The Field is White: Week 21 -- Hot weather -- love it!

HOLA!

I got your package from Valentines day this week:) I love the shirts that you sent and the rice!!! Everything was perfect:)

It was nice and toasty warm this week. I got a little sunburned:)

I got to clean that room of the temple! It is really big!

Let the missionaries walk the dogs -- lol -- that would be fun for them haha.

The ruta is the mail route. We can send letters to missionaries, to our families, we receive our mail and any materials we asked for all through the ruta. The Johns are in charge of it and organize the mail system for all of us.

Power has been fine. We still don't have phones... apparently there is a prison somewhere in the country and prisoners figured out how to call people from inside the prison so they are working on putting out a signal to cancel the signal in a one kilometer radius around this prison but they haven't been able to control it so Santa Rosa still doesn't have any signal. But about half the mission has service. I don't know if that story is right. That is just what we heard from a member.

About the apartment we want to move to...it's so nice! It's really close to our area and the church. There is water there 24/7 and it's secure. There is an outside locked door and security cameras on the inside. If we ever get phone service I think that we will move. President Dester is really open to the idea, we just can't call Elder John to talk to him about it because we still dont have phones!!! AAAH

This week we had divisiones (splits) with the sister training leaders. I was with Hna E who is my "grandma" in the mission since shes Hna P's trainer. I was really scared actually because she has always seemed a little intimidating, but she was actually really fun to be with. She said that I teach in a very logical manner. I thought that was really funny since I am such a logical person.

This week I dreamed like 4 nights about missionary work. I wake up and go to work, then I come home and dream about missionary work! Que barbaridad! (How crazy!) I just thought it was really funny.

1. How was church attendance yesterday? Did you have some investigators there? How about the woman with the two children that came to church last week when you didn’t expect her to?

Asistencis (attendance) was 104 which is still pretty good for our rama (branch). We didn't have any investigators, though, which was really sad. I kind of wanted to cry. But we did have 4 of our menos activos (less active members) there. It just makes me so sad when people don't exercise their agency in a good way. Hna V said that it has really showed her how our Heavenly Father must feel when we don't exercise our agency in the way He would like us to.

2. What miracles and/or tender mercies have you seen this week?

The other day we left in the morning to find 2 people we had contacted in the street and of course they weren't home. So we walked around looking for them and contacted other people for an hour but we still had an hour left and we really didn't know what to do. So a menos activo (less active member) lived really close so we just decided to go visit him. Well, he wasn't home, but his wife who is a counselor in the Relief Society presidency was home and when she answered the door we could tell she had been crying. She was having a really hard time. We shared a message that we had read in the morning to share with another family, but felt prompted that it was for her, too. I don't remember what talk it was...I think it was "will ye be made whole" or something like that. Anyway, after that visit we both felt the spirit really strongly but still didn't know where to go. Then I remembered that there was someone who lived in the house across the street who usually is never home, but she had said that she wanted to learn more. So we have passed by there like 5 times in the past with no luck. Well, we walked by and she was there! She was waiting for the water to come. But we shared a message with her and she offered the opening prayer and started crying, saying that she was at the point of forgetting that God existed in her life until we showed up at that moment. So that was really cool that we were led to people who really needed us.

3. What answers to your prayers have you seen/experienced this week? That we can be guided to the poeple who need us. Like the experience above, I really felt like we were guided to those people.

4. What did you do for P-Day this week?

The same. We cleaned. We washed clothes. We printed out picutures for Hna V to send to her old investigators. Then we went shopping a little bit. We came back to the house and talked for a while. Wrote cards and I read in Jesus the Christ. And now we are here.

5. What was the best thing that happened this week?

The hnas lideres (sister training leaders) came. We also had another baleadas night with a family in the ward and we got to make tortillas and I always like doing that, lol.

6. How are your investigators doing? What specifically could we pray for to help them? How about that less active sister (family of familia M) that you went to see and felt such strong love for?

Well...I think they are doing alright. C still seems to have a hard heart and doesnt want to be baptized. She and G both need help recognizing answers to their prayers. Y just needs to keep coming to church. I don't know what Hna M M needs...motivation maybe. She has really bad arthritis, so maybe for her health and that she can have the strength to come to church.

7. What was the funnest/funniest thing that happened this week?

An investigator gave us popcorn and I dropped one down my shirt but I obviously couldn't stop in the middle of our lesson to get this piece of popcorn...so I meant to get it after the lesson except I forgot about it. So when we got home after I had changed into my pjs I remembered and it had been there ALL day! It was really funny.

