Week Three: Mission Field, "Big Friendly Giants"

Hola!

 

Wow, what a whirlwind of a week. Time is finally starting to pick up, and the work is going well!

 

We have an investigator right now names Ephrain who is 7 ft tall. Seriously. Every time we teach him I feel like I'm teaching a giant! But he is the most humble and sweet man, and so sincere. He has a brother who he lives with with schizophrenia, and that's pretty interesting. Ephrain has come to church twice and he has a baptismal date set for next Sunday, so I'm super excited for that! He is going to be such a strength to the wards he serves in.

 

Brownsville is so unique. The people here for the most part are SUPER awesome and protective of missionaries. Even if they have no interest, they always say to come by if we need water or food, and they're always concerned for our safety. Yesterday we were out tracting and we stopped by a guy who was out bbq'ing (EVERYONE barbeques on sundays. It's such a big deal, here.) and we talked and then he was like "hey come sit down and eat with my family!" they were catholic and not super interested, but they fed us super good Carne Asada and rice.

 

This week my personal studies have become pretty focused on humility. I've realized how lacking I am in that area, and that nothing can change until I confront that. One of the most difficult parts of my mission thus far has been being confronted with my weaknesses.. which are many. I have definitely been humbled beyond comparison here, and know that there's a lot more humility ahead of me, ha ha. At the suggestion of my companion, I started a list of what I want to develop while I'm on my mission (christlike attributes, teaching skills, etc) and am spreading it out to like 5 things each transfer, and while it's hard to not be able to fix everything right now, it's nice to see that there's time and it's a process :)

 

Here are a couple of cool things I learned during personal study:

I was reading in the Bible Dictionary about prayer, and it talks about how we are only praying in the name of Christ if we are having his thoughts and desires as our own. Wow! That was definitely an eye-opening realization, and I realized how often my prayers have NOT been that way. Also, I read a talk by elder F. Enzio Busche that he gave at BYU I think titled "and this is life eternal"? maybe? Anyway, it's really good and you all should read it sometime. But he talks about the importance of humility, and how we should ASK for our weaknesses to be shown to us. So I have been, and it's hard to realize how many times I fall short, but by acknowledging that I have greater access to the atonement. I also have been learning a lot about simplicity. It's so easy to try and teach in complex methods and explain in great detail, but the more and more that I teach, the more I realize how it's the simple things that really help investigators understand and learn. So I've been trying to study with investigators in mind, and understanding how they think about topics.

 

Cameron Park is my favorite. It's pretty ghetto, which for some reason makes me just so happy. I've always had an affinity for slightly ghetto things, and so I feel just so happy here. The last couple of days in Cam Park we started playing I Spy. "I spy... A Jesus statue." "I spy... A baby bottle in the mud" "I spy... two desk chairs in a front yard" "I spy the front half of a semi truck in a front yard" "I spy ...a toilet" It's great!

 

The people here are so incredibly humble and lovable.

Week 2: Mission Field, "Daylight Savings Time - Quien Sabia?"

Hey Family! Week 2.5! I made it! It's amazing how much has happened this week. It feels like I've been here an eternity, and I can't even really fathom how much time has passed since being at home, but it's super great here. This week I've seen so many miracles and tender mercies, which has been really wonderful to see labors of working hard.

 

We had a Zone Conference this week, which is where the mission president comes and teaches the Zone different things for us to work on. It was very inspirational and awesome! President Maluenda talked a lot about the importance of asking everyone we talk to for referrals and working as hard as we can, and being super obedient. So we have been doing all we can to be exactly obedient, and cool things have been happening :)

 

Sunday morning we woke up, I made breakfast, and we were getting ready for church. We called one of our investigators who had committed to come to church, and he was like "what time is it?" and we said "it's 8! You have an hour to be ready and be there!" and he said".. no it's 9:00. the time changed." What? Yikes! Being separated from the outside world has downsides. We had absolutely no idea the time was changing, and our ghetto little phone didn't change until about 10. Ha ha. Oops, so we were late to church, but our investigator came!

 

I sent mom a bunch of pictures she can forward on, and here are some of the stories behind them. We have meals with members almost every day, and they alsways give us things, usually in the form of food, but this week we got a very special surprise. Hermana Paz had hair accessories for us "since we were rubios [blondes]." As you can see, I'm NOT actually a Rubio, but it was super nice of her ;) We bike 2 times every week, and we were biking yesterday in the rain and this little dog was following us. So I sent a picture of the dog and of our bikes, locked to a stop sign. We live a fancy life, I'm telling you :)

 

Oh, I think I sent some random pictures of a neighborhood on accident. They're not that important, (I can't tell what the pictures are of when I send them, so sorry this is super unorganized). Also I think I sent pictures of my apartment? Maybe? Maybe not. Let me know :) And I sent you a picture of a little trash heap with some Cactus in it. Because that's how we roll in Texas!

