Well, there are transfers this week but we won't know until tonight if one of us has a transfer so... yeah, I don't know. I really don't feel like I will be leaving at all but if I did I think that I would be soooo sad. I love Hna Marcia and her family and Andrea and just all of them are so great... and we have some great people we are teaching but we will see....maybe next week I will have exciting news for you or things will just be the same haha...
As for the Disney trip... I want to be able to go to all the parks. I don't care where we stay although I do like the moderate resorts better but after living in Honduras I think anything is nice. In fact, I was happy when there was free toilet paper in a public bathroom today! And I would like to go to 'Ohana. But other than that I don't really care what we do as long as we go together. :)
1. Did E get
baptized this weekend? How is Iris doing? How is Hno I? E
did get baptized this week. :) All the jovenes (youth) from the church were there to
support him and they have youth activities on Saturdays here and so after the baptism
they all went and played water balloon volleyball and he said he had a lot of fun
and it looks like he already has friends. And there was a cake at his
baptism which made me happy! Iris is really happy that E got baptized. He's a good kid. Hno I... oh, goodness. So he
got an answer that the church is true and we had a cita (appointment) with him and he was
supposed to pray about September 6th (this Saturday) to get baptized and he felt like
he got the answer that he needs to get baptized but he has cold feet about the
fecha, so we read about the Brother of Jared in Ether and how sometimes the
Lord makes us wait and make our preparations before we ask Him to help us. So
his preparations would be coming to E's baptism and having his baptismal interview and obviously still pray. So we are
working with him but he doesn't want to feel pressured and he still doesn't want
to mess up after he gets baptized so we will see if it happens this week or not... He keeps coming to church, even on his birthday!
2. Tell me
about one of your days from this week. What did you do, where did you go,
what did you teach in lessons, who did you meet with, etc.?
This question
is not that exciting because we pretty much do the same thing everyday, lol. We
wake up at 6:30, we exercise por un ratito (for a while). Then I shower and eat and study,
then we have companion study and then we leave at 10 am and the mornings pretty much
suck so if we don't have correlacion with our mission leader or other meetings
we have citas (appointments) but no one is ever home in the mornings and if they are, they are
all making lunch and it's the hotttest part of the day. So we
walk around and visit a few menos activos (less active members). Then we come in at noon for a little
bit of language study and then we go down to lunch with Hna Marcia. We leave again
at 2 pm and we usually have citas every hour because we don't have enough people to
have citas every half hour and we talk a little bit much, so yeah.... and we
come home at 8 pm. I will try to explain how our area is. So the area is
like a big rectangle. So imagine a piece of paper but look at it like landscape
style... fold it in half hamburger way (????), and
then fold it in half again. So you end up with 4 equal long rectangle sections.
The first rectangle section from the left is the 3rd edition (???) of the area, the next section is the 2nd edition and the next is the main section
where we live. The section on the far right is San Miguel and in comparison is
very tiny. The church is at the very top of the paper between the 2nd and 3rd
editions. Now above that piece of paper are two other colonies (neighborhoods?) that are A LOT
smaller than our area but they are full of richer people and its harder to
teach there so we usually walk around in the victoria, the first and the 2nd
editions.
3. What did you
do for P-Day today?
We were supposed to go to the beach!
But no..... so we didn't do anything. Hna N
needs new shoes so we went to a tiny mall that is in Choloma and didn't have any
luck there. I tried on a bunch of somewhat cute tops just for fun but nothing
fit me, or they were too see through, lol. But I also tried on my jeans today...
yeah.... they fit in the waist but they are now really, really tight everywhere else.... so I don't know that I will wear tat size anymore when I get home....
so sad. We went to the mall but no luck... and now we are here... so that's
pretty much all we have done today, lol.
4. How was the
conference with Elder Alonso? How did the musical number(s) and the choir
do?
IT WAS SO LEGIT! Elder Alonso is pretty scary, actually. He just says
what he thinks and says it like it is and calls people out and, wow... he's
really intimidating and I would never want to talk to just him, lol, but he had
lots of good stuff to say. So he didn't really come with anything prepared, he
just answered our questions so it was a big Q and A thing. But we went with
half the mission. We sang the song and we didn't even get to practice it all the
way through with the other zone before he got there...so that made me really,
really nervous but it ended up being good. Elder Alonso made a joke at m,e
though, because i was trying to get the choir to sing louder so I cupped my hand
behind my ear right to sign to them to sing louder and he said, "we should
really take this hermana to get her hearing checked because she doesn't hear
anything!" and then he said, "well, it was a nice musical number even if
some people came in a little late or a little too early at times....": Ugh! Well, sorry....everyone should try directing missionaries in a musical number.!Anyway, I really liked some of the different perspectives that he shared with
us. We read the parable of the good samaritan in Luke 10 and how it represents Christ. He had
people do practices teaching it but they all talked about service and so he
stopped us and we went through it. So when it talks about the man went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho it symbolizes leaving the premortal life and coming down to
the earth. And the theives are temptations and Satan and how sin leaves us
half dead and unable to do enything for ourselves. We can't take away our own
sins. Neither could the other two men on the path take them away, they didn't
have the authority. But the third man, which would represent Christ, can. So Christ
healed the man with oil and wine. Oil would probably be olive oil and we
know that the process of making that oil is comparable to the suffering of
Christ as well as making of wine which symbolizes His blood. And He paid the
price for us with his suffering but in the end if there is more left to pay, He
will pay it. So I had never thought about that parable in that way that Christ was
the good samaritan but I never saw how perfectly all the symbols and imagery go
together. So yeah, I really liked that and he said that in our scripture study
that we should look for the plan of salvation and the atonement in everything.