8. What was the spiritual highlight of your week?

I really liked something that Hna M said to me about my character. I was saying that I feel bad sometimes because Hna V is SUPER obedient. Like if we are in the house of a member longer than an hour she starts to freak out and get antsy and like we have to go! And I was like that before with Hna P. I was feeling bad that I really didn't have that impatience or, I don't know, dying desire to be exactly on time like I did before. I don't know. I felt like I had become lazy. But Hna M started talking about the Savior. He was perfect. He was patient. He had tons of people to visit, but did He ever rush through one person because perhaps he had a cita (appointment) at 5? No, He took the time necessary with each of the people He healed, He taught. He probably was never antsy teling His disciples that He had to go. It was probably His disciples who were telling Him, Hey now, maybe it's time we left. But He was still perfectly obedient. He was willing to spend time with the one. She said that I am just learning to recognize when people need that extra time. Not that we stay in appointments longer than we are supposed to or anything like that. We are obedient. But wilth certain menos activos (less active members) or investigators, sometimes they need a little more time for questions or to just talk to someone. I thought that that was really interesting and it helped me out a lot. Because really, could you picture the Savior saying to someone, okay, well, it's been an hour and I really need to go now? No. He always had time for the one. Also she was sharing how all of us need to seek our own spiritual gifts and not be overly modest about them. As people it's hard for us to pick out the things we do really well. The example of the Savior again: He was the Son of God and He knew it, but He didn't boast about it. We should all know who we are and what we are good at, not to boast but to use those gifts to help others. I don't know...it was just a really neat experience to think about things and about the Savior in ways that I didn't before.

9. Were you able to teach more lessons this week? Find any new investigators? Do any service?

We taught more! Our goal for lessons is 30 as a zone and we taught 33! And that doesn't include our lessons with menos activos (less active members)! So we worked hard this week! We also had divisiones (splits) so we were both working the same day and have double for one day, but still. We found some new people but I don't know who will progress out of the pool of people we have found. We did some service on the side of the road. A kid dropped a bag of dried corn and we helped him pick up the kernels.

10. How is your personal study going? What are you studying, and what stuck out to you this week?

I am trying to get through the New Testament but I'm only in Luke and it's a lot about the life of Christ. I feel like I have read the parables and stories like 50 times, lol, so my progress in there is slow. I love reading them, just not back to back while reading Jesus the Christ at the same time. Hopefully my progress there will pick up after John. I have been reading conference talks and they are all so great! Like every one of them is really good! I liked the one you shared about the good samaritan. All of us in the church have tons of things to do and lots of responsibility but we should always be willing to help and do what we can. Something that stood out to me as a theme from the talks I was reading is that we have to LIVE the gospel. It is not enough to just know the gospel, we must live it. To be converted we must live the principles that we learn. If we don't live it, we will inevitably fall away.

11. What kinds of interesting foods have you cooked or eaten this week? Have you used your comals? Are you going to bring it home so you can make good tortillas for us?

Of course I will bring the comal home. I ate lentils this week. Hna V made some for lunch with marinara sauce and they were actually really good. Other than that I haven't eaten anything weird. I did make myself water with oatmeal in it... I am becoming catracho! (Thats what Hondurans call themselves) I haven't used my comal yet but Hna V used hers. I haven't had the time yet!

12. Did you see anything unusual this week?

Nope. But a dog almost bit me again. Like legit. We were walking down these stairs and a dog started barking just at me and then he ran at me and so I started to run and scream and Hna V turned around and yelled at the dog and she said that he had his jaws open ready to bite me and he was SUPER close to my leg. I could feel his breath on my calf. So that was pretty scary. All the dogs here hate me and I don't know why.

13. What have you learned about yourself this week?

That I really am a very logical person. LOL

14. In what area do you think you’ve improved this week?

Hna V and I are trying to develop Christlike attributes and so this week we were working to grow our faith (see picture) and it's interesting because faith affects everything we do. So try to look for miracles during the day. We try to stay positive. We just have to trust that we will be able to find new people and that will be able to communicate with our limited Spanish. I don't know, we are still working on it, but it has helped me see that I really have more faith that I think that I do.

15. Have you found it easier to enjoy yourself and be happy this week? What was your happiest moment this week?

Mas o menos. (More or less) When the sister training leaders were here it was really fun because they are just fun people. But at the same time, it make me sad because I just want to be a kind of person like them. But I still have such a long way to go. So I got a little discouraged, but in some of the conference talks it says that you just have to keep trying and eventually your efforts will help you become who you want to be. So I have to remember that I can only do what I can and try everyday.

16. Do you know that I love you SO much and I miss you?

Always:)

17. What has been the most beautiful thing you’ve seen this week?

My package from you:)

18. How has the weather been this week?

Nice and hot!!!

19. What ways have you found to serve your companion and others this week?

Hna V and I always have this competition to see who finishes dishes first so the other one can wash them. She always buys a ton of groceries, too, so I help her carry them to the house. But we really haven't been able to do much service. People always say "No, we don't need any help"

20. What did you learn in your district meeting or zone meeting this week?

We had a district meeting and Elder P was talking about how all of us have the same calling and that none of us is greater than the other. Senior companions are no better than junior companions, they just have more experience. It's always good for me to remember. I tend to reflect too much on the title that I have, when really we are working TOGETHER in this work and titles don't matter.

21. Are you and your companion asking for more help from the branch? What other families in your branch are helpful to the missionaries besides Hna Veronica, Hna Amanda, and familia Miranda?

Honestly, right now nobody. Everyone else helps the other hermanas because almost nobody lives in our area. It should get easier when we have phones so we can call people, but as of right now we don't have much support at all. And we still don't have a ward mission leader so that makes it harder to communicate.

I am still so tired, but we are working hard. I love my companion! I really could not think of a better companion for me right now than her! I learn so much from her and she's such a great example! :)

Are you still going to send me sandals? I think somehting like Teva would be the best. But really I just want some sandals.

I love you all! Keep supporting the missionaries in any way you can!

les queiro mucho!

Hermana Gisseman

Yum!!!