Hola Familia!
I'm doing a lot better this week. Thank for your letters of help and encouragement. This week is transfer week, and I'm in for a huge change! We already found out that our area is going to be "flushed," which means that both of us are leaving and they are bringing in new missionaries, which will probably be elders. We still don't know where we are going though. We know for sure that it will be an area a lot closer to the temple. It has been a big hassle commuting every day in LA traffic, so we are glad to be done with that. It is going to be so crazy for me, because I have been used to being in that same apartment, in that same area for my entire mission so far. Plus is is going to be an entirely different mission for me, because I'm going from little Mexico to an area like Beverly Hills or Hollywood. I'm excited about it though. The hardest part has been saying goodbye to all of the people I've come to know and love in this area. I've also been meeting a lot of really amazing people in the Visitor's Center, and seeing little miracles every day. There is a chance that I won't be serving in the Visitor's Center, because they won't need all of us, so they'll rotate us in and out for different transfers. I'll find out everything for sure tonight, so I'll let you know next week.
- Hermana Dansie
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Cudahy: Traslado 5: Semana 5 / Aug. 25, 2010
Hey family and friends. :)
This week was really rough. We spent the week doing a lot of great training, and had an incredible zone conference with Elder Allen Packer. We have been learning how to do everything completely different. For some reason, probably with all of the changes and everything that has been going on lately, I was feeling really overwhelmed. I felt like I had hit my halfway mark and hadn't accomplished anything, and like I was a failure, and just really inadequate. I had been having a hard time with my companion and we both felt really misunderstood and unloved, like we've had three transfers together but still couldn't get it together and weren't really close friends. I think that Satan has been trying to give us a lot more opposition because he knows that all of the new things we are learning and doing in the mission are going to be so powerful. As Elder Packer said, we are learning the language of the spirit, and that is something that is going to change and bless the mission and me personally, and have an impact on my whole life. We are learning how to ask inspired questions and then just stop and listen for the spirit to guide us so we can discern. I have already seen the difference in my teaching and it is really powerful.
I also learned how powerful it is to pray and ask very specific questions to God, and listen to receive the specific answers. I received the answers to my prayers and the comfort and guidance I needed, as well as the ability to have a stronger friendship and companionship. I realized again that I need to stop being so hard on myself and expecting myself to be the perfect missionary. I think that it was just the fact that I've looked forward to my mission for my entire life, and I had so many huge expectations for myself. I just needed to realize that Heavenly Father has blessed me in so many ways, and there really was no reason to even be discouraged. I guess it was just a challenge to help me grow stronger. I feel like being on a mission breaks you down to your very core, so that way if you let him God can build you into the person he wants you to be. I don't have very much time to be specific this week, but just know that I've really appreciated having you all there for me and praying for me, and giving me that love and support when I desperately needed it, even if you didn't know that I did.
- Hermana Dansie
This week was really rough. We spent the week doing a lot of great training, and had an incredible zone conference with Elder Allen Packer. We have been learning how to do everything completely different. For some reason, probably with all of the changes and everything that has been going on lately, I was feeling really overwhelmed. I felt like I had hit my halfway mark and hadn't accomplished anything, and like I was a failure, and just really inadequate. I had been having a hard time with my companion and we both felt really misunderstood and unloved, like we've had three transfers together but still couldn't get it together and weren't really close friends. I think that Satan has been trying to give us a lot more opposition because he knows that all of the new things we are learning and doing in the mission are going to be so powerful. As Elder Packer said, we are learning the language of the spirit, and that is something that is going to change and bless the mission and me personally, and have an impact on my whole life. We are learning how to ask inspired questions and then just stop and listen for the spirit to guide us so we can discern. I have already seen the difference in my teaching and it is really powerful.
I also learned how powerful it is to pray and ask very specific questions to God, and listen to receive the specific answers. I received the answers to my prayers and the comfort and guidance I needed, as well as the ability to have a stronger friendship and companionship. I realized again that I need to stop being so hard on myself and expecting myself to be the perfect missionary. I think that it was just the fact that I've looked forward to my mission for my entire life, and I had so many huge expectations for myself. I just needed to realize that Heavenly Father has blessed me in so many ways, and there really was no reason to even be discouraged. I guess it was just a challenge to help me grow stronger. I feel like being on a mission breaks you down to your very core, so that way if you let him God can build you into the person he wants you to be. I don't have very much time to be specific this week, but just know that I've really appreciated having you all there for me and praying for me, and giving me that love and support when I desperately needed it, even if you didn't know that I did.
- Hermana Dansie
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Cudahy: Translado 5: Semana 4 / Aug. 17, 2010
Hola familia!
I'm in the Visitor's Center right now. The libraries all closed on Mondays so we get to e-mail here. So, last week was so crazy that I didn't really get time to explain everything that has been going on. We've been commuting to the Visitor's Center to work everyday half days this transfer, just so that all of the Visitor's Center sisters can get used to it and know what's going on, and then they'll change it so a few of the companionships will be full field next transfer and we'll rotate through. It's a pretty crazy commute- it takes us about an hour both ways, plus we're still doing all of the work in our area, so it has been crazy, but at the same time really great. I love being in the Visitor's Center! I will love it even more when we don't have to battle the LA traffic to get here though. It took us two hours to get here this morning because apparently President Obama is in town, so everyone was trying to get downtown all at once.
