Mi Primero Bautismo

Que tal Familia? I am so happy to hear that everything went well and no one got hurt at the reunion. I was praying really hard and hoping Greg O. wouldn´t break anything on the water weenie again. I was right there with you on the day that Grandpa died. I really feel his help here in the mission. I am his only missionary right now and I know he is proud of me and watching over me. I am so glad to hear that Alli and Lincoln are visiting. Can you give me the exact dates? Mom as far as a package goes- me and my companion would like CTR rings in English, both size 10. Send some pictures of the church, probably half page size. They don´t have pictures here. Maybe CHrist pictures or Prophet. Also send some candy like- Starbursts and Small Reeses cups. My comp would love anything from the US. ANything that you find that I could gift to the members too. A couple boxes of Mac and cheese. ONe more XD Fujifilm memory card for my camera. Thank you so much for everything. I haven´t gotten any of your letters yet hopefully today. I know today I will recieve your package. I am so excited to get see Lincoln and Alli, I will get permission from the Pres this week for them to visit me. Preferably between the hours of 1230 and 330. Ok well about my week. It has been really rewarding and good. The weather was absolutely horrible this week. Probably the worst in a long time. Many places got snow and that is really different. We had agua nieve, which is kind of rain mixed with snow. My companion wants it to snow so bad, this is her first Winter ever. WE HAD OUR FIRST BAPTISM! Janina, the girlfriend of the bishops Son got baptized really fast because they want to get married soon. So we taught her almost everyday and she was baptized on Sunday. It was actually really funny and many things went wrong. The baptismal font overfloaded into the women´s bathroom during Sacrament meeting and Janina almost didn´t get baptized because she has a phobia of water and the water was pretty cold. the bishops wife basically pushed her into the font while she was saying, I don´t want to. I was on the verge of laughter but it was a really sensitive moment. She was really grateful afterward and she thanked us after. My companion and I sang her a song, Tu eres una hija de dios. It turned out well. I will send a package home with Lincoln and Alli with more Argentine treats and pictures. And we also have 2 other fechas or dates for baptism. WE had another miracle happen with Jessica. THe Lord is just guiding her by the hand to baptism. She has waited so long to find the truth and be happy. She felt really bad for her man, ANtonio because he was going to be all alone and she didn´t know how to tell him he wanted to move out. She was praying so hard for the Lord to help her because she couldn´t do it on her own. This week Antonio told her that he needed to move out because he could tell it would be better for her and for the kids. So he is still going to keep paying for the house but also find a different house for him. How incredible is that! So on Tuesday he will move out and she will rearrange the house for her and her kids. Antonio and Jessica have been sleeping in different rooms ever since she learned about the Law of Chastity. She wants so badly to change. So we set her baptismal date for August 8, but this week she called us and told us she doesn´t want to wait any longer so hopefully this Sunday she will be baptized. Our other baptism is a man studying Law, we have a date for him on August 8. After seeing people enter the waters of baptism it makes all of our sacrifices worth it. I really do love this work and am so glad to see our work pay off. The Lord has really blessed us.

Te amo mucho!

Love,
Hermana Kjar

Weeks fly by and Days seem so long . . .

Familia,

First of All, HOLY FREAKIN PORQERIA! I almost starting screaming when I got Adam´s email about his new little Brooks or Ava. How incredible and stupendous! I am so happy for both of you! I can´t wait to see this beautiful baby! Felicitaciones!

This week has gone by so fast! Wow I feel like I just wrote you. But I do have some good news. We had church meetings this week, but we couldn´t shake hands or even give besos. Do you know how hard that is for Argentine people? A lot of them just went in for the kiss anyways. They don´t care. JAJAJAJAJ, JIJIJIJIJI: that is one of my favorite things in Spanish. When they write Ha ha and he he they use different letters, like jaja and jiji. When I saw that in my comps email I started laughing so hard. But we all laugh and smile in the same language. ONe thing about Argentine humor, I don´t know the language well enough to get their jokes. So it is kind of humorous trying to guess when I am supposed to laugh or frown. Usually I just do everything that my comp does. OH I love life!

