Week 49 -- Getting Ready to Paint!

The fungus on my arm is going away. The Doctor at church is graduating medical school this year and he's pretty smart and I trust him and he can actually see my arm in person. I asked Hna Marcia if what he told me to buy was good or not and she said that it is good and my skin been getting a lot better so don't worry... the hair falling out is still a major problem and I'm not joking when I say that my ponytail is soooo thin..... it scares me. I think that I have lost like a third of my hair but that may be over-exaggerating... .but I don't know what to do.

We did NOT have changes. So I am still comp menor (junior companion) while all the other hermanas in the mission are moving up. I was really upset but such is life and you don't always get what you want. There must be more I need to learn about being a follower, not a leader.  I'm so happy that I'm still here with Hna Marcia and Andrea:)

The ring I bought last week is thin silver and it makes a rose... I should just take a picture. And I bought several movies last week...Captain America 1 and 2, Despicable Me, one of the X-Men movies, and Thor, I think.  I don't really remember.  But I've got a nice movie collection to bring home with me.  :-)

1. How is Hermano I doing? 

 

Well, in between getting an answer and having his baptismal interview he talked with some testigos (anti-Mormons) and lost everything. He decided that he only believes in the Bible. So if it's not in the Bible he doesn't believe it.... so a complete 180 from where he was. We had an appointment with him and the elders came and it did not go well....  

2.  Your description of your area helped me to visualize it...but how big is it in terms of square miles?  I'm wondering about how much you walk every day.  I've thought about sending you a pedometer so you can measure your walking, just out of curiousity.  What is the size of the 1st edition and 2nd edition?  Are they like equivalent to a subdivision in size?

 

Yeah, they are like a tiny subdivision. You can walk lengthwise the editions in 2 minutes, and the other way lIN ike 5. So they are really small and it's laid out in a grid system. 

3.  Who else are you teaching?

 

Actually... not many people. We have Hermana S and we found a new sister, Hermana Z who is really cute. And a guy named E, a teenager who I think is really just interested in learning English but he came to our Noche de Cine activity at the church where we watched the film The Testaments and he came to church so we're going to try to visit him.There's potential as long as he doesn't try to flirt with us, LOL. But really we are looking and looking for new people.  

4.  How is Hermana S doing?

 

She is doing really, really well. She wants to get baptized, she knows it's true. She's reading in the Doctrine and Covenants, Moses, and 1 Nephi... like, who does that?! She wants to get baptized and then she can go on the temple trip with our ward on the 26th.... But she is just so pilas (awesome). She made us dinner the other day, too. Enchiladas Honduran style. 

5.  What did you do for P-Day today?

 

We went to San Pedro with Hermana Marcia because Hna N needed shoes really, really bad and I wanted to buy paint for Hermana Marcia so we can paint her living room and other rooms in her house.  :) It's the least I can do for her since she shares everything that she has with us. And so it was fun to just be out! And we ran in to missionaries from the San Pedro Sula East mission which was funny. 

6.  Are you ready for us to send you some new workouts for your exercise book?

 

Perhaps... I hardly exercise now which is terrible but I'm so exhausted... 

7.  What miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week?  Answers to your prayers?

 

Well, I found apiece of paper from when I was sick and had to go to the doctor during my transfer with Hna U and I actually weigh a few pounds less than I did when I left... so I have been freaking out about weighing more... and apparently I really don't. I have gotten fatter though, I think I've just lost muscle. But it made me feel better that I weigh less, LOL. But seriously, I don't know...this week was a rough one. But Hermana Marcia did go with us to San Pedro which was great, even if it was for her, because we wouldn't have been able to go without her. 

8.  How has someone else blessed your life this week?

 

Hermana S made us dinner and on Sunday at church the teacher asked her if she felt like she had recieved answers to prayers and she told about how she had been praying at the beginning of the year that she could find a church to go to and how we found her.  :) That made me feel like the work we do really is important and that there really are people waiting for us. 

