Mid January already? (two letters - sorry!)

(Jan. 18)

Hello my loverlies!

It is true, the mission office holds my mail. Which means Monday night, after I had gotten done writing you all, I got around 8 letters. So sometimes I go for a couple of weeks with out mail and then I get a whole bunch and then it's difficult for me to get caught up on my letter writing to all my faithful letter writers. Silly mission office.

So, this week was pretty fun. I am please to announce that I was able to ride my bike on Monday evening! Hermana Rodio is still not feeling well (she has blisters on her throat) and I was supposed to be on phones (ick) all night. So we did a fast comp swap with Elder Whites approval and I went with Hermana Nishiguchi into her area. I was wearing a long skirt so it was slightly hazardous but so much fun. We walked over to their apartment and got the bikes (I rode my bike btw, its seat isn't very comfortable:)just so you know) and made sure we had our helmets and blinkers (we called it getting rudolphed.) And we went into the area. We rode to the edge of the mission. I'm not sure which mission was on the other side of the street. And eventually (after many wrong doors, primary songs with kids and huge men with tattoos) we find Carmen's home. We talked a little about the Book of Mormon and invited her to read it. I laugh because we taught her in english and it was a Spanish area. Oh so fun. Sister Nishiguchi had only been in the area for 3 weeks (emergency transfer) so she didn't know her way around very well so we got lost. But I was having too much fun to care really. We were able to talk a lot on our little jaunt thru mesa. I learned that Elder White thinks that I'm a lot like Sister Nishiguchi, and therefore will probably have similar mission experience. Which isn't all together comforting seeing she has had some of the more difficult companions. But Nishiguch is amazing and keeps on smiling and working hard. Eventually we found our way back to the VC.

We play sports every morning as a zone. I love it best when we play soccer, because everyone is horrid at it. The Wednesdays was transfers, so we got a new elder and he is just driving me crazy. I'll attribute that to the fact that he is brand new and doesn't get the concept of teamwork and having fun as opposed to competition. But now I have dear Hermana Lopez in my zone. She was the one that I spent the night with my first night in Mesa. She probably comes up to my shoulder and is the sweetest thing you will ever meet. She has had a difficult mission, mainly because she is sweet and lets people walk all over her. She knows 5 languages, plays the violin and is going to med school when she gets home in February. It's really hard for me to to believe that she was in the Bolivian Army before her mission. But mostly our zone stayed the same. Some new sisters in the zone and only 1 new VC sister. Sister Waterous is now comps with Sister Hansen. She is a pageant kinda of person and very much the personality. We get along. She is a go-getter and will work hard. In the VC, Hernandez and I were the only companionship not changed. Which was odd. There are around 12 companionships at the VC. About 2 went full field so the fact that we didn't change was odd.

And just so you all know, I have now eaten a cow tongue (lengua) and its stomach (menudo). Hma Hernandez was kind enough to tell me after I had eaten it so I wouldn't have too much of a problem. And apparently the udder is pretty good so hopefully by the end of my mission I will have eaten every edible part of a cow. Of course, Hispanic food is spicy and every time I eat I turn really red and Hernandez becomes very concerned about me. Oh snap. I'll be able to eat whatever by the time I get home.

Because I am very ineffective at communicating in spanish I play with the kids most of the time. Mainly because we are trying to teach the parents and their 3 year old kids won't sit down for very long. It was pretty fun and I can tell the parents like me because of it. We went over to Cristina's and we are now teaching Ricardo too. She had her daughter for the weekend so I taught Amanda (daughter) a little before she went back over to her dad's. She is a good kid. And Cristina is improving. Hopefully she will get the lightest sentence for intense probation. That means only a year and a half and if that happens I will be going back for her baptism. Just so ya'll know.

At the VC, I have met some young men that are preparing for missions. Some of them are more mature and ready than others, but they have about a year if not more before they can go. But they will do good. I TB a girl from Australia who was a foreign exchange student. I also have a couple of confirmed member referrals. No one likes to do phones so Elder White is really trying to work hard to get us to get our work done. So I try. We had someone come in and after they found out that Hma Hernandez is from Chihuahua they asked if that was in South America. Silly Americans.