This week we have had a little bit more success with the investigators. I think we knocked about 1,568 doors and walked about 79 miles. But those are just approximations. Our investigator Jessica opened up to us one night and gave us her life story. I only understood like half of it, my companion explained it to me. Jessica has had a rough life. From the age of 14 she has been forced to be a prostitute because she is really pretty and her mom and dad made her when she was younger because she needed money for her family. She has three children and she doesn´t even know who the fathers are. Her lover that she has been living with for 13 years is a jerk and hooked on porn. 4 years ago he made her go back to being a prostitute because they needed money for their kids. She just cried and cried because she knows this is true and she wants so bad to feel clean. She wants so bad to seperate from him but she is afraid she will have no one because her family isn´t around and she has no good friends. SHe calls us her angels. I love her so much. She smokes 3 cigarettes a day and so on Tuesday we made her a goal schedule and a pack of ´cigarillos de fe´ or Faith cigarettes. Yesterday was her first day of smoking 0 cigarettes. We call her every night at 9:30 to see how her smoking went. SHe also loves to talk to me because she is trying so hard to learn English. She keeps saying, ´Vamos a Utah´she wants so bad to come to Utah with me. On Tuesday the Bishop also gave her a blessing of strength and comfort so she will be able to make decisions to seperate. A couple of days later she found out she can graduate in August instead of December, so she can start working as a nurse in August. She knew this was a blessing from god so that she could seperate from him. She has so much faith and is so faithful in reading and praying everynight. I am praying that her husband will not be abusive when she tells him she wants to seperate. I hope that we will be able to baptize her the end of August.

I sang a solo and bore my testimony in Church on Sunday. It was good. NO one sings or plays the piano here, so they are so grateful for anything. I was funny to see there reaction because I just sang I stand all Amazed and the accompianist wasn´t even that good, but they thought it was amazing. It really brought the Spirit though, It was really fun!

THe language is coming, I understand probably about 60 percent now and I can talk more with the people. THe Lord is blessing me for my efforts. This area is a little harder than others because the people are a little harder, but we are searching everywhere.

We have 2 baptismal dates with a girlfriend and boyfriend of members. So we are working on getting them prepared. Adam thanks for what you said about loving the people. I have been thinking about that a lot lately. Becuase I really do feel a strong love for them but I can´t communicate with them the way that I want. But I need to work on that. THere are other ways I can show my love. It is true, the members are the key.

Good luck with the reunion! I think it is awesome that you will all be together the day grandpa died. Give everyone my love, I will be praying for you.

I love you so much! Besos y besos!

Love,
Hermana Kjar

Cuidese

Mar de Plata beach

Sharla and fellow sister missionaries

Sharla, Hermana Lopez (her trainer from Columbia) and two other sister missionaries on P-day

Asada aka Argentine BBQ

July 13, 2009

Hola Peeps,

Mom and Dad, thank you so much for your emails. I really enjoyed them. Mom I really did burst into tears when you said you wish you could reach through this email and rock me. I know that sounds weird, but I really need that right now. My mission President is the one in the picture with the map. The other one is my old mission pres. My pdays are on Monday. Sorry for the confusion, don´t worry about it. Mom I hope you birthday was great. We celebrated with cake and icecream. I will send you a pic of our celebration. I love you so much. That is incredible what happened with Dave and Mandy, what an incredible blessing. It all pays off in the end. Mom and Dad I am glad to hear of your new callings and the work you are doing at home. You are incredible saints in the church. You don´t find people like you in the church here in Argentina.

Here are some things I have learned in the past week and a half.

1. Argentina doesn´t celebrate the 4th of July, haha. But we had a BBQ with the Elders to celebrate.

2. My new pet peeves are cold toilet seats and Elders who get trunky and don´t do anything for the last 2 months of their mission.

3. People aren´t afraid to stare. I get a lot of stares and I really don´t think that I look that different but my companion assured me I do. I hope that is a good thing. I have had many people ask me if I am from Holland. I guess the Princess of Argentina married the Prince of Holland, and I look a lot like her. Or something like that.

4. Blood sausage is not that bad. I tried it thinking it was normal sausage and it wasn´t bad. But I couldn´t eat anymore after they told me what it really was. I am starting to experience true Argentine food. An asado here puts any American BBQ to shame.

5. The mission is way hard. This week has been the hardest week of my life, but I really have loved it and had some really incredible Spiritual experiences.

6. My favorite lesson to teach is the Plan of Salvation. Especially to those who have never heard of anything like it. Everytime I teach it I feel so excited for judgement and resurrection. I cannot wait to see my Savior again. I know that this is the path I am supposed to be on. I also love bearing testimony that my family will be eternal. That is a huge blessing to me, especially being away from them right now.

7. Complete families are way hard to find here. Everyone lives with there boyfriend or they are single women with children. The law of chastity is probalby the hardest thing for the people here.

8. In Pompeya, there are more dogs than people. Oh, I am growing a dislike for dogs now. It is so crazy, I don´t think I have been in a house without a dog. They are also laying all over the streets.

9. Argentines have really pretty green teeth, if they even have any. It makes it even harder when people don´t have teeth because then I really can´t understand them. It is really funny sometimes.

