Lion King and Retention Leader

Hola everyone! 

Well, considering that I just emailed last Thursday not much has happened.

There is a huge hill in my area that I took my companion to this week. It overlooks all our area in the valley. It felt alot like Lion King: 

Everything that the light touches is our kingdom. 

But what about that shadowy area over there?

That´s the South Mission. 

Well, I got made Missionary Retention Leader for my ward this week! This means that I have to track and report the attendance of every convert for the first year of their membership. 

We found this guy in our neighborhood that, seriously, is ready to be baptized. He has never once talked to the missionaries but:

1. He attends a ward with his friend who is a member every week

2. He knows EVERYTHING

3. His friend is an Area Seventy in Costa Rica

4. When asked what he was waiting for he said, I don´t know, you?

PILAS.

Pues...mi nueva compañera no tiene la abilidad para hablar Ingles PARA NADA. Entonces esta semana fue un poquito extraño con nuestra manera para comunicar, pero mi Español es mejorando cada dia! Me encanta esta idioma y estoy tan agradecida para la oportunidad a ser in esta paiz para predicar el evangelio in esta lengua! Le amo todos ustedes mucho! Gracias para todo su apoyo y amor siempre!

Zoo Trip, a New Companion, and....Puojos

Hola finalmente!

Well, this letter will probably be unsavoringly short because this keyboard is really dumb...

We went to the zoo a million and ten years ago! Well, last week. They had a bunch of cool animals that you don´t see at zoos in the states, like wallabies, ocelotes, and other really cool things. They also have things that are really weird to see in a zoo as an American, such as white tail deer, raccoons, and cows. 

I did my first divisions last week with Hermana Sol! She went with one member for two hours, and I with another. Divide and conquer. My member, Kati, is going to be a missionary soon, so I made up my mind that in those two hours, I was going to kill her. We had 4 lessons, 3 new investigators, and 62 contacts. Kati thought she was going to die, and Hermana Sol was happy as could be. :) Success!

Puojos....

LICE. Luckily I did not get them, but one of the Hermanas in my house did! She combed out 18, went and bought shampoo for Lice, and they were gone within two days. In the meantime, H. Sol and I wore plastic bags on our heads in the house (really just to mess with the other Hermana). 

Well, I restarted Personal Progress haha. I am almost done with the first experience, and I am almost 20 years old. Yay chambonas! 

Well, Sunday was my last day of training. I am now done, and cannot believe it. I am no longer a new missionary! 

With the end of training, came transfers. I have probably cried about 5 times this week over this fact, but it is said and done now. Hermana Sol is in El Frutal, literally 2 minutes away from me. I received Hermana Flores. (sun...flowers...what´s next?). She is nice, but she is no H. Sol. She is from Peru, and it will take a bit of getting used to, but I know that I will learn to love her eventually. She does not speak one WORD of English. Not. One. Word. And her accent is really hard to understand!

Yeah, I´m here to tell you that the first transfer after training is NOT FUN. 

Well, we got to do something really special yesterday. We had a conference with Elder Cook! We all got to shake his hand, and afterwards he talked to us about mission work (well, duh). He said that we have GOT to learn to love our companion, because we have each companion for a reason, to learn something from them.

Well I will be emailing my normal time next week. Hasta luego!

A Baptism and Semana 12

Hey everyone!

Yes, we had a baptism this last week! Well, yesterday, at 7 in the morning. Which meant that my companion and I had to wake up at 4AM. We thought we were going to die. The baptism was for Maury, Keler´s older brother! He is really nice with us, but we aren´t very sure if he was exactly ready for his baptism...well, our hope is is that as we continue to visit him and as he continues to keep his compromisos, he will gain a testimony. 

About a month ago, we started a Family Home Evening with about 4 families who were struggling to have FHE every week. We met Monday nights in the house of one of the families. Every week, more and more people attended until we OUTGREW the houses of the members! So, we decided to have everyone have their own individual FHE, and move our meeting to the church on Wednesday nights! It is now called Noche de Hermanomiento (I thought it was llamamiento at first...), and is up to about 40 people now in attendance! The main goal of these meetings is to get investigators and less actives to church. It started with just my companion and I teaching, but now all 6 missionaries in our ward, including our zone leaders, come and teach together every meeting! It also always ends with snacks, which is a huge bonus. :)

It´s funny how, when you are on a mission, especially in a foreign country, you don´t ever know what is going on in the rest of the world. For instance, literally like 3 days ago, I found out that Nelson Mandela died. Apparently that happened a while ago? SABER!