I have finally gotten permission to drive. And since I haven't driven since September I was tentative to drive someone else's car. The roads here are a 4 lane with a suicide lane in the middle so I get frightened easily. I hate driving.

 

So that's my life this week! I love you and hope you have a great week!

 

Love,

emily

(Jan. 25)


Hello my family! I hope all goes well.

Well, some changes have gone on this past week. I can say that this week has seem so long as compared to others. Normally my week flies by, but this week has taken forever. I can't believe that is almost the end of January. Oh snap! And I will try and keep the language understandable for all you non-missionaries. I just figured I should take on the role of Isaiah and keep you all guessing...

So I forgot to tell you all that I had a heck of a fun p-day last week with Hna Hernandez. We decided that we wanted to go window shopping down main street. There are so many cute stores! And I saw a lot of cute clothes but I was like, oh, I can't get them cause I'm a sister missionary and looking that cute would be breaking rules. So, I will have to return someday.

We had one full-field day this week and it was so amazing! Mainly because all of our appointments went though. We have made a lot of progress with our investigators and It was just crazy. We were teaching Anabel and it was going really good (for her being pentecostal) and so we were late for our dinner appointment. Luckily it was down the street so we just ran for it. And because we were late to dinner we were late to our next lesson so we hitched a ride on the trunk of the other sister's car (Sister Clark and Scott) down the street to our car. I could have run faster than she drove. But needless to say it was still a lot of fun. We taught Cristina and Ricardo and we taught them about the priesthood. I feel more comfortable speaking spanish around them (mainly because Cristina speaks more Spanish but not as well as me) and Hna Hernandez was shocked at the amount of spanish I was speaking. Surprise surprise. I can speak it if I need to. But don't tell anyone that. Later that night, Hna Hernandez had a bit of cramps and couldn't go anywhere. Just accept that as fact. So for the last hour we stayed home. She had a rice pad on her and I read my scriptures in spanish out loud to her so I could practice my accent. I read an Isaiah chapter to her and she asks me if I understood it. Ha! Funny. Isaiah and spanish put together. For the next two hours we just talked. It was a lot of fun. I feel that now we are working on having a better companionship now that I have her pretty much figured. We have fun. :)

In the mornings we still play sports. I have such a hard time cause I am so used to just running over people when I play defense. I can't do that anymore, elders are playing. So instead I just laugh half the time because no one can actually play soccer. I was talking to Sister Watrous about how I'm quite useless when I laugh and then the ball smacks me in the stomach. Which only made me laugh all the more. Ah, I love sports in the morning. 

We have been having more meetings with our branch mission leader dude. His name is Jorge Pimienta and he is that sweetest man you will ever meet. He has a little family, Seth, Zach and baby whatever her name is. All under the age of 4. So its kinda crazy. We had dinner with them, which was way nice of them, because he has been unemployed since September. But he is way excited about missionary work. He goes with us to lessons sometimes and loves to extent the invitation to be baptized. In two days. So we have had some talks with him. But his meetings are always fun. His sons had some Cars (like mater and lightning mcqueen) foam cutouts that you can put on your shoulders. So of course we had to try them on. 

 

As for our investigators and those we see quite frequently...

Cristina is still rock solid. She always says that she will choose the Church over a man any day. Ricardo is not as thrilled about learning. We found out he is 24 btw. She is 32. Anyway, I guess they had a fight about it and she said she was done with him and kicked him out (of her apartment with Alma, because they don't live together, good girl). Adrian has just progressed like no other, We have a date for him on the 5^th of Feb. The day after his 26^th B-day. Anyway, he came to church (after we taught him how to tie a tie. It was flipping hilarious!) And loved it. I guess in our moment of un-observation Cristina and Adrian talked (Ricardo didn't come to church because Adrian was coming) and she told him that she was thru with Ricardo. Following so far? Good. So, I guess Adrian went over to her place last night and saw Ricardo's car there or something and now he's ticked at Cristina and doesn't want to sit next to her at church but still wants to get baptized. We plan on talking to him today and finding out more drama...I love this...But Cristina has been cooking and feeding us. I'm not sure what she is cooking but I'm a good girl and I eat it. And I'm not dead yet...that's got to be a good sign.

