the hall and there is an elder in a classroom watching me. so I freeze and stop reciting. and then he starts whispering the next lines (probably because he thought I forgotten what comes next) "hasta descansar sobre...hasta descansar sobre" I know you guys don't know spanish, but just whisper that over and over so you can imagine what it sounds like. Then someone else in the class said "SOMEONE'S SPEAKING SLYTHERIN IN HERE!" so funny, I hope this made sense to you and I explained it clearly. probably not. 

i guess I will just have to explain it to you ......OVER THE PHONE WHEN I CALL HOME NEXT MONDAY. wow. I absolutely cannot believe I will be headed for Argentina. There's still so much to do/learn. But I am so excited to start doing what we have been practicing so much. I just love Spanish, and love helping people, and love this gospel! (but probably will call between 8-11am Utah time March 23) huge time gap to be safe.

Elder Cook came and spoke to us Tuesday. It was fantastic. I was in the choir that night [believe it or not. but my companion has the best voice ever and loves it, so i go] He walked into the room and I could just feel the power. My heart was swelling and warm, and I knew he was a man called of God to be a special witness of our Savior and this great work. I just felt like crying I didn't want to sing on camera! He told us we are the message. Because of our lives, the way we exemplify the gospel standards. because of our love and concern for others. people are just going to be drawn to us. I thought of the quote "Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words". When he left the building, the entire MTC stood up and didn't say a word until he exited. Wow, I wish you could have been there to witness what a powerful moment it was. All of these people standing still in silence, not fussing with their bags, or trying to leave as quickly as possible. What great respect. It reminded me of 3 Ne 11:8 when Christ first comes down and the people durst not speak a word. Elder Cook also said "I know He lives. I know the voice of the Lord. by experiences too sacred to share". How comforting to have a witness testify so boldly that these things are real and true.

Sister Jean Stevens (primary counselor) spoke in Relief Society yesterday, and her husband said "as a missionary everyday is Christmas! because we get to give the best gift of happiness in the gospel". Hermana Bendorf and I love that.  And one more quote from Sacrament meeting "to call to repentance is not to chastise, but a beckoning to be more than we are."

And like Elder Cook, I too am a special witness of Christ. I know He lives and loves me. and that all that is hard, and ugly and unfair in this world can be made right through His Atonement. My life is indebted to Him, and the least I can do is give every second of 18 months focus on others as He did. I'm grateful for the chance I have to be more than I am now, and for the hope it gives me to know I am sealed to my family. I am so grateful for the correct principles my parents taught me in my youth, and for their undeviating faith.

Sorry for the Preaching! I love you so much, I'm grateful that my life has crossed paths with so many wonderful people.

<3

HH

no ponytail holder, knot buns

temple, again

Hna W

laundry!!

Week 4

March 9, 2015

Hola! <3

Life in el CCM is a roller coaster. The highest highs, the lowest lows, and always high speed!

First off, the funnies!

There is a totally hilarious elder, pennington, (who is actually the zone leader) and he only brought three shirts on the mission! one mission. two years. three shirts. we thought that was funny. Yesterday while we were eating lunch he said "I wonder if when we yawn deaf people think we are yelling." haha! Also, in class our teacher was teaching us the difference between por y para and Elder Mella was like "por y para, if you say it fast it sounds like portapotty." Lastly, this story is for Jordan, this one missionary in our zone is from tennesee and from the stories he tells it sounds pretty hick town/country-ish. His mom makes squirrel for dinner! and he was telling us about this one time when he was in his yard he made eye contact with a raccoon, and they had a stare down for a while. and then the raccoon jumped out and he "drop-kicked" it and it flew like 15 feet in the air! sooo funny!

Anyway, planning lessons can get kind of stressful, I don't know why, but we're worried about what to teach and what the person needs, and the order of our points, which scriptures, whose going to say what. all of that stuff. and a lot of the time I think "auggg, we HAVE TO teach two lessons today.." But this Tuesday I had a bit of change of heart. During the lesson I just started to get so excited about what we were teaching, and what the means for our investigator! At the beginning he was really not too interested. But we spoke with passion about the restoration and all the opportunities that are now available to us because of it! I had memorized the first vision in spanish and got to use it this lesson! Jeepers/Golly/Boy [i don't know what word is most missionary appropriate] was it powerful! When I finished the investigator fue como "what! What did José do for that to happen?" it really had captured his attention. Our next lesson with him on Friday, he was totally changed! He told us he had read the scriptures and prayed! estoy entusiasmada para el.

