Season 2 Episode 4 "Not a White Christmas, But a WET one" (12-26-16)

Season 2 Episode 4 "Not a White Christmas, But a WET one"

Christmas Eve - Hermana Sanovich & Hermana Kahn

This week we Celebrated Christmas!!! And the best part was definitely Skype-ing with my family. BUT before all of that an entire week had to go by and this is a run down of what happened.... 

Tuesday - We visited Brahayan and talk about his experience at church this past Sunday, and lets just say that he had some interesting questions. We started talking about the church and racism as well as all of the different levels of theories and beliefs that a bunch of other religions have. Talking to him is never boring that is for sure. Then later on in the night we came to the church and we deep cleaned so that everything would be ready and nice for this weeks different activities. 

Wednesday - We did some contacting and got to share a little bit more about "Ilumina El Mundo"  (light the the world) with some people. Then we taught a man named Jorge and his dad about the Restoration of the Gospel and it was by far the most ("Moses and the 10 Commandments") driven lesson we have ever had. We had to think on our feet to connect everything that he was saying about Moses and the Bible back into the conversation that we were having with his son Jorge. Then we got to come to the church and be a part of putting together a little Nativity to hang up in the RS room. We also saw part of Seminary and Institute awards night so that was awesome to show our support for a few youth in our branch. 

Choir performance

Thursday - We went and Celebrated Christmas in Montevideo with about half of our mission today. So we got on a bus at around 630 in the morning to head to Montevideo. Once we all were there we were able to take part in a Christmas program that was really inspiring. We were reading about the Birth of Christ in the Bible and at each different part we would stop reading and all sing the Hymns that go along and tell the story about the birth of our Savior. It was really special and the spirit was so strong the entire time. We then ate some lunch and took some pictures as a mission and as a companionship with the Olsen Family. Then we had the gift exchange that was crazy and fun, I ended up with a cute little blanket with some Christmas trees on it so that was good. Then we sang our musical number of the Spanish version of "What Child is this" (I am working on getting a video to send to you guys) Then we all got on the buses and they shipped us off, but funny thing is that we were on a different bus than our entire zone. Its not a big deal and happens all the time just that this bus driver did not know how to leave MONTEVIDEO so a 2 hour ride turned into about a 4 and a half hour ride home. Oh the wonderful Bus drivers of Uruguay never cease to amaze me. 

Live Nativity

Friday - The day for the Christmas Activity. We were able to plan for our week this morning and then we were able to be part of this Live Nativity that they did here, we were the shepherds. It was incredible to see the story of the birth of our Savior come to life and to watch the people realize how important it is to remember why we are celebrating Christmas. 

Saturday - We went to see Brahayan again but he wasn't home so instead we saw a bird hit his window and die so that was quite the start to the day. Then Hermana Kahn got to call her dad who lives in a different part of Peru then her mom and they talked for a little bit so that was sweet. (it made me even more excited to be able to talk to my family) We had to run into the Central part of town today, you would not believe the amount of people that were out and about doing some last minute shopping. --- La Noche Buena----- So the big deal here in Uruguay and throughout South America is that they celebrate the 24th up until midnight on the 25th so we had the chance to celebrate that way. We were lucky to go and eat dinner with the Cabrera Family and then we also played games and did some Karaoke (I think there is a very bad version of me singing Rocking around the Christmas tree up on her face book). Then at 12 o'clock we ran outside to see the fireworks that everyone lets off to celebrate that it is Christmas!! And while we were outside, Santa came to our house so we opened some gifts with the Cabreras before we went home. We also gave the Cabreras a gift, we did not know what to give them so we were a little creative and spelled out the word "Familia"  with different little gifts and thanked them for being out Family here in Nueva Helvecia. F-*Fanta A-amor (love cookies) M- Mayo (traditional part of Uruguay) I- Image (not a lot of words start with I L-Lays chips I-Mani (peanut butter cookies) A- Alfajores 

Christmas Eve with the Cabrera's

Sunday - We got up this morning and went to church just before there was a huge downpour rainstorm. It rained during our Sacrament meeting, and it was really bad when we left to go home and it got even worse when we had to leave to go to lunch. SO we did not have a white Christmas but instead a WET one. Then a little while later I had the opportunity to SKYPE my family. Technology is such an incredible blessing because it allowed me to have access to talk with the most important blessing that I have been given. Then when I finished talking with my family Hermana Kahn skyped her family and then we left to go and visit Jesús, Karina and Maxi for a little bit and then we came home. It was an amazing and spiritual Christmas that I will never forget. 

