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| WAHOOOO another Latina! Hermana Guardardo is from Honduras! She is seriously the best thing ever. I love her so much. |
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| It was really hard to say goodbye to Justina. She was crying and she kept hugging me so tight. She told me I'm her daughter! She was all, "What the? I get baptized and then you leave me!!" Oh man, it was terrible but she was excited to be getting a new hermana. |
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| This picture is great because Hermana Aguilar is the mom of Hermana Bronson. I was companions with her too and now this transfer Hermana Bronson and my mom, Hermana Escobar are companions!! |
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| This is one of Hermana Guardado's recent converts. She was baptized the same week as Justina. I really wanted to send this picture because notice my clothes!! This week it got cold and I actually got to wear a sweater. I was so happy! |
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| 6 months!!! Hermana Gardardo officially has 6 months in the mission today and I complete 6 months next Thursday! I can't believe how fast the time is going. |
Hola
Familia!!!
Man it feels
like it’s been forever since I wrote you. Soooo much has happened! Tuesday came
and we were all at our reunion de districto (district meeting). It’s always so
intense. We never know if we’re leaving or not. the liders de zona (zone
leaders) received the call from the oficina (office) and when they came back
they are always so dumb about the line of authority. So our lider de zona
called our lider de districto (district leader) – we’re all in the same room
haha and he started saying the changes. Of course I was last. He said “and
Hermana Ball has one more change here with Hermana Aguilar” I was like “really!!!”
“No, you’re leaving”. What! hahah I was relieved and sad at the same time. I
was actually really sad to say goodbye to Hermana Aguilar and all our
investigators and the members and JUSTINA! Oh man, it was so hard saying
goodbye to her. She just kept bringing more food for me to eat. haha It’s their
way of showing their love. She is really excited for me to send her pictures of
my kids. haha She kept saying “Don’t ever forget me ok. You’re my daughter!” After
lots of goodbyes we went home and I packed from 9:30- 12:40. Then I got a nice
30 min of sleep before we had to leave for the terminal. It was such a miracle.
All my stuff fit in my bags. I have gotten so much stuff while I was there, but
it all fit so it was great.
In the terminal I just kept looking for Hermana
Escobar. When I finally found her I just fell into her arms and we both cried.
I showed her the picture of Justina’s baptism and she was sooo happy. She didn’t
know. It was so nice to see her. It felt like she has become just this magical
dream part of my mission when everything was perfect. It was literally so hard
to leave her but I am so stoked. Hermana Bronson is her companion now. Hermana
Bronson and I just need to be companions, I hope. That would be the best thing ever. She is
seriously my best friend in the mission. We always find sneaky ways to write
each other, haha and send each other presents. Anyway, finally my lider de
districto (district leader) found me and said that my new companion was waiting
for me, so I had to say goodbye to Hermana Escobar, which was hard. I may never
see her again. She dies (goes home) really soon.... but my new companion
is Hermana Guardardo!!! She is seriously the best thing ever. She is so happy
and just excited to be in the mission. We have the same amount of time in the
mission but she isn’t from my group because she had visa problems and spent 2
cambios (transfers) in Honduras in a mission different than her house, but
still in her same country. She reminds me of Sandy’s niece, Laila, so much. I don’t
know why, she even looks like her to me. She is just so patient with me and she
just loves to work hard. Our first planning seminal (weekly planning) she was
so cute. Most of the time we are always so grumpy during planning because it’s
so long, but the whole time she was just like “Ok what’s our plans for this
investigator and this and this.” haha She is the best. haha For example she
likes to plan during planamental seminal plan animo for the week. Our animo
this week is we put the alarm clock in the middle of the floor and when it goes
off in the morning whoever gets it first, wins. haha So literally we dive out
of our beds every morning to be there first. hahaha She says it’s to help us
wake up happy. hahah It really works. We’re always laughing. It is literally
night and day from my last cambio (transfer). I finally feel like a real
missionary!!! and Paraguay is starting to feel like my home. Everyone here
thinks that I am Latino. When I say I’m from the United States they are like “Really,
what”’!! hahah I never had that in Coronel, well sometimes, but literally
everyone here says it.
Soooo I guess
I haven’t said anything about my area, sorry, I’m just so happy about Hermana Guardardo,
haha but we are in Villa Elisa!! It’s 30 from Asuncion, really close, so it’s
also night and day from Coronel Ovideo. Our area is city, city, city but at the
same time not. It’s basically suburb neighborhoods with big busy streets
connecting it. I hope I can get some pictures of our area this next week. The
best part is our area is soooo small. You can walk the whole thing in less than
an hour. Coronel Ovideo is sooo big. I love it. We also have this big beautiful
church. It is so beautiful but we have less people at church then we did in Coronel.
We have so many less active members but it’s great. We get to work a lot with
them and we had a whole family at church, less active, Sunday. It was great. The
other thing is people have real addresses here! The street names are all countries
so it’s way easy to remember: America, Jamaica Honduras, Cuba etc. The work
here is really great, I can’t explain how great it was this week. We have lots
of potential. Our lider de disticto (district leader) is kind of intense. He
called us Sunday and said we NEED 11 with baptism dates. Well, we only had one
in the runion. What am I saying, we had one in the runion and she is great, but
to have 10 others is kind of crazy, but we got 3 which I was stoked about and
they are all really great!
The other
thing is CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhh I am so happy. I am also a
little sad. I don’t think I am going to get to watch most of it. Hermana Guardardo
is so great. She said we don’t have time to watch it unless we have investigators.
So if we don’t, we won’t be watching it, we will be working. But it’s ok. I
will look forward to the Ensign. We didn’t
get to see the Women’s Conference... but it’s ok. That’s just how things go on
the mission. We will watch all of Sunday, so that’s great!
Ok, I’m sorry.
I feel like I didn’t give very much detail only that I’m so so great. haha Literally,
I am so great. haha I don’t want this change to go by fast! I’m just enjoying
every minute. I finally am beginning to feel so comfortable in lessons. I don’t
have to stress about what I’m going to say. I just talk and follow the spirit.
It hasn’t been an easy process to get to that point and I still get kind of
freaked out sometimes, but that’s what’s great about Hermana G. Whenever I am
lacking, she steps in and helps me out. We are a great team!! Ohhh, I forgot. She
does have one flaw. Her health is kind of bad. The main thing that’s bad is her
back. Friday all day she was hurting but she just kept working because she is
like that and then at 7 she could barely walk so we started heading home. We
got there around 8. Luckily she doesn’t have a watch. She kept asking what time
is it. I was like ohhh, it’s time to go home because you can’t walk. But when
we got home she was like, “8! Hermana, we have got to go back out” haha then she laid down and literally couldn’t
get back up, she was hurting so bad. It was so sad. She was just crying and I
felt so helpless, I was just holding her hand and rubbing her feet because she
was so cold. This week was so cold. I loved it, but it only made her hurt
more... but now she is just fine so hopefully she won’t have any more problems.
It was a huge milagro when we woke up Saturday and she felt fine. She still
hurts, I know she does, but mucho menos (less)!
Ok, love you
all. Don’t worry about me because I am doing great! I love Villa Elisa. I love
my companion and it’s finally not so hot.
LOVE YOU
ALL
Hermana
Ball
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