Thursday, October 30, 2014

Should Have Bought a Squirrel

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

No comments:

Post a Comment