Challenge - This week we will be ringing in the New Year, so I have a follow up to a previous challenge for all of you. A while back the challenge was to finish reading the Book of Mormon before the end of the year, by reading it every single day.  How is that going? There are not too many days left until 2016 ends and 2017 begins so the challenge is to finish the Book of Mormon if you can and if not, to keep reading it or start reading it everyday. 

That has been one of the biggest things that I have learned so far in my mission, is that the Book of Mormon is always important and it is always good to be reading it, even if its a few verses each and every day. 

Thank you for all of the love and support that I have felt while serving here in Uruguay.  I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year!!!

Love, Hermana Cassidy Sanovich

Skype Success!!! BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!!!

Christmas morning

Ornaments that the Hermana's made and gave to the families

Hermana's trying to do a Selfie

Stockings given to the Hermana's from the Cabrera family

Season 2 Episode 3 "Soon it will be Christmas Day" (12-19-16)

           Episode 3 "Soon it will be Christmas Day"

Hermana Kahn & Hermana Sanovich

This past week has been a little different, we have had a bunch of things that we have had to do and not a lot of time to fit it all in. So you could say that the stress and hustle of the Christmas Season made it to Uruguay. 

Martes - We got up early and headed to Colonia to have a Zone Conference with President and Hermana Olsen. It was a really good Conference and we were able to learn a lot that we can apply now and that will help us in the future about being responsible. Our zone is one of the only zones that is completely made up of branches and not wards so President focused on teaching us how to share with the people here that they are responsible for themselves and doing everything they are asked to do. I loved it! We need to be 100% responsible of our own actions so that we are not blaming others and by doing so we will grow and our testimonies will be strengthened as we use our agency to help and not hurt or offend others. Great day all in all. 

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Miercoles- Well, we taught a young man whose name is Brahayn (pronounced brahajan) and I like to call him Brian... Because his name would be Brian, besides the point. But we got to teach him about the Plan of Salvation and the Creation of the World and it turns out that Brian is a firm believer in the Big Bang Theory. So he went on for quite awhile about how science works and it cant be proven that anything we say religiously actually exists.  Then he told us about his Catholic beliefs. We are still trying to figure Brian out. But after that crazy morning we went home for lunch and we took an inventory of the things that are in our house. Well remember how we have had a few moving days and received a lot of stuff from other houses? Ya, well we opened all of those boxes. We had to count the number of spoons that we have in our house. It was quite the afternoon, and it turns out that we have the house with the most stuff in it, in the zone!! GO TEAM!! among which are 4 beds, 8 mattresses and about 40 spoons. 

Jueves- We planned out our upcoming week which included Christmas so that was crazy. Then we started practicing a song that we are going to be singing at the mission Christmas Conference Thursday so that was fun. We also went out and visited an old investigator Yamima that we re-found a little while ago, and it turns out that she might have been baptized and could be a member of the church already. So we are going to look into that a little bit more and I will let you know what we can find out. 

Viernes - This morning we watched the POSO guy come and empty out our poso tank. It is their version of a sewage system so basically a poso tank is a septic tank that gets full and you have to empty it out before your house starts to stink or it starts to come back up through the pipes (GROSS) Then we decorated the outside and the inside of the church to have it all ready for our activity that we are going to have Friday and to show the people that pass by the church that we believe in Christ and celebrate Christmas. Then we ended the night practicing for the Nativity.  I am not sure how I keep getting roped into these types of things here but it should be really good and fun too.

Ponce at the our church where we email.

