June 22, 2015

If I had to sum up this week in one word, it would be MIRACULOUS.  Sincerely it has been one of the greatest weeks ever.  It was a hard week... we had very little time to work because we had to fix up the apartment that we moved into and also got to travel and help out some other hermanas in the mission.  It was a great experience!  But left little time to meet the people in our new area. Oh and I also had to wash everything again just to make sure that the lice are 100% gone!  Don`t worry, mom, they are gone.  

But one day, we were quite stressed out and ended up very far away from the house where we needed to be for lunch.  We called a taxi and arrived half an hour late.  And standing outside was the sweetest little grandpa I have ever seen in my entire life.  He had one of those scottish hats on that covers your ears, and a blue scarf wrapped tight around his neck and thrown over his shoulders, and was bent over and waiting for us.  

Sometimes it is really hard for people here when you are late to lunch, because right after is when they sleep the siesta... and if we make them late then sometimes they miss it!  Especially the elderly.  But he was so sweet, and he took us into his house where his sweet wife had set up the table.  And as we talked, I came to find out that he is the stake patriarch.  He has given over 1300 blessings to people over the past 30 years.  And he is 91 years old!

And he began to talk about his love for God.  And about how grateful and honored he was to have us in his home.  And he said, "I now live Sunday after Sunday.  And it is hard for me sometimes, because I recognize that I am no longer of this world.  All I really want is to have the sweet children at church come up and hug me, as they always do."  And I realized that I was bawling as he spoke!  The spirit was so strong.  You could see that he truly knows Jesus Christ. And loves Christ above all other things.  He face looks as though he were a baby... so innocent and pure and so much love and trust.  I imagine it is something like the Savior`s.

Another miracle.  We went to visit a family of less actives that we have not met before.  And when we got there, three teenagers out front began to make fun of us.  They told us to go away and laughed at us and told us not to even try to knock on the door.  But we did anyways, responding politely to everything they said.

No one left, even though they were obviously home.  But from behind, three little girls came out of an apartment building.  And began to talk to us.  I could see the mother watering her plants on the balcony.. and we asked if we could share a message of Jesus Christ with them.  All of the girls jumped up and down "Si, si si si!" they all yelled.

We went inside and they gave us two chairs.  We were surrounded with 9 little faces staring back at us... the parents and 7 children.  Many of the children are actually adopted into the family, because their mother just passed away and they don`t have any relation to their dad.  And we began to share with them about Plan of Salvation.

The spìrit hit us all so strongly... the mother shared with us how she had grown up beaten and living in the streets.  She enrolled herself in a type of orphanage when she was 8, and there learned about God.  When she was 15 she was pregnant with her oldest child, and now they all live together in a home where she and her husband are working to provide for all of them.  They sell "torta asada" and the children are all learning to work as well.  It is a very humble and prepared family.

They all accepted baptism and we are going to see them tonight and see how they are coming along with their reading in the Book of Mormon!

I saw so many miracles this week and I am so happy.  I love you all so much!  Be happy and keep the commandments.

Hermana Eleanor Briggs

June 16, 2015

Okay well this has been one of the weirdest weeks of my mission!  I`ll just start out by saying that my head itched really badly for a long time... and last Friday I discovered that I had LICE! I felt like I was about to crawl out of my own skin.  It itched so badly!  But I oddly kept my calm.
We had to stay in the apartment and wash EVERYTHING and buy special shampoo and a brush.  Wow my companion is so amazing... she spent a very long time helping me this week.

Well... then Hermana Yi was sick and we had to stay in the apartment again.  I felt so bad!  I spent a lot of time cleaning.

Then I got the call that I was going back to Rosario!!  I was almost certain I would be in Santa Fe... and I was okay with that.  But no... now I am back in the same zone I was in before!  But a different area... La Florìda.  My new companion is Hermana Knapp, and she is AMAZING.  She is from Oregon and I have one more transfer than her.  We are both new in the area and doing a white wash... we are the first hermanas to be here!  It is exciting.  I am so grateful for the opportunity that Heavenly Father has given me to be able to be here and to serve these people and also the other hermanas (as I will continue being capacitadora).

But it was so hard to leave Paranà.  There are some very special people there that I love so so much and I am very excited to see them again. My Heavenly Parents love me so much, because they sent me here and allowed me to meet all of these amazing people!  Really words cannot describe how I feel.  But I think you all understand it... that we all have SOMEONE that has touched our lives in that way.

Love you so much!  I just got here in my area late last night so I don`t really know anything.  But we will get working!  Have a meeting with the bishop and his family tonight... asi que ya empezamos a trabajar!

June 8, 2015

This week went by SO FAST!  A week feels like a day now... and a month feels like a week.  Though there are those occasional day when 12 hours feels like a year hahah.