 

I actually really love it here. I always envisioned Texas to be hot and dry with cow skeletons and cacti everywhere, right? But it's almost tropical! There are really tall palm trees all over, and little Resacas (ponds surrounded by trees and grass and stuff) and groves of trees, and it's really pretty. The people are just so wonderful, too. We go and have dinner and appointments with members all the time and they're the nicest people in the world! They just open right up and tell you everything about their life and they're so adorable :)

 

We had dinner with one family who asked if I was related to and of the famous Reynolds, and I said no but I was related to Mitt Romney, and they were so impressed and excited! They were like "We voted for him!" and the wife then commented that he was really hot. Awkward.. They also gave us pineapple with Miguelito on it - it's a mixture of chili powder and salt and sugar. It's surprisingly delicious and addictive :)

 

Okay, here's a cool spiritual story of the week. We have this investigator named Leonardo, and he hasn't been committing to anything. He's interested, but keeps saying he doesn't want to change because he doesn't want to get better and then fall back. So we were talking with him on Saturday and trying to understand what his concerns are, and I felt impressed to share Matt 11:28-30. I told him that the Atonement was there for him right now, not when he's worthy or better, but right now. But in order to do that we need to act. I felt this powerful energy helping me call him out and be super stubborn and strict with him (thank you, Stubborn Romney genes), and I was pretty upfront and strict. I think most people would have been scared, but it was exactly what he needed and he committed to church and came! Yay! It was really awesome.

 

There is a lot of adjustment happening and it's hard sometimes, but once we're working I am just so happy :) It's the best to be able to say "I'm a representative of Jesus Christ!" and to be doing what he would be doing if he were on the earth.

 

God is good! The work is true! Stay strong :)

Love you lots

Week 1: Mission Field - "The Field is COLD!"

Well, I've been expecting Texas weather for so long that it's been really sad that it's not warm all the time :(
I know that I should be grateful it's not hot all the time yet, but pretty much every day has been overcast and I've worn layers and layers and layers. And then I'm pretty okay :) We have to use bikes 2 times a week, and so far I have discovered that none of my skirts are very bike-appropriate. Oops... So I'll be getting one or two today (I hope...)

 

Our area encompasses part of both an English and a Spanish ward, and so Sunday is almost all spent at church. It's so strange to be actually out teaching people. I haven't ever met so many interesting (crazy?) people in my life - but it's super cool how nice people are for the most part. We look for and contact lots of referrals and potentials, like I think this week we contacted 16 referrals and 6 or 7 potentials? and then a little bit of random contacting.

 

Oh my goodness, people don't understand portions here. Thankfully we've never had two investigators feed us in one day (yet), but when they do they FEED US! Yesterday we had gone home after church and eaten a bunch of food since it was fast Sunday, and then we stopped by an member at at 8:00 and she fed us Mexican spaghetti and quesadillas for days. so much food - I thought I might explode. But the Mexican's love it when you love their food, so you kind of just have to put on a happy face and pretend like your stomach is as big as Texas. :)

 

Here are a couple of stories:

We were out tracting last night and we had contacted all of our referrals, but still had time before our next appointment so we decided to knock a couple of random doors. IN order to decide, my companion asked me what my favorite number was (which is 23) followed by a couple other questions, and we ended up at a door where a woman answered and, very sleepily, explained that she works night shift so she was sleeping. So we apologized, introduced ourselves, and asked for any referrals she might have. She said to try the house across the street, and so we did. A guy answered who wasn't super interested, but said we could come back later. We talked for a while, and then asked HIM for any referrals (we pretty much ask everyone we ever talk to) and he was like "yeah, the lady across the street" (who had referred him). we looked back and she was outside sitting on her driveway. Weird. So we thanked him and left, and were kind of creeped out that she was sitting there, so we decided to leave. But she called us over, and said she couldn't sleep and wanted to talk to us. We sat on her driveway in the cold drizzly weather for almost an hour talking to her. Along the way, we asked if she felt like she sees God's influence in her life, and she said "yeah! The number 23 pops up everywhere!" and then proceeded to give examples of that. It was a little crazy that just minutes earlier the number 23 had helped us choose her house. Ha. I think she might have been a little crazy, but we had a cool conversation that I feel like she really needed.

 

Also, people are just super superstitious around here. They ALL have stories of when weird things happened. My favorite was a lady that showed us a picture of some wood that she said looked like the knot was a picture of the Virgin Mary and 2 other people. I'm never really sure how to respond in those situations... "Wow! How cool! Yeah... do you wanna come to church with us? We have pictures of REAL people in our church!" jk. But it's pretty funny. We also talked with a potential the other night for an hour about his animals. We kept trying to figure out how interested he was, but it always just came back to his animals and we couldn't end the conversation to escape.

 

I have pics, but I'm nor sure if I can figure out how to get there on here in time.. We'll see :) If not I'll send them next week.

Love you!