Sabado - We went back to teach Brahayan the second part of the Plan of Salvation and we ended up talking about whether or not certain drugs should be legal and whether or not they are morally okay in Gods eyes. So that was quite a big jump for us. Then we went and walked around looking for people all day, however the funny thing is that when it is insanely hot and humid nobody is home and so we were outside the entire afternoon. Then we got to visit a less active girl named Victoria and she decided that she is going to come to Utah and she is going to stay with us next December. She is hilarious, and speaks English so it will be great. 

Domingo - Well I should now by now that when it is HOTTER than is possible outside and humid that the next day it is going to rain - Because we were woken up this morning to a crazy storm that looked like what I picture to be a hurricane type rain and wind mix. Luckily it stopped before church and we were able to all make it safe and enjoy a great Sunday. We got to have Brahayan with us here at church too so that was great. Then we went and visited a couple of investigators and talked about the importance of the scriptures. When we got home we were greeted by a lovely cockroach friend that we chased around for a little bit and laughed when we finally killed it - they are stubborn little guys. 

The 12 Days of Christmas in Uruguay (the 12 days of Christmas song with these as the gifts)

12. Milanesas

11.  Fiideos 

10. Bien VOS? 

9.   Campo Gauchos

8.   Bags of Mayo

7.   Alfajores

6.   hour siesta

5.  TORTAS FRITAS

4.  motos

3.  tero teros

2.  Fútbol teams 

1.   A mate ready fro me 

CHALLENGE - this week is CHRISTMAS!!! The challenge is to have the Best Christmas ever! So to do that I was thinking that it would be good to make it a Christ centered one so...  The challenge is to read LUKE 2:1-20 and then to read Helaman 14:5-12 and 3 Nephi 1:13-22 . 

                            I wish you all a VERY "Merry Christmas" and a "Feliz Navidad" 
                                                              Love, Hermana Sanovich

Side of the Farm House

Farm house - Near our house

Hermana Kahn on our street

Season 2 Episode 2 " Where in the World is Walmart" (12-12-16)

Season 2 Episode 2 " Where in the World is Walmart"

So to start off I will just explain the title quickly... This week it was the birthday of this lady who is like a cute little grandma. So we decided last minute to buy her a little card and drop it by her house. HOWEVER, birthday cards are not really a big thing here so we went to the papeleria (the paper store, or where there should be everything that has to do with paper) And they didn't have any.  So we looked in another store and even went to our little supermarket where we buy everything and nothing... We finally found a place where there were about 3 options and they weren't the best cards ever but, its the thought that counts. Also with groceries we have to plan what we need and then decide which store to go to that has ALMOST everything that we need for the week.  I have thought to myself more than about 50 times this week that we need a WALMART in Uruguay that also sold some American food because the people here would love that. So if anyone wants to come start a Walmart here they could make the big bucks :) 

So our week for reals went by really fast and it all started on Monday...

We had a great p-day and were able to do everything that we needed to get done. Then we decided to go and visit this less active young women who lives pretty far away. Well it turns out that she wasn't home so we turned right back around and ran (literally) to be on-time to practice for our choir performance this Friday. So we were able to practice, there are still ongoing jokes about me not being able to sing the right part but its hilarious and personally I think that I am improving so that is what counts. Then the Hermanas from "Real" came to our house because we were having divisions on Tuesday, so they came and slept over and we all got to sleep with the sound of some rain because there was a pretty big storm that night. 

Tuesday - Luckily when we woke up the skies were clear and it started heating back up just like normal so that was fun. I spent the morning with Hermana Orán (she is from Perú) and we were able to go and talk to a bunch of people about the "Light the World" video and gibe them a challenge so that was awesome. Then we all met up and had lunch with the Suarez family, they are hilarious and every time we are with them we feel like we are at home so that is always nice. Then I spent the afternoon with Hermana Whitt (she is from North Carolina). We were able to visit Brian and his family with Hermano Ponce before coming back to the church to start making some decorations to put up outside of the church for Relief Society. 