9.  How have you blessed someone else’s life this week?

 

Buying the paint for Hermana Marcia.  :)

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

 

We had a Noche De Cine (movie night activity) with the ward and we watched the movie The Testaments. We had a lot of investigators and menos activos (less actives) there which was great. It was a rough start... but in the end we got everything working and we made popcorn and juice and people really liked it. And we got lots of contacts out of it, too! 

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

 

I don't know... 

12.  How was your Fast Sunday yesterday?  Do many people in your ward/branch bear their testimonies?

 

It was actually one of the best testimony meetings that I have ever been in. And one of the youth, Hermana Marcia's nephew, went out teaching with us for like 20 minutes this week to go contact his friend and he got up and bore his testimony about how we ended up finding 3 more people to teach and how he just felt so excited to do missionary work and it made me so happy. We weren't even with him that long and we did contact some people and they rejected us and he didn't say anything, but to him it was a really big deal and a huge testimony building experience. So that was so sweet. And a lot of people had good things to say about the Noche de Cine that we had and said they felt the Spirit so strongly and that it helped strengthen thier testimony that Christ lives. 

13.  What did you do for your district meeting and zone meeting this week?

 

We had a testimony meeting since there were changes and people left. Not many from our zone had changes which was nice, LOL. 

14.  What was the spiritual highlight of your week?

 

I think that Hermano I wants to know the Bible and I realized that I don't really know it that well.... so I set a goal to read the New Testament in Spanish so I have been doing that for part of my personal studies and I love it. And it's really easy to understand in Spanish so I feel like the Lord is blessing my language skills a lot because before it was really hard for me, but also that my ability to remember and to study the New Testament has grown and I'm finding scriptures for people and it's so cool. But I feel like my study means more because I have motivation, if that makes sense. 

15.  What did you learn from your personal study this week?

 

Oh, well, I talked about that a little bit... but I liked the parable of the wicked husbandman or something like that where the guy opens a vineyard and hires laborers and they kill the servants, so he sends more servants and they kill them, too. So then he sends his son. So that is like how God sent prophets and the people rejected them. Then He sent His son, and they killled Him, too. But then in the parable it says that He would call other servants in time, and that's like the restoration of the gospel and how He did call prophets again when the time was right... so, yeah, the restoration is in the Bible. :-)

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?

 

The little puppy.... it was so cute. 

18.  Did anything unusual or strange happen this week?

 

Well, Hermana M got a new puppy since her dog died and it's so cute, but I think that it died today which makes me sooo sad. I was petting it and it started seizing and my heart was just breaking because I love little dogs. And it was so cute but we haven't been back to see it so I don't know... but it was really sick.  :(

19.  What are you looking forward to this week?

 

Painting Hermana Marcia's house!!!!! 

20.  What was the best thing and the worst thing you ate this week?

 

We ate a Mexican dish with pretty much soggy tortilla chips, but it was WAY good! So I tried to write down mas o menos (more or less) the recipe but we will see if I can make it when I get home, lol. The worst.... I don't really remember. Oh, and today I ate an icecream cone from McDondalds....chocolate cone with chocolate ice cream with oreos on top...for 15 lmps which is less than a dollar. Yeah, I'm lovin' it. 

21.  How do you think your understanding of the Savior and his divine mission has changed since you've been on your mission?

 

I don't know that I really understood the love that He had. Well maybe a little, but I think that I can feel that more on my mission and feel His love not only for me, but for other people. And I understand more that we don't have to be perfect, that He really will help us. That He will make up the difference, no matter how far short we fall. So it's okay to make mistakes and to fall and get back up again, to learn and to try. He just wants us to be happy. 

22.  How are Amy and Melissa doing?

 

Really well! Amy's going to train next change. Melissa has been a sister training leader... they are just so great. I have really good friends. 

If you're sending a package, you could send Mio, and if you could just send recipes for Andrea in an e-mail that would be better...because Andrea keeps asking me for them. Any recipes that are simple because a lot of American stuff here is expensive so it has to be really homemade stuff but whatever you want to  send like cake, cookies whatever. But she really wants recipes. Yeah, 11 months now... 

Love you! 

Hermana Gisseman

No pictures this week = sad missionary mama!