We have been teaching this boy named Ederson, who is 14 years old, and has a testimony stronger than a lot of members that I know! He keeps having experiences that are pointing him to the church, and almost every day that we teach him, he has a new experience. The thing is, he never wants to wake up in the morning. And, considering that our ward starts at 8AM (yeah...HUGE problem for the missionaries with our attendance of investigators), he has not attended in 3 weeks. His dad is less active though (but he is starting to return to church), and gave him a huge chicote yesterday in front of us about the importance of church attendance. Kind of awkward, but if it gets him to church, vaya!

Well, this is my last week with Hermana Sol. The next time I email, I will be out of training, and with a different companion. How that happened so fast is beyond me. I´m already going on 4 months on my mission, and I feel like I have only been gone for 1. I am excited to not have to have companionship study for 2 hours everyday, but I am sad that I won´t have who will probably be my favorite companion of all with me any longer. I am also a little scared, because Hermana Sol is fluent in English, and I am fairly certain that my next companion will NOT be, not even close!

Speaking of fluency, I had my first real, REAL conversation yesterday in Spanish, where I understood EVERYTHING. We were at the house of a member, and Hermana Sol was in the bathroom. I was sitting in the living room with about 8 members of the family, and just chatting with them about my family, the church, upcoming transfers, and church doctrine on baptism haha. Seriously, I understood everything that was going on!

Well, next week is going to be a little nuts, so I won´t be emailing until Thursday, January 23. We have PDay on Monday, Transfers on Tuesday, a tri-mission conference with Elder Cook on Wednesday, and Weekly Planning, District meeting, and Emailing on Thursday. So don´t panic when I don´t email on Tuesday!

2014 and Week 11

Hola everyone! Feliz año nuevo!

New Years was AWESOME. Well, actually I wouldn´t know. My companion and I put earplugs in and went to bed at 10:30 haha...living it up. 

Everyone down here thinks I am either from Canada or Argentina. I don´t really know why, but a lot of the time that I am in the street people are yelling ARGENTINA! at me. At first I didn´t understand why everyone was yelling a country at me, but my companion explained that not many people can see why an American would be down here, so their second guess is Argentina. Vaya! 

The Familia Rivas. OHMYGOSH. This family is incredible. We have been teaching them for the last few weeks, and some of the members of their families have baptismal dates now. The dad is a less active and LOVES to talk, and he and his wife have 4 kids. They are reading, praying, and living the commandments and it is SO incredible!

So my companion had to go to this sketchy lab in someone´s living room to get her blood drawn. And, as is missionary rules, I had to be next to her. I faced the entirely opposite direction the whole time and just cringed and fidgeted. They couldn´t get blood out of one arm no matter how hard they dug and tried, but they were able to coax some out of the other arm. 

So this is semana 11 in my 12 weeks training program. Which means I only have my Hna Sol for only 2 more weeks. I am so sad about that! We have literally become such good friends and I am so sad that she is leaving (yes, she, I am staying here in VH for a while longer). Presidente asked me today at a meeting that we had if I knew my area well because Hna Sol has been here for 6 months and it is very likely that she will be going. Well, we know what is happening this coming transfer! Transfers are on the 21 of this month, instead of on the 22, like they were supposed to be. They got bumped up because we kind of have one of the 12 APOSTLES coming to have a conference with Misiones Ciudad Central, Seur, and Oeste that day! Elder Quentin L. Cook!

Really though, Sem 11 is terrifying. I have to start and lead every lesson, lead planning, and lead companionship study. It is pretty much like being a trainer and it is so hard. On Friday, I have an exam of sorts. I have to go to a reunion de nuevos and teach Presidente and Hermana Brough. Ah! I´m just a little scared. 

Motorcycles are DIRT cheap down here. Like, $80.00 US. No lie. 

Well, I will be emailing on Monday next week because we are going to the Zoo on Tuesday! 

Love you all and Happy New year!