Wednesday - Pretty average day, we got to meet a bunch of new people and we had a funny mix up when we went to talk to this guy named Willy we found out that his neighbor is also named Willy. The Willy we were really looking for wanted to talk to us and this other guy did not want to talk to us at all so that was funny. 

Thursday - The biggest thing that happened today was our last choir practice because the performance was on Friday. We left the church all feeling really good about it and excited to be able to participate in the community and share the Gospel with those around us.

Friday - We went out to the middle of no where and taught this lady named Yamima, and when we were leaving her house we ran into this weird old guy who was determined to give us a beso (HUG) (the way that they say hello) and he grabbed me and pulled me in and it was quite possibly the funniest thing to happen to us for awhile. We also went to visit Mario and Pocha so that was good to see them. Then the long awaited CHOIR. It was really different to enter in o a different church as a missionary surrounded by a bunch of different choirs from different religions. But it was one of the coolest experiences ever. We were all able to come together to celebrate something that means a lot to all of us, the birth of our Savior. That was a really neat experience. (And I think that our choir ended up sounding great so there is that too :) 

Saturday - We are teaching this guy named Brahayan (weird name but he is cool). He is 21 and he is from Peru too so that is cool to hear them (my comp) both share about their different cities in Peru. We were able to talk with him about the Book of Mormon and answer a lot of his questions about prayer and the scriptures in general. We also were able to help Hermana Virginia Fuentes dig 2 holes in her yard and get a pool set up for her kids. This then may have led to a little water fight with her kids... It was good to help her out and to be able to laugh and have some fun too :) 

Sunday - It was a really weird day here, so this weekend the town has been having their "Festival de cerveza" It is basically Oktoberfest here but it is December. SO not a lot of people came to church this week and nobody was home all day.  The people we did find told us we should be at the party and they didn't want to take our time away from us doing that. Kind of ironic but it was all good, we ended up being able to visit a less active member that wants us to come by and teach his family so that was really good. Luckily we were able to avoid the craziness of the parade they had here because he lives on the other side of town. 

Challenge Story - On Sunday there was a talk given about "Happiness" he told this story "There was a group of scholars and the wisest people gathered all together to discuss where to hide this precious gift so that nobody would be able to find it. One suggested to put it up high where nobody could reach. Another said to place it on another planet but they decided that they would build a machine that could travel there and retrieve it. Then an elderly man entered the room and suggested that they place it within themselves because surely then no one would ever find it." This gift is Happiness, we go looking for Happiness in a lot of different places, included in a lot of material things.  HOWEVER, Happiness is a choice and we all get to choose to be Happy everyday because it is already inside of us to be that way!!! 

The Challenge this week is to be HAPPY!!!   Not just because of the Christmas Season, or the gifts, lights and glitter but to be Truly Happy.  Then...(this is the tricky part) TO share that Happiness with someone else. I know that as we help and serve those around us we are able to find MORE Happiness and Joy than we ever imagined. 

Have a fantastic week, Love Hermana Sanovich  

Christmas has arrived for the Hermana's

Suitcase with "Christmas Cheer" from Home arrived safely :) 

Christmas in URUGUAY

Cute Hermana's surrounded by Love from Home! 

Count down to Christmas!

Season 2 Episode 1 "What time is it? Summer TIME" (12-05-16)

Season 2 Episode 1 "What time is it? Summer TIME"

Our Backyard - Grapes will be coming soon

Ell time does fly when you are having fun. I can not believe that it is Monday again and that I have been a missionary for 6 whole months!! Where did the time go? It feels like yesterday that I woke up and got on a plane to Mexico and now I have been living in Uruguay for awhile...

Martes We left the house this morning and this truck that usually has cows on it passed by and I thought to myself "the cows are coming home". That might not be funny to anybody but my family but that's what we say when we smell things like that. But right after that we were able to go and teach this young dad about the Restoration of the Gospel and when we were testifying about the first vision I noticed the change in the spirit we could feel sitting outside and could see that he had tears in his eyes. The spirit was so strong and was testifying about the truthfulness of the Gospel. Then later at night we had a meeting to plan the Christmas activity that we are going to do here in Nueva Helvecia- A Live Nativity... I am so excited that I get to help them out with this and cant wait to see how it is going to turn out. 

