Hi FAMILY!!!!!
Ok first off, I am going to talk
about all the new people we got last Thursday. They are so awesome, one of them
was feeling really really homesick so I just held her one night and played with
her hair and she was just crying. She told me I remind her of her mom that made
me feel so good. We all get along so well. Our two latinas are so sweet and are
always trying to help me with my Spanish. I am so sad the latinas are leaving
Tuesday and next Thursday we get two new ones. But ya, I love them all
ready.
Saturday is really the main event of
the week PROSOLETISMO!!!!! So setting: a
whole batch loaded up on a bus.
*side note Bronson and Richards
are Rozsa and mine couple best friends we decided. We do everything together so
I will now refer to them as Bron & Rich.
So we are on the bus and Bron was
like I feel like this is a field trip but they are just going to leave us
there. They gave us a little sack lunch and then creak, they stop the bus and yell out me and Rozsa’s zone number. We
get out and just watch as the bus slowly creaks away. It was so scary. Just two
American girls standing in Argentina, not knowing any Spanish, basically, and
are just given a mile by a mile area to spread the gospel. We started walking
and at first we would just say “Hola” to everyone we saw. Then we got up the
guts to say “Hola Somos missionarias la inglesia de jesucristo de los santos de
los ultimos dias”. Some people would be really friendly. We would just tell
them we have only been speaking Spanish for 2 weeks and asked if they were
willing to help us practice. I know we are sneaky, we would always end up
getting them to take a passalong card but really we got so lucky. People in our
area were sooooo nice. Our goal was 30 contacts, which is basically a
conversation and saying you’re missionaries and 5 referrals for the
missionaries in that area for real. We got 34 contacts and 7 referrals!!!!
Our golden referral though was a
family. We were walking down the street and Hermana Rozsa saw a little boy raking
leaves. We walked over and started to talk to him. Our Spanish was so bad he
couldn’t understand us so he went to get his dad. When his dad came out I was
worried we were about to get yelled at. But he greeted us with a smile and
asked if we wanted to come in. We thought we had heard him wrong but he started
to unlock the gate (They all have gates before their houses here like in Puerto
Rico). We followed him and he told us all about their life. His wife was
home and we talked to her too. They said sisters had come before but they never
asked for their information. We got their contact info and they said they were
really interested in our church mainly because of how sweet both sets of
sisters had been when they meet with us. Haha,He offered us wine. We explained
we don’t drink that so he gave us water. It was just a way, way cool experience.
When we left their house with all their info in our pockets we finally felt
like real, live missionaries with a real purpose. The CCM is way hard because
you don’t have people moving you forward. You just have your own desire to
learn the language. Our CCM is the only one that has this opportunity says
president. I am not actually sure if that is true. But I am just so happy to be
here and have that opportunity. Sometimes we get jealous of Provo because they
get general authorities every week. But they don’t get to teach real live
people that speak their language while they are still at the MTC!!!! So awesome.
Oh haha, in our area there was a pet
shop. Haha quote from Hermana Rozsa, “Let’s just say they don’t keep pet shops
here clean like Petco!” hahha I love her so much. We always say we would have
picked each other if we could have. But truthfully I probably would have picked
Bronson because she and I sat on the plane together. But it’s amazing how
Heavenly Father knows exactly what you need because if she and I were together
we would get nothing done. We are the same person and we both really aren’t
very good at Spanish. But both of our comps are way way fun but also keep us in
line and know Spanish way better than us. It’s just amazing to me how
everything just works out so well here.
Sunday I gave a talk on the atonement
in Sacrament. I knew it was coming before he even approached me at breakfast. It
was way cool though, I love my Savior so much, it was a way easy topic. We got
to watch The Testaments Sunday night and it was way way good. I forgot how good
that movie is. Oh also Sunday I happened to be at the part in the Book of
Mormon where Christ dies and the storms come in America. It was way cool to
read all that the same day I was thinking so much about the atonement.
Our IP, which is what we call our
lessons with our teachers, is going really well. One of our investigators, Victoria,
is getting baptized. We got a new one yesterday to replace her. Renzo is
progressing but really we are progressing with him. Each lesson we get a little
better at teaching. The last like three lessons we went with a planned lesson
and we get there and they are struggling with something else, so we totally
just go another direction with the lesson, which is so so hard in Spanish. But
we just do it and it works. It’s cool because me and my comp are so in sync we
always know how to help the other and pick up where the other struggles. A lot
of time I speak Spanglish when we do this because I can’t always think of every
word I want to say. But my teachers say that is fine so I keep doing it. I feel
so intimidated by the new North Americans. They seem to know as much as I know
and I feel like they just got here. One of the North Americans in our room
lived in Spain for 10 months so she is basically fluent.
The CCM is such a range of emotions.
Every day you experience the extremes: blissful joy, laughing so hard you pee
your pants (that comes later in the letter) and crying because of stress,
language, missing home, frustration and mainly the spirit. I cry daily because
here I feel the spirit so strong every moment.
So Sunday I was really struggling
and I kept feeling like I should ask for a blessing but I was embarrassed to,
so I didn’t. Then that night I just was really needing it so the next morning I
asked my district leader if he would give me a blessing. Of course he is so
amazing, he said yes. I don’t want you guys to be worried so I will just say
that I was struggling because the last few nights leading up to that I had had
some really bad dreams, which is why I didn’t want to ask for the blessing because
I felt like it was a way dumb thing to ask for a blessing for. But they were
bothering me so deeply that I just finally had to. It was so sweet. As my
district leader, who I know loves me so much, laid his hands on my head he was
shaking so bad. I don’t know if he had ever given a blessing before and said my
full name and pronounced an amazing blessing of comfort and strength. It was
such an amazing blessing. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by the priesthood
here.
It’s weird to say, but I love all
the elders in my district so much. I feel so privileged to know them. I always
look at them and think some mother somewhere is thinking about you and missing
you so much right now. But they still get on my nerves like brothers do!
Oh, so peeing my pants, ok, everyone
reading this loves me so don’t make fun. I am entrusting you guys with this
very embarrassing knowledge. so ya, I laugh a lot here and I also drink more
here than I think I ever have because it’s so hot and we are in class and your aren’t
really supposed to go to the bathroom during class. And, on top of that, every
time you go you have to take your companion. So I just hold it a lot, but in
the past week I have peed my pants 4 times. It’s so bad. I just start laughing
and then I think, oh no and it’s just too late. The first 3 it wasn’t a big
deal, you couldn’t tell and I just changed my g's and I am good. But the 4th
time was at dinner and it was bad. It was really bad. I was going to send a pic
but it’s not working this time, so next time maybe. But, ya, it was very noticeable.
All the latin elders call me Sister
Pelota, which I love because its opposite of Hermana Ball. Hermana Ball is Spanish English and they make
it English by saying sister and then Pelota which is ball in Spanish. It’s so
funny because they laugh so hard every time they say it.
Keep sending pictures. I can receive
them and not only that, I can print them off and look at them all week!!! I
read everyone’s emails like a million times throughout the week so put it all
in there. Don’t hold back.
Oh, and try pouch mail. I still
haven’t received anything from pouch.
I love you all so much and pray for
you daily. Oh man there is still so much to say, I just don’t have time. This is
the fastest hour of my life. I love you, I love you, I love you.
Hermana Ball
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