We went to Santa Fe and also Rosario this week for some meetings.  Lots of travel and little time to work in our area... but it is so amazing how much the Lord is blessing us!  First of all, we get to learn from so many amazing people.  For example-- I know an Hermana who, when she was little, saw her mother and sister burn and pass away as their home caught fire.  She herself was in the home, and has scars from burns that are left on her hands and arm and neck.  She was then raised by her grandparents, and baptized, and decided to serve a mission... and she doesn`t share these things with people. But it is so amazing to be able to get to know people-- their fears and hopes and trials-- and truly love them so much!  I am so humbled to be surrounded by real super heros.

Another example is in a 13-year-old girl named Florencia.  She is going to be baptized on June 20th!  I`ll be honest... I am going to work really hard this week, because I know that I am leaving this area on Monday and I won`t be able to see her be baptized.  Nor will I see the other amazing people that we have recently been working with.  But Florencia, like so many other 13-year-olds in the world, has a boyfriend and has been smoking for a while.  But the moment we began teaching her, she said, "Can you teace me to pray?  I need to know how to pray."  She is so prepared!  We taught her about the law of chastity and word of wisdom and other commandments, and she is progressing so much!  She has come to church two times and is super excited about being in the young womens.  She knows some people in the ward, which is awesome.

It is such a blessing to be able to see these amazing changes in people and that the Lord really does prepare His children that He loves SO MUCH to be able to receive the joy of the message of the restored gospel.  

I know that this church is true.  And I know that Christ lives.

en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Hermana Eleanor Briggs

These green trees are all by the mission home. It is so pretty here!

Ana Zanni when I dressed her up like a shepherd with my scarf and put a mustche on her. 

Some of the Zanni kids and I in the stake conference that we just had. Maybe the last time I will see them! But it's okay... we will see each other one day.

When we filled up the baptismal font with buckets!

This is Priscilla! Oh I lover her so much...we are the same person! She is 18 and going on a mission next year!

June 1, 2015

Que semana maravillosa.

It has been the most humbling week of my entire mission-- just because the people here are so faithful and loving and GIVING.  

A brief list of things that happened this week:

-A member pulled me out in the hallway at church and gave me a little purple box.  She told me that inside were the pair of earrings that she wore when she was re-married (her first marriage having left her with 5 children to raise alone and no money to do so and two sick parents to take care of as well).  She told me that they marked the day that changed her life and she became mother of five more children (her current already having 5 children of his own that he raised alone after his wife passed away).  And that she wanted to give me the earrings... because she prayed and felt that she needed to do so.  We hugged and I was so speechless I feel that I did not adequately show my love and appreciation for her... but inside I felt I might burst.

-A family of 6 invited us over to eat, and then told us that they would take us home in their car. When we pulled up to our house, they got out a bunch of grocery bags and gave them to us.  THIS FAMILY DOESN´T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY FOR THEMSELVES TO EAT.  But she said that the spirit told her she needed to do it.  And she did so with a humongous smile and gave us a big hug.  How did she know we had gone to the grocery store to by food that morning for the four hermanas that were coming to stay with us for a few days... and left with nothing but cereal and milk because we didn´t have any money?

-We are teaching a family... the Molina family.  Their son passed away on April 6th.  And all of the children and the mom are so interested... we cried together as we talked about the plan of salvation.  They came to church on Sunday and will be baptized in a few weeks!

-I went to another little town called "Victoria" to look for my family with the last name "Cardon."  I talked to all of them there... and found one woman named Liliana.  She cried with us as she told us that her mother recently passed away from cancer... and she too has cancer and is not doing well.  She is about 40-years-old and lives with her son.  We hugged and shared about the plan of salvation... and I told her that we are relatives in some way.  I´ll never forget the way that she shook as she cried hopeless tears, followed by tears of hope of being able to hug her mom again.

There were a lot of other things that happened this week.  It seemed that every day more and more amazing little things happened.  And I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and is mindful of all of His children.  

Love you all so so much.

Hermana Eleanor Briggs

May 25, 2015

Oookay.

Elias was baptized on Saturday!  You should have seen it... it was such chaos before, and then such peace after.  Though even during the chaos we were happily crazy...

We talked to our mission leader and began to fill up the baptism font at 11:00 in the morning.  The baptism started at 6:30 pm.  Well... we arrived at the chapel at 5:00 just to check on it... seeing as it takes hours to fill.  We got there and opened up the doors... and there was NO WATER.  We turned on the sinks in the bathroom and the kitchen... and there was NO WATER.  There was no water in the whole building!  We checked the tank, we checked the water pressure (all things I have learned how to do in the past year), and we asked the neighbors if they had water.  Anyways, long story short, we started calling members from other wards who know a thing or two about plumming... and within half an hour we had a band of people there.  And we ended up filling font with buckets-one by one- from the tank.  And we filled garbage cans with water, and we watched as people with no money or time worked their ways over to answer our frantic calls for help.  IT WAS SO AMAZING TO SEE EVERYONE COME TOGETHER.  

And his mom ended up coming.  She is so sweet and suffers from HIV, so it is hard for her to get around to a lot of places.  And he cried as people bore their testimonies about their own baptisms... people who have given up everything to be able to join the church.

