dearest family and friends,

hey guess what....president gave me permission to call andrew instead of you guys. sorry. i´ll call on mother´s day.

oh and this week was crazy. we lost a whole day of work because we had our zone conference and our christmas celebration on wednesday, and so it made some things complicated. And it was just a weird week to say the least.

ok, i can´t trick you all like that...i feel bad. haha. i´m NOT calling andrew...don´t worry. i wouldn´t give up calling home to call him anyway, so don´t even worry. but i should be calling Sunday at 6pm Argentina time. I think that is 2 or 3pm your time. I forgot how many hours difference it is there. anyway, super super stoked to call. :)

ok, so yesterday we went to church and the mom of the first couselor showed up randomly. we just met her friday at a ward activity that we had, and she isn´t a member. she told us that sunday morning she woke up and just felt like she needed to go to church. it was awesome!! i love the little miracles like that, that we experience every day. they keep me going. it is interesting where i´m at because it is a totally different ball game. Here we are so far away from the rest of the mission and from the neighboring area, that we doin´t ever get together with the other missionaries to have district meetings. i never thought that would be a big deal, but i realize that you have to trust in the Lord a LOT more to find your inner strength because you don´t have meetings that keep motivating you. It is just you and your companion. Sounds weird, but i´ve learned a lot more of my weaknesses, and i´ve learned that i have little faith.

we are in an area filled with people that are so ready for this message. so ready for the gospel, and yet we are having little progress. yes, we see miracles, but progress...hardly any. i have tried to figure out what we are doing wrong, but sometimes it isn´t that we are doing anything wrong, it is just not the Lord´s timing. I do have faith, that one day we will see the fruits of our labors, but pray that i will have more faith so that here in junín we can move the mountians (haha even though there is no such thing as a mountain here...). I studied a lot about faith, charity and forgiveness this morning in my studies. 3 things that are crucial. I love studying the gospel, because it keeps you from falling too far. it keeps you on the straight and narrow because it helps you recognize your weaknesses, because we have them all.

this life is to help us learn how to be more like God. to be more perfect like He is. i have a long ways to go. but i love the mission, because it helps you a lot in this battle...that´s why everyone should serve a mission!! haha. :)

anyway, so guess what, i got to play a violin for our christmas p-day that we did. because we are so far away, we didn´t get to do it this week with the rest of the mission, instead we did it with our zone. but it was super fun. and we got to go to a nice restaurant (all you can eat...yum) for lunch.

ok, i guess that´s all. i´m soo excited to call on Christmas!

love, sarah

p.s. Angela,
dress = love it
colors and cake = también
hair = it´ll be so pretty all wavy like that
ring = i do like the ring. and don´t even worry about what people say about the smaller diamonds. i figure in the future when you have the money you can send it in to be changed if you want one diamond that is bigger. for now looks pretty blinging to me! haha
ahhhhh...i will cry the day you get married. menos mal that i know the guy...haha. tell brooksie hi for me and thank you for the package!!!!

michaelanne,
ok, i haven´t forgotten about you. don´t even worry. oh and i´m so glad we went to nats!! woo go BYU XC! um, letter is coming asap. it´s super hard to write, but thank you for all your letters!! they seriously help me so much. love you!