10. A scarf is a necessary thing to have in Argentina. It is so cold here right now, but Rexburg was a good prep for me. I am doing fine with the coldness. Well, I love you all and love to hear the good news from home. Our investigators have been struggling this week. We have two that really want to get baptized but they can´t becarse they can´t move out with their boyfriend. That get´s really frustrating. We really are working our tails off and hopefully this week we will see more success. Anybody have any creative ideas for contacting people or getting investigators? Please pray for my Spanish, I am really trying hard. I find I am a little more shy in Spanish, haha, I wonder why. Here are some scriptures that have really brought me comfort this week D & C 84:88, 6:35 The Lord is shaping me into what he wants me to be and bringing me to my lowest point so I will really turn my will over to his. It is not easy but like the quote says “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.”

Cuidese, Te amo. Besos, besos.

Hermana Kjar

(Sharla and her Mission President)




Well, I just tried to send a long letter but it closed out all of the sudden. ARGGGG!! So I just want to let you know I am ok. I really do love being here, I will share more next week with more pictures. On friday, after our first real day of work I was really frusturated and alone. I didn´t say anything the whole day and I couldn´t understand anything they were saying. I felt so alone and was exhausted and couldn´t talk to anyone because I can´t express myself in Spanish. So I hopped in bed and offered a long prayer. I know the Lord is trying to humble me becuase I can still feel in my heart that I am focused on myself. I love my ward and our investigators are doing well. My companion is a great teacher and example. The gripe A is really big here. They just cancelled all of our church meetings for the next month!! So it is interesting to do missionary work with no meetings.

I found out you can write dear elders to me here. You can also email me. . . hint hint. Thank you so much for you support and love, I can really feel you prayers. Just know that I love you and I really do know the church is true.

Estoy Aca!!!

Hermana Kjar in front of the Buenos Aires Temple

Sharla with her trainer (from Columbia) Hermana Lopez who doesn't speak a lick of English . . .

GO SHARLA!!!

July 3, 2009

familia,

Wow I don´t even know where to start. First of all, I feel so freakin blessed right now. I got put into the best area with the hardest working companion in the whole mission. Her name is Hermana Lopez, and guess what. . . she doesn´t speak English. Let´s just say my dictionary is my best friend. But I can see that is a huge blessing for me. We do a lot of hand actions and she has to find different ways of explaining things. But I can understand her Spanish really well. She is from Columbia and already has 24 baptisms with only 11 months in the field. Do you know how rare that is? she is number 3 on the baptism list out of all the missionaries in our mission. I guess our area is on fire, I think we have a baptism on sunday with Paula, please pray for her that she won´t smoke before then. THe "Gripe A" or swine flu thing is really big here now, so we might not even have sacrament meeting on Sunday.

I am about 7 hours from the mission home in Bahia Blanca in an area called Pompeya, right on the coast. The general area is Mar del Plata. It is so beautiful and this is probably the wealthiest area in the mission. I absolutely love the people and culture here. Yes everyone stares at me, even when I stare back. BUt it´s all good. I love being a Yankee! That´s what they call us here. The food is simply amazing. I have had some awesome empanadas, alfajores, and candy. Our apartment is pretty ghetto "VILLA", and really cold at night. But it is fun. We just got into our area last night at 12.30. After traveling for 2 days we arrived in Buenos Aires and were taken to the temple, where we ate and went through a session. It was way small. but it is so beautiful. I did give a spanish book of mormon away on the plane to a couple that was sitting next to us. We were talking, in spanish, about Jesus and how we need him in our life. He is a Evangelical Pastor though, so I think he was just interested. But they really do believe and know Christ. I understood about 50% of what they were saying but I got by ok. After we went to the temple we ate some amazingpasta and took a small airplane to Bahia blanca. It was just me and 5 other elders. 4 from my district, and one othere native. When we arrived the old mission pres and the office elders were there waiting, they were so welcoming. We went to the mission office and had dinner together and got to know each other. A lot of them knew Elder Lawrence. Then after dinner they took me to stay with some Americana sisters that lived in the area. THey were really nice and we had fun. THe next morning I was taken back to the office to do some paper work and then about 11 the sisters picked me up and we went to lunch with a member family. It was so fun, but I couln´t understand anything this woman was saying. After Siesta, a 2-3 hour break in the apartment for studying, we went and knocked doors for about 5 hours. I tell you what we were in the ghetto of the ghettos, where the dirt roads are with the shacks. We usually have to stand outside there fence and clap until they open there window and tell us they are not interested. We did talk to about 5 people though, outside there door, and we gave them a pamphlet and challenged them to pray. MOst of them had Book of Mormon´s I was kind of surprised. THey call getting new investigators aggrigating here. It is kind of funny. But I love missionary work, and sometimes when I think of how much longer I have, and that I don´t know spanish very well I get overwhelmed. but I am just taking in one day at a time.

Here are some pictures of my companion and my Mission president. I really do love my President so much and am excited to get to know him better.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPPORT! I love you all so so much.

Hermana Kjar