Everything else fell through as well (hahah as always) but it is okay!  We did improv singing and cake-cutting and just about everything else you can imagine.  But we were all so happy, I just can´t explain it.

On Sunday I received a letter from Grandma Dee.  One of the hermanas gave it to me because she had recently gone to the mission home... and it was written by her the day before my birthday.  In it she told me about how great her week had been (just as she does in every letter) and how blessed she was to have the family that she does.  I waited and opened it up in sacrament meeting.  It was so sweet to hear from her... and I know she is working hard in the spirit world right now!  It is so interesting because we talk all day every day about the plan of salvation... that when you told me she had passed away, it was just so perfectly clear in my mind where she is and what she is doing.  Oh I love her

Elias at his baptism!

This is Rocio and she is so awesome! She gave us a pilates class this morning that about killed me. But she is so sweet,,, the only active member in her family and has an amazing story.

Sara and Barbara, they are so awesome!

May 11, 2015

Hola!

I had a really great week this last week.  We did a lot of traveling all over the place... from Rosario to Santa Fe to Paranà.  But it was so much fun and I love it!

One of the best moments was on Tuesday.  Hermana Yi is my new companion... she was born in Korea but has lived in the states since she was 7-years-old.  She is the oldest of three girls and lived mainly in Chicago!  She speaks Korean, English, and Spanish.  And she has been here one transfer more than me... but it is just so much fun because we could hit the ground running together!  And we had a lesson in the chapel with Elias.  Elias (I think I wrote about him once) is going to be baptized on 23 of May.  He has changed his entire life!  Done a full 180.  He was addicted to drugs, but hasn`t touched them since he began reading the Book of Mormon three weeks ago.  And we had a lesson about ten commandments... and with us was Barbara (a recent convert who was baptized 4 months ago and is 20 years old and SO AWESOME) and a returned missionary named Fabricio.  And we began talking, and everyone shared their testimonies about the blessings that come from the commanments.  And when we got to "Honor your mother and your father"  he began to cry, and told us about how he learned this commandment when he was young and his mom was diagnosed with HIV.  It was so amazing as we all felt the spirit as he told us about his life and history and his love for his mom.  Oh my goodness I think it was the best lesson I have ever had!  And Barbara shared about how they never had enough food growing up, and rough things went on in their house, but she learned how to forgive her parents and learn to love and honor them.  

I am so grateful for you, mom and dad!  I love you all so much.

Love, Hermana Eleanor Briggs

May 3, 2015

Okay... I am going to write about the person in this picture.  Her name is Sara! I wish I could explain to you all how amazing she is.  7 months ago, when I was here in Parana, we began to teach Sara.  At the time she was living with the father of one of her two children.  She is 26 and has two boys.. Maxi (9) and Andres (5).

Since then, she has made a lot of changes.  Sara was baptized about 6 months ago.  She lives alone with her two boys and works ALL DAY LONG to be able to barely provide food for her little family.  They live in a little tiny house that is really cold now (because it is winter) and she is always sharing the gospel and trying to help other people.  She stops and talks to people when she sees that they need help or look sad... because she wants to share with them about the hope and light that has come into her life since she was baptized and learned about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They live in an area that is a little bit on the dangerous side, but she tries to provide an environment for her boys that has the spirit and they can feel safe and comfortable.  I am so grateful that I am able to know people like her!

Well... we went to church on Sunday.  And during sacrament, I was seated next to a new member named Rocio Rios... and she is amazing as well.  She is 25 (I think) and basically the only member in her family.  And we sat and listened to beautiful testimonies... and I found that I was super stressed about a lot of people in the ward.  Many of the new members that have serious problems in their lives and hard things to conquer, members and leaders that are losing work and being robbed and really sick, and investigators that are trying to make drastic (and I mean DRASTIC) changes in their lives and are feeling soo much pressure from Satan.  Oh my goodness and before I knew it I was crying.  And I ended up crying for a while... and everyone else was as well because it seems that everyone had a very hard week and was very humble and receptive to the spirit.  

And the little girl that was in front of me is named Carmela, and she is five years old.  She turned around and looked at me for a minute, and I smiled back and cried.  And she asked me to lean over to her... and I leaned over and she used her little finger and being wiping away each tear on my face and under my eyes.  And she studied each tear and just gently kept on wiping them away.  And then she said, "Why are you crying?"  

"I don`t know," I whispered, not knowing what to say.  And then she kept on looking at me with sooo much love on her little face.  "Can I draw you a picture?"  she asked.

I know that Jesus Christ has the heart of a child.  That He has true concern and empathy. And He wipes away each one of our tears.  And He heals us.  

I wish I could tell about all of the experiences I had this week.  The truth is... there were many many very spiritual and humbing experiences this week.  We cried with many families and people in their doorways as we heard many sad and hard things.  But I know that Christ has suffered for it all.  And I am so grateful I can trust and rely on Him.

This is Carme, the little girl who wiped my tears.

Taking on the world (or Parana)... we alway eat with a family on Sundays and then walk home together.

I got all of your birthday cards and I love them soooo soon much. I cried tears of happiness.