Miércoles - We met this amazing woman while we were out contacting using the Ilumina el Mundo (Light Up the World) Christmas cards. Her name is Andrea. She is incredible, we taught her about how we can talk to God through prayer and she was amazed that we did not believe that we need someone else to do it for us. We also got to teach another woman named Fernanda and she really wants to learn more about the Gospel, we are just trying to work around her work schedule. 

Proselyting in Pants these days (kindof weird)

Jueves- We changed our schedule a little bit, kind of like when you all changed your clocks back an hour a little while ago!! SO now we are waking up at 7 instead of 630 and we are out at night until 930 and we go to bed at 11 instead of 1030.  WE get an EXTRA 30 min of sleep. Well we should have but my body decided to wake me up at 5 am so I lost a lot of sleep and was a little tired all day. Which made the choir practice we had later on that night really really fun and different. 

Viernes- Another morning with a random 5 am wake up call thanks to the amount of heat that is already in our house by that time in the morning. The big news for today is that we got a dryer for our clothes, a new table and a bunch of junk that nobody wants WAHOO!!! Our house is officially the storage shed, so the Elders and the Senior Couple Missionaries came to our house and dropped of all of this stuff at our house and it was really funny to hear them trying to work around the outlets. There are 3 different outlet options here in Uruguay, the newest one (that everything we have is) the old one (that most houses come standard) and the really really old one (that nothing is able to adapt to anymore)  and our house has all three of them so that was a bit of a challenge but have no fear everything is plugged in and is working. Well we haven't used the dryer yet because the clothes dry faster outside and we don't have a washing machine but all good in the hood. 

Sabado - It was insanely HOT!!! We were so hot, and its humid and there are no clouds here on days when it is hot so that is super duper fun. But we were able to have a fun day with the heat. We got a text from a young man who is about 20 telling us that he wanted to give us all of the stuff that he had that had anything to do with the church because he is ready to drop the church and never come back. It was a little of a surprise so we called him and met up with him and talked to him about why he wanted to leave. In the end he told us that he basically didn't need the church right now, it wasn't doing him any good so he would rather go back to living a life without it. That was so interesting to me, to hear someone say that they didn't need God or Christ in their lives right now. I can testify 100 percent that every single person in the world needs them both every single day. We ended up with all of his stuff, but we are hoping that some day in the future he will go back to the one set of scriptures we convinced him to keep. We also had choir practice this day and this one sister in our branch thinks that it is the funniest thing EVER that when we get to singing all together that I start singing all of the different musical parts of the song. I guess I am just super musically talented that way. (the exact opposite actually) 

Domingo - We had a great fast and testimony meeting where we could feel the spirit testifying that this is the true church. We also watched some videos about maintaining the church building, so we will be working on that these next few weeks. Then later on in the night we had a cool FHE with a less active family and her fiance who recently left rehab. It was amazing to see how much the Atonement can help and change peoples lives for the better. We then came home and watched the Christmas devotional and I absolutely loved it!! We are so lucky to have these special occasions to hear from the Apostles and servants of the lord especially this time of year!! 

Challenge - This week there are two options for the challenge 

Stocking made by my Mom!

1- print off the 25 ways in 25 days calendar and begin meeting the challenges of that every day OR

2- to go online and watch the talk from the Christmas Devotional that Douglas D. Holmes gave (the whole thing) this talk is really special to me.... I loved how much he focused on how important the Holy Ghost is in our lives. 

We are so blessed! And I am so grateful for the Savior who came to the earth to save us all. I hope that this Christmas Season we can remember the 

"Reason for the Season" and The GREATEST GIFT EVER given to US... Have a great week!!!! 

I love you all, 

Hermana Cassidy Sanovich

Season 1 Episode 26 Previously in Uruguay... Un Día de Gracias (11-28-16)

Season 1 Episode 26 Previously in Uruguay... Un Día de Gracias (A Thanksgiving Day)

Thanksgiving was this week as you all know, I hope that you had a great week filled with yummy food and giving Thanks to those around you. I am going to fill you in on a few things that happened not this week but the past week. Reminisce a little bit about the Conference with Elder Rasband... So here goes, previously on the mission... 