Other example... 1 Nephi 1:1... if you look at it from a plan of salvation
perspective, Nephi is talking about being taught by his Heavenly Father in the
premortal life and that his works here on earth are being
written in the book of life.... interesting. But it was cool. Elder
Alonso really knows what he's talking about... and he talks like he knows
Christ. I want to be able to (one day) speak and teach and testify like that.
5. How is Hna S
doing?
She's is doing well.... she realized that her "husband" is
holding her back. She cannot progress or get baptized or anything unless he does
too since they are together. So she didn't come to church because she
felt bad and was making a point to him that he has to change. So we were
really worried yesterday. And we had a cita with them with a family in the ward
who is really becoming friends with them (thanks for befriending Diana...it
REALLY, REALLY makes a huge difference!!!) and it turns out he started
smoking again and it really upset Hna S. So they are going to see how things go
for 2 weeks and if they are good they will get married and then baptized but if
they aren't so good they will split up and stop living together and Hna S will
get baptized and hopefully he will too, but the plan is that in the next two
weeks they will get better and get married! But it was a really good lesson
with them and they both need patience with the other one. But there is no doubt
in my mind that they will get baptized.
6. What
miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week? Answers to your
prayers?
E got baptized without any problems and there was cake and he
even gave us little hair scrunchies as a thank you which was really sweet. And
Andrea came back! I don't remember if I told you but they went out of town for a
week to San Pedro and we came home to a dark house all week but they got home
and have been here so it feels like home again. :)
7. How has
someone else blessed your life this week?
Familia M (the family
that is befriending Hna S and her "husband") gave us some really, really, really good
cake! They bought it from a bakery and it was soooooo gooooood!!!! So that just
made me super excited, haha. I got a little bracelet from Hna P for my birthday and Hna A sent me a picture of the two of us with a sweet note:)
8. How have you
blessed someone else’s life this week?
Not sure.
9. What was the
best thing that happened this week?
E's baptism went really well. But I
really loved the conference and I got to see Hermana V and I just love her
so much! She is so great and I think that my time in Santa Rosa with her will
be some of my favorite memories:)
10. What was
the funniest/funnest thing that happened this week?
We bought water guns and
have been squirting each other at any time possible, haha.
11. What did
you learn in church yesterday?
I don't know... it was really hard to pay
attention because they were talking about food storage and family home
evening... two things that don't really apply to us right now so I kind of zoned
out a little bit and I was waiting and loooking for Hna S the whole time and
they didn't come. :( But Hno I did come which was good! And E was
confirmed.
12. What did
you do for your district meeting and zone meeting this week?
Elder G
talked about using the Book of Mormon more to help in conversion and it was a
good lesson.
13. Have you
had any ideas of pranks or practical jokes you can play on Elder S to get
him back for putting the lizard in your hymnbook?
We squirted him with our
water guns!
14. What was
the spiritual highlight of your week?
The conference with Elder Alonso.
15. What did
you learn from your personal study this week?
Lots of stuff that I don't remember
at the moment.... but I read the Liahona magazine a lot this week and that's always a
good read. I finished Jeremiah (finally).
16. Do you know
that I love you SO much and I miss you?
Always
17. What was
the most beautiful thing you saw this week?
There was a realyl pretty sunset so
i took a picture of it for you. :)
18. Did
anything unusual or strange happen this week?
Well, it's been happening for a
while now... but my hair falls out like nothing else! It's quite ridiculous!
Maybe I even said this last week, I don't remember... I'm almost afraid to wash my
hair now because it falls out so much and I don't know if it's because it's hot or stress or
what...I don't know...but it's gross. And I have fungus on my arm but don't worry, there's a doctor
in our ward and he gave me a cream for it.
19. What are
you looking forward to this week?
Transfers. I don't think that we will have
them but the zone will change and new people are always good to get to know.
20. What
was the best thing and the worst thing you ate this week?
We ate really gross
baleadas last night.... I don't know why the tortillas were so weird but they were not
good and the cheese tasted old, like smelly feet!
21. How do you think you’ve grown
personally and spiritually in the last few months?
I think that...well, I
don't know.... I feel the same. But I think that I am learning more patience
with myself. Maybe I still need more patience with others, lol, but I think that
I am more hopeful in the fact that I can change and that really I will have all
the time that is necessary because God wants me to succeed and He will give me
the opportunities I need to change. I don't know if that makes sense, lol, this email is
long and I've been typing for a while.
I got cards from Gena and Mom! Thanks! I won't get any mail
this week because of transfers.... there is never mail the week before transfers.
Oh, and after transfers when the
newbiew get here we will be a mission of 223 missionaries. WOW!
Tomorrow will be 11 months on the mission! Wow! Seven months just seems
like such a long time sometimes. l love the mission but it's so dang
hard. And when I put my jeans on today I didn't have my nametag on and I just
looked like me, like just Alyssa. And sometimes I miss just being Alyssa. But I know I'm where I'm supposed to be!
Love you! The pedicures we got last week
My watermelon fingernails from last week
I made this book....
At E's baptism
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