Wednesday, March 16,
2015
Hola Familia Y
Amigos!!!
Wow, wow, wow! So much
to say and so little time! I don`t even know where to start. Well I got into
the field on Tuesday and got my new companion, Hermana Ramirez, from Mexico.
She has been out for 7 months and really is so great. It`s a little hard to
communicate sometimes with the language barrier but she knows a little English
and is so patient with me. I`m really so lucky to have her.
My first day was pretty overwhelming, not
going to lie. New house, new people, new language, new schedule, new food, new
everything. It`s a lot to take in but luckily we got right to work so I didn`t
really have time to think too much about it. :) This week we have been teaching
like crazy, 37 lecciones este semana!!! Wow, the mission goal is 25 per week so
we definitely met that goal this week. It was really good for me to just jump
right into teaching and practicing my Spanish. It`s a lot of work and I have a
headache every night from focusing so hard all day long on trying to understand
and speak. It`s coming poco a poco, little by little. Sorry for the Spanglish, it
just sort of comes out now that I`ve been surrounded by Spanish completely. :)
I`ve gotten to the point that I can understand almost the whole conversation,
even if I don`t know certain words I can figure them out by context clues. It`s
still not enough to feel super confident jumping into the conversation because
it`s easy to miss key words but I’ve gotten really good at smiling and nodding
at the right times. :) My comp helps explain things as well which is so kind of
her. Speaking is the hard part, especially non gospel topics because that`s all
we really learned in the CCM. But it`s getting better every day.
The people here are
amazing and so humble. Also very talkative, they will tell you just about
anything, even if you didn`t ask for it. :) It`s so fun to interact with them
and see their culture. Very family oriented and lots of kisses and hugs :) Our
area is apparently one of the richer, nicer areas so we do a lot of work with
the less actives and recent converts. But we have one investigator,Dina, that I
got to invite to be baptized yesterday!!! She agreed, but hasn`t committed to a
date yet. Please pray for her heart to be softened and that she can have a
desire to learn. Her sister is a recent convert in our ward and that`s how we
met her so hopefully she can help a lot as well. I am in Mayorazgo right now
which is like 5 min. from the temple. Our apartment is probably 2 min. walk
from the temple which is so fun. I already miss being able to go every
week...but we get to go every 3 months which is a huge blessing. The living
conditions vary a lot here. I`ve been in houses that look like a nice apartment
back in the states and houses up on the hill that literally have dirt floors,
and piece of metal as a roof, and hardly any furniture but some wooden chairs
and a table. It`s really humbling and makes me realize how blessed we really
are. Yet they are so happy and it doesn`t even seem to bother them that they wear
the same clothes every day, are covered in dirt, and have flies all around.
Also dogs everywhere....lots of dogs. Kylee would be in Heaven ;) Super
friendly but probably not the cleanest. :)
The food is
delicious...usually. I`ll be honest a lot of the time I honestly have no idea
what I’m eating, but I just don`t think about it and go for it. :) I`ve only
found a hair in my food once so far and usually not too many bones and other
crunchy things. :) Mosquitos are crazy here at night, I’ve got 20 bites at the
moment, 18 of which are on my legs and feet. Good thing we got all those shots before
I came ;) Lots of weird bugs I’ve never seen, and cockroaches around at night,
and huge flies. But it`s all part of the experience and even though it`s
nothing like what I’m used to it really hasn`t bothered me which is a real
blessing. It`s really hot here, I’m constantly sweating...constantly :) But I’ve
just gotten used to that as well. :)
The kids are always
out running around in the streets and playing in the dirt. They are super friendly and always ask for
candy when we walk by...I should probably stop carrying candy in my bag but
they are just so cute. I can`t resist! I
have a few special handshakes with some of them and I am currently having a
competition with one of our recent converts, Leyner, (11) to see who can
memorize the first 4 articles of faith in Spanish first. Haha, the kids are the best. Speaking of
which, I wanted to tell you about one girl I met a few days ago named Hillary.
She is also 11 years old and the only member in her family, at least that`s
active. She comes to church by herself every week, riding the crazy bus system
with her scripture bag and hymn book, and is just so faithful and wants to be
good. We taught her this week about the Santa Cena (sacrament) to help her
Faith in God requirement. Then yesterday she sat by me in church and during the
sacrament she pulled out the pamphlet we gave her and started reading about the
sacrament and then pulled out her faith in God to study that too. It was so
precious! Then we had a 70 come and speak to us in our ward which was awesome!
It was in Spanish so I didn`t understand it all but I’m pretty sure it was
fantastic :) I watched her pull out her little Tinkerbelle notebook and she
took notes on the speakers the whole time. It was adorable and was just another
testament of the faith of the members here. I could tell story after story of
people I’ve met and experiences I’ve had but there`s just not time. Wow, I love
these people already :)
I`ve really learned so
much this week it`s amazing. It`s been so hard. So, so hard. I`ve definitely
had my ups and then lots of downs. Everything is different and I feel so
inadequate not being able to speak and not knowing what I’m supposed to be
doing. But It`s been a huge test of my faith and especially of my ability to
rely on and trust in the Lord. I wake up and plead that He`ll help me through
the day, pray all day long, pray in lessons that I can understand and speak,
pray that our investigators will feel the spirit and understand what we are
teaching, pray for my companion to be strong and have patience with me, then go
home and pray with a heart full of gratitude that I made it through another
day. My relationship with my Heavenly Father is growing exponentially. I`ve
learned this week that sometimes the Lord has to show us how WEAK we are so
that we can discover how STONG He is. D&C 123:17 says that we must
cheerfully do all things that lie in our power and then stand still to see the
salvation of God. I`ve seen that this week so much. I can`t do this alone,
there is no way. I have to rely on him. And thankfully this is His work and he
really wants to be involved in it and help me and all of us missionaries. His
love is real and his grace is sufficient. I love him so much and I’m so glad
he`s given me the opportunity to share his love with the People of Peru cada
dia, every day! I am so lucky. A missionary in the CCM told me something that
I`ve found to be very true. On a mission the hard outnumbers the good, but the
good outweighs the hard. Missions are so hard in so many ways, and I’m only
just starting to see it. But the experiences I’m having and things I’m learning
and people I’m meeting outweigh any of the hard I have to experience. It`s not
easy, but it`s so worth it.
Sorry it was another
email of scattered thoughts and information...I need to figure out how to write
these more organized :) There`s just so much going through my head and it comes
out as a bunch of word vomit, but hopefully it makes sense. :) I love you all
so much! Thank you for the thoughts and prayers. I feel them and I need them. Please pray for
our investigators! Dina, Nalia, Raul, Alejandra, Estuardo. These are the ones
we`re focusing on at the moment but you can pray for them all in general too.
Love you love you love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you have a wonderful week, I
know I’m going to here in Peru :)
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Cox
(Sorry. No pictures this week. She ran out of time to send any. I'm anxious to see her companion and beautiful Peru. Hopefully next week.)
No comments:
Post a Comment