Thursday the 18 de Noviembre - We got up around 3 am to finish packing up some stuff for Hernana Trujillo and then the van got to our house around 5 am and we were running out the door. We got to Montevideo around 7 am and had to wait for about 400 other missionaries to get there so that we could start the Conference. I had the opportunity to see Hermana McMullin (my trainer) again and and to meet her family, that was amazing! Then Elder Rasband came into the Chapel and you could feel the spirit so strongly. He took the time to have every single one of us shake his hand and talk to us for just a second. It was a great experience to realize how blessed we are to have these men called of God on the earth to help us all learn and grow. One big thing that he spoke about was not missing the opportunities in front of us. He was talking about us as missionaries, but I think it applies to all of us in life. That we need to live in the moment and not take anything for granted because we are truly so blessed. 

That was the highlight of last week so here is the run down of the past weeks events 

Monday - We went to Centro and had a zone activity where we played capture the flag and volleyball. If I do say so myself I am missing the soccer practice but I think that my volleyball skills have improved while I have been here in Colonia. We got to eat together and I shared some of my yummy treats from home (thanks to my family and their great package). We also sang the Jumbalaya song in the church with Hermano Ponce, he is a huge fan and I am learning the words with him. 

Tuesday - We visited Ana and her dad today and they are progressing a lot in the Gospel. They are reading and praying and they shared with us their desires to come to church so we are working with them to make a way for them to get here. Because of his health problems he cant walk that far so we are in the process of finding someone with a car to pick them up Sunday morning. 

Wednesday - We contacted just about all day and the funniest thing happened, we knocked on this guys door and we tell him that we are missionaries and that we share messages about Christ . He looks at us, points across the street and tells us to go and visit them because they are sinners and shuts the door. We just looked at each other and laughed a little bit. People here are so funny in the ways they try to nicely tell us that they don't want us to visit them. 

"Thanksgiving Feast"

Thursday - Thanksgiving!! The morning was planning so we came to the church to plan a little and wait for the Elders to come and bless our house. President Olsen wanted to have all of the houses receive blessings before the New Year. So they came, and we ate some banana bread together and then explored our little creepy basement and then the Elders blessed our house and left. We made ourselves a very sad little Thanksgiving feast, I was just thrilled that we could pull off something like mashed potatoes and gravy. 

Friday - We had a Branch talent show that we were singing in, so we practiced for that. We also got to hear Ponce and President Hurst sing together and that was hilarious. I don't have a video of it but I'm going to ask to get it this week. I did however have a video of us singing, we are not the best group but for only practicing for about 2 hours I don't think that it was that bad. 

Saturday - We got rained on. It was raining outside and we got soaked! Then it started to get really really bad and the wind started to pick up. We got a call telling us that we should go home and not be outside during this storm.  So we went home, soaking wet and got to watch some church movies and write in our Journals while the storm raged on outside. 

The sky after the rain storm

Fire in the sky

Sunday - The kids had their primary program and we sang Called to Serve with them so that was really cute and fun to see them be so excited to share their testimonies with their family that came to support them. We also talked in Relief Society on the talk by Jeffery R Holland I loved the quote " You can feel alone but never abandoned, because Christ is always there for you" Just a little reminder for us all... 

Challenge - This week the challenge has to do with Christmas!!! It is just around the corner and the Church has a new video about Christmas. This week I would love for you all to go and watch the video #lighttheworld (#iluminaelmundo) It is amazing, watch it and then share it. That is the goal, we as missionaries are sharing little cards with this #iluminaelmundo on it and it is a great way to share what we know about Christ. 

I know that he lives and loves us and that through him that we have the amazing opportunity to return to live with our families in the presence of God again for Eternity some day! How great is that? 

Thank you for all of your love and support, 

NOW - Go and Light the World! 

Love, Hermana Sanovich