Wednesday was a low point on the roller coaster ride. We got new missionaries coming in the CCM and my companion got homesick. Our investigators that day were really not having it either. It was hard. I just felt like an ineffective missionary. The next day our maestro gave us feedback on how we're doing and could tell that our spirits were down. He took us to the computer and read us some of the notes investagadores wrote after our lecciones. They said things like "I am the worst person ever for not reading the scriptures they told me to!" & "I like those girls, they always make me feel good" & "I want my daughter to grow up to be like them"

All of our lecciones since then have been so dang powerful. I just feel like I'm Clay Thompson! They can't stop me. We're on fire. Every situation we have been in I just feel the Spirit testify through me and see it affect the recipients. Even when we go wayyyy off the planned lesson, we aren't nervous, and it turns out fantastic. I feel like this can't go on forever, and there has to be some bad lessons occasionally. I'm so scared that I'm going to lose the Spirit! So I need to remember to be humble! (so I guess I mean the Spirit is Clay Thompson). But I finally felt like a real missionary. I cannot believe it has already been a month.

The MTC is a beautiful place. You feel you are of such worth here because everyone is so accepting and we are constantly reminded about God's love for us. It scares me to think in two short weeks from today I will be headed to ARGENTINA.

OH. p.s. One more thing I am unstoppable at: street contacting. I just think it's so fun. (in the MTC at least, hahaha) And i don't mind talking to strangers, infact I love it. especially in spanish. My companion and I are practicing intriguing hooks

CON MUCHO AMOR

-HH

Cheesey MTC photo

Vandalism

We didn't do this. I swear.

Biker selfie

He's biking so hard he's sweating!

Biker Statue

                                 

  Old district

new district (we all matched)

Hermana Bendorf

                           my cute companion

 us in the reflection pool in front of the temple

ELDER MELLA (our companions are in the back behind us so as not to break the rules!)

 The Hermana Winterton face (my ex-companera)

scorpion sucker

HNA Winterton is loca

REAL SNOW!! (and i'm not even wearing a jacket!)

Week 3

March 2, 2015

This week has been so funny. Two times I was laughing so much and really did not think I would ever be able to stop. AND ONE OF THOSE TIMES WAS DURING A LESSON! We love our "investigators" so much. They're hilarious. But anyway, when I think back at all the jokes, I realize you all will probably think that my sense of humor has plummeted because they're really not funny. Maybe the MTC is driving us all crazy. and mostly its because of the people, but just know you had to be there. 

Here are two examples of our stale humor:

Elder Mella said "estoy un poco casado" instead of cansado! (I'm a little bit married. instead of tired) and we are NEVER going to let him live that down. Also, we played this game where we write a place on the board and one person can't see it. The other students in class have to use future conjugation to say what you will be doing at that place in order to get them to guess the right location. We wrote "un cumpleanos fiesta por su pero" a birthday party for your dog. And the girl that was guessing knew it was a b-day party, and we told her it was a special kind of party! and kept giving hints. eventually she guessed "al baño?". and we laughed so much! YES A BIRTHDAY PARTY IN THE BATHROOM!

Our investigator, Jared, is so so funny! quite possibly my favorite person in the entire CCM. One day we were talking about how much we love those delicious cadbury eggs with the chocolate inside. YUM. and at our last lesson he brought us a ziploc of them. HOW SWEET! ;) haha get it?

We had a fabulous devotional Tuesday night about being humble in order to be a good missionary. And if we are humble that is when the Lord can work through you. It's actually not you at all, so get over yourself. and I was like "okay!! i'm going to do it!"  So prayed really hard to be humble and repented a lot. and really expressed my pure desire to be a good missionary and just an instrument in the hands of God. We practice teaching our teachers and so we had a lesson with our "investigator"/maestro, Jaime. We were planning on teaching about Christ because he really doesn't know too much about Him. But we didn't have much time and he didn't pray like we challenged him to, so instead we just talked about prayer the whole time. After the lesson our teacher came up to us and said [i paraphrase because it was in spanish] "never in my career at the CCM has anyone ever cared so much about following up on a compromiso". He said it was so powerful that it made him excited to pray, and he's a member.

Things have gotten so much better. I finally feel like I maybe, kind of, a little bit know what I am doing now. Our lessons have gotten a lot more focused on the person rather than doctrine. And we learn so much every single day! My testimony of this gospel has grown in ways it absolutely would have never been able to if I was not on a mission. There is honestly nothing else I could be doing right now that would be more important or be of more value. I am so grateful for this opportunity. It just makes me so happy! I love the Lord. I love this Gospel. I love the MTC!

Sinceramente,

HH 

P.S. the most repeated commandment in the scriptures is to ask! hmm, most be important or something!

My companion's mom is counting down, but thinks it's too depressing to count by the days, so instead she is counting the fast sundays. So we only have 17 fast sundays left on the mission. WOW. doesn't that sound so short?! It's scary, I'm not ready to go home!