Happy 8 months to me!
Erin sent me a picture of Andrew. It's so weird that she was pregnant and had a baby all while I've been gone. Time is so fast and so slow at
the same time and it's so weird. It's weird to think that people have lives
because I feel like mine is just on hold.
Last week for P-Day we went to a regular grocery store...wel,l
sort of...it's tiny and called the mini market. I usually buy apples, yogurt,
and snacks. Things that they don't sell in pulperias.
Usually after district meetings we play Signs or we have
been playing "I have mail" -- I don't know what it's called in English....
But you say I have mail for everyone who.... and then whatever you want so who
is wearing black, who has been to Disney World, who is a missinoary. And all
the people who fit that category have to get up and find another seat. So like
the fruit basket turnover game, I guess, lol.
I got a package from your friend Christelle -- she is so sweet! She sent me a great Minnie Mouse drawing, Twistables (for coloring), a coloring book with old movie poster pictures (love it!), chocolate (yum!), Minnie Mouse stickers, and some little artsy things. I loved it -- thank you so much, Christelle!!!
1. What did you do
for P-Day this week?
NOTHING. "Again, freakin' again!" (That was a
quote from "Ghost in the Stalls" if anyone else has seen it and finds it as
hilarious as I do, lol) But yeah... so I told our Zone Leader who pretty much
plans stuff that we should do something because I need people and more
specifically I need people that speak English! So
I think we were going to do something but he got dengue fever
so he went to San Pedro and was in the hospital...so we didn't do anything... I
woke up and cleaned and then colored a little bit in the coloring book from Christelle. The coloring book with old movie picture posters made me feel sophisticated and not like a little kid, haha. So I colored, cleaned, took a HOT bucket shower because I
actually heated up the water and then watched the John Tanner video because I
literally had nothing better to do. So at like 10 am or so we went out to shop and
I decided that I needed some retail therapy! So I bought another Honduras soccer
jersey but it's different than my other one and a better quality. I bought a pair of
super comfy pants that I will definitely wear in college. They are are turquise
linenish pants and they are just comfy and I bought a white tank top that
everyone wears here and it like sucks you in so you look skinny, not that I'm fat, but I really like these tank tops actually. So yeah...dropped a whole 35
dollars.... 730-ish lempiras. On pretty much just crap, but it was crap that I
really wanted to buy. Oh, and both of
us boght this stuff called linasa that apparently is supposed to make your hair
grow so I might try it just for funsies. Tthen we went to eat lunch and Hna
C wanted tajadas so we found a cafeteria place and ate there and
literally everyone stared at me when I walked in the door.... yeah, the perks
of being white in a latin country. So we ate pollo con tajadas.... which is
fried chicken with fried green bananas covered in some kind of sauce and cole
slaw. It really good chicken actually but not the best tajadas I have had. And
then... then we came here.
2. What song
did your piano student pass off? Do you find any time for YOU to play the
piano?
She passed off "There is a Green Hill Far Away." I don't have any time for me to play the
piano which is really sad because I would love to practice and get better at
playing the hymns so that I actually could play in sacrament meeting but I dont
have any time to practice so I cannot get better, but only worse.
3. How was
church yesterday? Did any of your less active members come to
church? I read on another missionary blog that there are often dogs in
their Sunday church meetings…lol….have you seen that in any of your church
meetings? What interesting things have you seen/experienced at church
there?
Church was pretty good. We are planning an activity like a mini CCM for
this friday... hopefully people come. So we spent the last hour block just
going around to announce to all the classes. But Gloria was at church,
and another menos activo (less active member) but I don't remember his name. But a menos activo for years and
years came to church for the first time yesterday!!! So that was really
exciting. He has really been struggling in his family and they are members, too,
but he came without them yesterday and so that was awesome. There is a dog that
comes to church, haha, and there was one in Santa Rosa too, but they just wait
outside which is good. At least they have good manners. But everyone calls him
the Mormon dog and says he's already a member and has better attendance than
anyone because he goes to seminary and all the meetings, too, haha. It's the dog
of Jorge Eli who you met on Skype. That's about the only interesting thing that
I have seen at church... And I know yesterday was Fast Sunday, but I have been
sick and I tried to fast but then someone gave us bread in the church and my
head hurt really bad and I wanted to take medicine so I ate the bread so that I
could take meds... and because I wanted the bread, Just goes to show that the
natural man is weak! And I came off of the last fast with such a great
expereince... how quick we are to forget. But, yeah, that was nice though to eat
bread, haha.
4. How is
Gloria doing? Hna Catalina, Kildre and Alfredo? I keep
praying that her understanding will improve and that her heart will be
softened. Who are some of the other people you are working with?
The guy who called out to you and Hna C when you were out walking last
week, that had been an old investigator of the elders – did you go visit him
again?