Denise is now hiding from us. Anabel is trying to fight us. She asked us about if we believed in the gift of tongues. We said we did, to help people learn about the Gospel of Christ. You know, like the Apostles did in the Bible... Rosario no longer wants to meet with us, because the JW have talked to her. Dang It! But she did keep the Book of Mormon...Thank heavens for small things.

Oh, and I finished the Book of Mormon recently. I can't remember if it was this week or last week...

So, Hnas Hernandez, Lopez and sister Allen went to lunch with the previous VC directors because they are all leaving this transfer. So I went out with Hna Alvarez, Lopez's companion. She can't speak spanish to save her life. We had very interesting conversations together. She didn't want to come on a mission and it was a miracle (literally) that got her out on one. She refuses to go home because of pride (her sister can do it, so can she) and she doesn't know how to study. She is having a hard time because her trainer just left for him (alvarez has been her for 1 transfer more than me) and doesn't know how to work because her trainer slacked. But because she knows sister Lopez has had a hard mission she is trying really hard to be a good companion. So I offered what advice I could. And we went out in our area. Denise stood us up so we dropped off a Book of Mormon for Jose and went to her area. We finally met up with one of her Recent Converts (RC) and when we finally got to a lesson she looks at me and says, read any good scriptures recently? So I taught a lesson (in spanish btw, thank you very much) and she chipped in every once in a while. It was pretty good one about relying on prayer to find answers. I think. After that, we couldn't think of who else to go to so we stopped by Mercedez. And I still can't understand a thing she says. So I shared a scriptures with her and listened very intently but understood nothing. Oh well. The comps were finally done with lunch and we went our separate ways.

Well, the next day, we get a call from President Ellsworth telling us that Hna Lopez is Emergency Transferred with Hernandez and I. And Sister Juarez (the dear is a rag doll and just goes to wherever she is needed. But she has the personality for it) would go to Alverez. All I know is that Hna Lopez is broken. She has had a hard mission (companions aren't nice to her at all!) and she is having problems at home. And because this is her last transfer President wants it to be good so she is coming with us. We went home and got the bed set up and went to a lesson with Manuel Cereceres and 5 minutes into it get another call that Lopez isn't packing, but sitting on the floor in her apartment crying. So we leave poor Manuel and go to Lopez. Hernandez talked to her and I talk to Alvarez who feels like the worst person ever. So I just listened. It was what she needed. We got her all packed up and moved her over to our apartment. She is so fragile mentally. It's a surprise she has lasted until the end of her mission.

Yesterday we had ZDL. And I have no idea what that stands for. All I know is that we got our car inspected (we passed, those people in charge of cars are Nazis!) and had training. We had some good discussions going on about dignity, respect and moving forward the lords work. The Assistants did a pretty good job and we always willing to have comments. Luckily we are a talkative group. I was able to talk to Sister Ellsworth about my headaches (because i've had one ever day this week. And yes i've been taking care of myself, mom) and my nose problem. So i'm working on getting that taken care of. We also had interviews with President Ellsworth and I was slightly disappointed. Never expect an Hno Dela Cruz interview with someone who doesn't have the time. It was mainly a “hows the area? Hows the spanish?” and so on. It's pretty much the stuff I tell him in my weekly letters to him. So whatever. For the rest of the day I was irritable for some reason. We had weekly planning afterwards and that took forever. But my day got better after I talked to Hna McKenna and Nishiguchi. They have a good companionship going. They are awesome. I also gave a 13 year old Korean Foreign exchange student a BoM. He was way excited to read it. Way to go host family!

And this morning I was able to go to the temple. I consider it a darn good day so far.
I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week! (and the mission office is still holding my mail!)

Teaching Adrian to tie a tie.

Sisters Hernandez, Lopez and Beu