December 19, 2011 from Argentina

¡Hola!
This week was really good. I´m happy, but there are still those moments when missionary work is hard. I still don´t like doing contacts. I´m not afraid to do them, I just don´t like it. That´s my goal this week. I´m going to like doing them by my next letter. I´ll be out of my comfort zone a lot this week, but I have faith that if I do more and more every day, I will like them eventually. They might even be fun.
It's still difficult to imagine it being Christmas when the stores are selling swim suits and inner tubes next to Christmas trees and statues of Santa Clause (or Papá Noel). I´m excited to get my packages today. Today almost the whole mission is getting together for P-day Navideño. Each zone is presenting something and we´ll have musical numbers and things like that. Hermana Reales and I are doing one, too. I´m going to sing "Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee" and she is going to play the clarinet. Hopefully it goes well. We haven´t really been able to practice. There isn´t really time in the missionary schedule for things like that. On Sunday, we´re going to sing "What Child is This?" in sacrament meeting, in Spanish of course. I´m not sure how well that one will be either, but that´s okay.
I´m making a little book for Hermana Reales for Christmas. For each of the 12 days of Christmas I have been writing her a letter. I´ve been thinking about how the day went and what I admired about what she did. I´ve been finding a scripture to go with it and a picture to put on the page. I hope it turns out and that she likes it. I´ve been writing it all in Spanish, too. I think that´s been helping me with the language. I hope so anyway.
Our investigators are doing well. We turned those two men over to the elders in the ward, just to keep it safe. The ward is split into two areas. We have one and the elders have the other. We work with the people in our area. We don´t really get very many member referrals yet, which is sad. That´s something that we´re working on. President Carter wants us to win references from the members, not ask for them. It´s difficult, though, when no one here will let us do service for them. Any ideas?
We have some investigators that I love un montón (a lot). Ramona is a woman that we found doing contacts and she is amazing. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying every day. She won´t pray in front of us yet, but we´re going to be patient and pray for her. She always talks about how she wants to change her life and how she feels like we can help her do it. Elena is her friend and we found her and her "husband" at the same time as Ramona. They´re from Bolivia and are reading the Book of Mormon together. It´s a little more difficult for them to make changes in their lives and keep all of their commitments, but we´re praying for them. Lily is una viajita (little old lady). We taught her the first lesson on Monday and challenged her to be baptized on the 21st of January. She accepted. She says she attended our church something like 14 years ago and really loved it. I don´t know why she wasn´t baptized then, but I have faith that she will this time. She even lets us help her and do service, which is a miracle here.
Overall, I´m really happy. Some days it´s a struggle, but then I remember all of you at home. I think about the faith you have in my and all the things you´ve said to encourage me. It keeps me going. I really want to be the missionary you all think I am. Thank you for praying for me. I will do my best to live up to your expectations and the expectations of our Heavenly Father. I love you more than I can express and I feel your love more and more with every letter. Thank you.

Hermana Erin Litster