So that guy said he would come to church so we could put a cita (schedule an appointment)
because he wasn't home when we passed by there... but he didn't come to church so
haven't havent visited him yet. :( Gloria is doing well! It started pouring
yesterday while we were out and we passed by her house and she took pity on us
and let us help her make tortillas and then she fed us. :) So we didn't have to be
out in the rain. Hna Catalina and Kildre y Alfredo haven't been to church
since my first Sunday in El Dorado... so that's really sad. I don't know that they
will ever really come back.
5. What
miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week? Answers to your
prayers?
I have actually seen quite a few this week. This week I feel like I really saw sings that God is aware of my situation and what I need and that He really does love me. I had several very specific prayers answered almost immediately and it was amazing and I could just see that Heavenly Father really does want me to be here and He wants me to be ok. No, more than ok -- happy. For example, I got sick this week (just with a cold so don't worry, and I'm almost better). I really didn't feel like eating anything at all but I knew that I needed to eat. So we were at a pulperia buying a drink and I told Hna C that I really should eat something but nothing sounded good except maybe bread. A minute later a woman passed by selling bread, and any of my companions can tell you that I absolutely LOVE bread. So I was very grateful that I could buy something to eat, the only thing that I actually would have eaten. And that happened twice this week when I needed to eat but only bread sounded good and there was bread. Usually we don't run into anyone selling bread so the fact that these women just happened to be there when we were is a small miracle. Another example, I really didn't want to walk around in the hot sun not feeling well and t was really hot and sunny so I prayed that a cloud would cover up the sun and no joke, two minutes later a huge cloud covered up the sun! It was amazing. Just a lot of little experiences like that which are probably superficial and I should probably ask for strength the endure the challenges rather than asking to change the circumstances but I truly am grateful that I have a Father in Heaven who is looking out for me all the time.
6. How has someone
else blessed your life this week?
Well, like I said I was sick this week and
still am a little bit, but I went to bed early one day (well, everyday pretty
much) but when I woke up Hna C had drawn a really cute drawing of me
as a princess and wrote a little note so that was sweet.
7. Tell me
about some of the families/people who have you over for meals?
We had dinner
with the district Relief Society president. She's really nice. We actually
stopped by the house of the rama (branch?) Relief Society president and she gave us a
baleada and asked us why no one fed us.... Really not that many people feed us. We never have appointments to
eat. But sometimes when we visit people they will give us something, but it's
not like the elders who practically have every meal given to them. I don't like
this discrimination towards the sisters!
8. Have you
spoken in your ward yet? Or led the music, or taught a class, or anything
like that?
Nope, haha. I haven't spoken but I have been asked to lead the music a
few times in Relief Society which is no big deal.
9. Do you have
members who go out with you to your visits/appointments?
Ummmm....not really.... we
have tried to get some members to go out with us but they have stood us up...
which sucks... We're having a hard time with some of the branch leadership. There isn't much support for this activity we're planning and we're pretty much doing everything by ourselves.
10. What was
the best thing that happened this week?
After our district meeting I got to
speak in English. I really love my language and not just because I know it, but
because it's just so great! I was studying English before the mission and even
now I have a greater appreciation for it. There is only me and the District Leader and the
Zone Leader who are gringos and both of them are in the other branch... so yeah, I haven't
been able to speak English all week except for ONE day! When we have our
district meeting and I really miss it but we just chilled and talked for
like an hour and a half which was just like breathing in fresh air.
11. You have
sounded discouraged lately….have you had more moments of happiness or joy this
week? Do you think that you and/or Hna C will be transferred?
I really hope we have changes, and I want her to have changes because she's so unhappy here. I want her to be able to be somewhere that she can be more happy. She has more time than me here so it makes sense that
she would be changed and not her. But I really don't think we'll have changes. Changes are on the 11th so we will see what happens. The most logical is that we stay together for two changes. The most probable is that president takes pity on us since we are both unhappy and one of us has changes. It will probably be Hna C because she has the most time here.
12. What was
the funnest/funniest thing that happened this week?
Sorry, but it hasn't been a fun week.
13. What was
the spiritual highlight of your week?
Well, Hna C went to bed really early
one night and I didn't want to go to bed yet, so I decided to watch the Joseph Smith
Restoration video (even though it's only in Spanish) and afterward I was just
thinking about how Joseph Smith really was a prophet! I just love that video
because after everytime I see it I just know he was. I think a lot of people
think we Mormons are crazy and that we worship him or that we are brainwashed
into believing stuff. But I am quite an inteligent person. I don't take crap
from anyone and people who know me know that! I would be here living in a
third world country without my family and friends, living a crazy schedule,
speaking in a different language and etc, if I didn't really know that all of
this was true. But it is true and I know it and that's why I am here. Because I
know that this knowledge can bless people's lives.
Also we were in a
meeting this week and the branch president was chewing out the mission leader which
was dumb because the mission leader does more than anyone to help us but anyway, the
misison leaders started talking about how for a time in his life he was just a
mediocre Mormon and he didn't read his scriptures everyday, but he did go to
church. He didn't really do anything above and beyond for his callings, but he
had one. He said that one day he decided that he really needed more and
that he didn't want to be mediocre, but wanted to enjoy all the blessings that
the gospel has to offer us. So he started to read everyday, and to have Family
Home Evening with his daughters and to help them study. He got a different
calling and he tried to do everything he could to fulfill his responsibilities.
It just made me think that for a long time I was a mediocre Mormon. And it's easy,
but it's not how we should live. If we are truly converted to the gospel we will
do all of those things,pray, read, do Family Home Evening, go to church, etc., not
because we want to please other people, to make them think we are super pilas,
but because we really want the blessings and we want to do what's right, do what
God wants us to do. That doesn't mean that we will strive to be branch
president or Relief Society president, but I don't want to be just a mediocre Mormon, I want
to be more that that so that I can enjoy all the blessing that God has for me.
I guess that applies to a mediocre missionary, too.
14. What
service have you done for others? What service have others done for you
this week?
We helped Gloria make tortillas and another menos activo, Ana Luz. I'm getting
pretty good if I do say so myself!
15. What did
you learn from your personal study this week? Where are you at in the Old
Testament? What else are you studying right now?
I am in Psalms... and
it's really not my favorite and I can't say that I have really learned much from
it and it's super long... yeah, I still have 40 more of them to go.... I am in
the Book of Mormon again and I just finished 2 Nephi. I really like reading all of the
prophesies that are in the Book of Mormon and later completed. So Nephi talks about having
seen his people and the destruction and when Christ comes and all of that and
it's so interesting to compare his account and his visions with what actually
happened and it's the same! But I guess that's why he was a prophet.
But I really like seeing things like that in the Book of Mormon because it testifies to me
that it really is true!
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?
I don't know...
18. Did anything
unusual or strange happen this week?
YES! We got attacked by bugs this
week! It was super rainy a few days this week and it brought out all the bugs!
We had 2 HUGE spiders in our house... those were fun to try to kill because we
were both screaming, hahaha. The power went out and so I put on the head lamp
that Grandma and Papa sent me which is great and I look super cool when I wear
it (LOL)and a dragonfly came in the house and hit me in the head like 3 times
trying to get the light and then I swatted it with a broom and killed it. And
there were swarms of bugs like love bugs but with bigger wings and not flying
together and I don't know what they are called, palomillas or something like that, and
they are just annoying.... so that wasn't fun but today has been pretty normal.
Oh and there was a giant slug that crawled out of the drain that was in our
shower.... third world problems.
19. What are
you looking forward to this week?
Getting to speak English (hopefully) tomorrow
after our district meeting but I don't know since the Zone Leaders are in San Pedro...
20. What did
Pres Dester have to say this week? Do you ever talk to Sis Dester?
What is she like?
This is what he said: With his great faith and trust in God, Joseph
had an insurmountable optimism. He knew the truth, and the truth made him free
– free from fear, free from doubt, and free from pessimism. He said, “If I were
sunk in the lowest pit of Nova Scotia, with the Rocky Mountains piled on me, I
would hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I would come out
on top.”
Now, think of how this attitude of optimism
could apply to you. When you face challenges and are tempted to be discouraged,
think about this attitude of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and try to learn why he
was so positive and optimistic even when he confronted serious problems,
probably more serious than the ones that you or I are facing now. May the Lord
bless you always to remember your blessings and to recognize that He is with
you! And may that knowledge strengthen you and cause you to be happy! We love
you!
This was from a mass
message because he didn't have time to answer us all individually... but I still
thought that it was really good. And nom I didn't ever talk to Sis Dester. She's really cute:)
21. How do you
feel you’ve done this week in being a better Consecrated Missionary and “the
Fourth Missionary”? I think you’re right that there is something about
that place that just wears people down…hopefully you’ll be transferred
soon. But there is a reason Heavenly Father has you there right now….have
you prayed about finding that reason?
Yeah, but a while ago so i probably should
do that again... I really feel like just being here I've taken a huge step
backward and that I am in no part the 4th missionary but only the 3rd. So I
don't know what I can do... I really just need changes.
I also got a letter from Aliscea this week, and last week from Alexa and
Moriah.Thank you so much! And again thank you to Christelle. The package was perfect for real and I have loved
coloring in the coloring book. :) I have colored almost everyday and so ideas
for more packages -- sophisticated coloring books!
Had a kind of sucky
experience this week... We were walking right after a huge rainstorm and it was
still really wet and sprinkling. We were walking in some dirty roads and there
was a mini river of water that we had to cross. I took the time to clean my
feet off because my sandals were pretty dirty and Hna C crossed. A man
approached us from the opposite direction and without saying anything jumped in
the puddle to purposefully get me all wet. I didn't even do anything to him and I was
really sad. I had water and dirt all over my face and my clothes and yeah, it
was not fun.
As far as birthday ideas, I
really don't know
what I want for my birthday... ranola bars, chocolate, trail mix and
such. Coloring books... Christelle just sent me stickers so I really don't need more stickers yet. I really don't need much....
sigan adelante (keep going forward)
Hna Gisseman
New hairstyle this week...
Spiders -- EWWWWWWW!!!!