We started a special training this week that is going to completely change our mission and missions in general around the world. It is focused on having us listen to and follow the spirit more so that we can really teach the people and not just check off the lessons. I'm really excited for it because I've already seen it help, and it has just been the first day of training. We just had an amazing experience with the sister of an Hermana in our ward who came to the Visitor's Center, and we truly listened to her and listened to the spirit and it was really powerful. It is especially neat because the Hermana is a sister that I feel really close to in the ward that I have known for my whole mission so far, and she is the only member in her family and has told us a lot how much she wishes her family would be open to the gospel, and so it was really special for her to see her sister have an amazing spiritual experience here and hopefully be more open to accepting the gospel.
Last week I referred to a few really hard experiences that we've had, which actually have probably been the hardest of my mission so far. We had one of our investigators that told us she doesn't want to learn anything else, to take our book and to leave, because we accidently really offended her. Her baby was crying because she wanted Hermana Garcia to hold her, but we told her that we can't hold babies because it's against the rules, and so she got super offended and told us that she doesn't want to be mormon. It was especially hard because we already knew her and love her and had been teaching her, and to have them reject us is hard, especially when we were doing everything we could to be obedient. We had to just keep telling ourselves that she just wasn't ready. Even before the baby incident she kept telling us that she felt nothing when we taught her- and really that isn't something that we can force. They are either receptive to the spirit or they aren't, and if they aren't we can't change that, we can just hope and pray that one day she will accept it.
Our ray of sunshine as far as the work in our area goes has been the family that I told you about that came to the Visitor's Center last week. They are so adorable! And they love us. They treat us like we are angels, and like they are so privileged to have us come over when we visit. They are incredibly humble and willing to do whatever they can to get closer to God and do what he wants of them. Their names are Jimmy and Karina, and they have four kids- Melissa (10), Chris (7), Valerie (6), and Maritza (4). The little girls always cry whenever we have to leave. They are getting ready to get married so they can get baptized. They've wanted to be married but had to wait all of this time for everything to go through with Jimmy's immigration papers, and finally they can. Its like everything has fallen into place to prepare them to accept the gospel. We are so excited to help them be baptized and we love them so much! At the very beginning of the transfer I remember telling Hermana Garcia that if the only reason I stayed in Cudahy another transfer was to help them, then I'm happy with just that. There have been a lot of incredibly fulfilling experiences where I've felt "Wow, if I came on my mission just for this, it would be enough." But then Heavenly Father just keeps blessing me with more opportunities to learn and to grow and to be part of these incredible people's lives.
Thank you all again for the love and support you always give me. Your love, your prayers, and your letters have helped to strengthened so much.
Dios les bendiga!
Hermana Dansie
I'm in the Visitor's Center right now. The libraries all closed on Mondays so we get to e-mail here. So, last week was so crazy that I didn't really get time to explain everything that has been going on. We've been commuting to the Visitor's Center to work everyday half days this transfer, just so that all of the Visitor's Center sisters can get used to it and know what's going on, and then they'll change it so a few of the companionships will be full field next transfer and we'll rotate through. It's a pretty crazy commute- it takes us about an hour both ways, plus we're still doing all of the work in our area, so it has been crazy, but at the same time really great. I love being in the Visitor's Center! I will love it even more when we don't have to battle the LA traffic to get here though. It took us two hours to get here this morning because apparently President Obama is in town, so everyone was trying to get downtown all at once.
We started a special training this week that is going to completely change our mission and missions in general around the world. It is focused on having us listen to and follow the spirit more so that we can really teach the people and not just check off the lessons. I'm really excited for it because I've already seen it help, and it has just been the first day of training. We just had an amazing experience with the sister of an Hermana in our ward who came to the Visitor's Center, and we truly listened to her and listened to the spirit and it was really powerful. It is especially neat because the Hermana is a sister that I feel really close to in the ward that I have known for my whole mission so far, and she is the only member in her family and has told us a lot how much she wishes her family would be open to the gospel, and so it was really special for her to see her sister have an amazing spiritual experience here and hopefully be more open to accepting the gospel.
Last week I referred to a few really hard experiences that we've had, which actually have probably been the hardest of my mission so far. We had one of our investigators that told us she doesn't want to learn anything else, to take our book and to leave, because we accidently really offended her. Her baby was crying because she wanted Hermana Garcia to hold her, but we told her that we can't hold babies because it's against the rules, and so she got super offended and told us that she doesn't want to be mormon. It was especially hard because we already knew her and love her and had been teaching her, and to have them reject us is hard, especially when we were doing everything we could to be obedient. We had to just keep telling ourselves that she just wasn't ready. Even before the baby incident she kept telling us that she felt nothing when we taught her- and really that isn't something that we can force. They are either receptive to the spirit or they aren't, and if they aren't we can't change that, we can just hope and pray that one day she will accept it.
Our ray of sunshine as far as the work in our area goes has been the family that I told you about that came to the Visitor's Center last week. They are so adorable! And they love us. They treat us like we are angels, and like they are so privileged to have us come over when we visit. They are incredibly humble and willing to do whatever they can to get closer to God and do what he wants of them. Their names are Jimmy and Karina, and they have four kids- Melissa (10), Chris (7), Valerie (6), and Maritza (4). The little girls always cry whenever we have to leave. They are getting ready to get married so they can get baptized. They've wanted to be married but had to wait all of this time for everything to go through with Jimmy's immigration papers, and finally they can. Its like everything has fallen into place to prepare them to accept the gospel. We are so excited to help them be baptized and we love them so much! At the very beginning of the transfer I remember telling Hermana Garcia that if the only reason I stayed in Cudahy another transfer was to help them, then I'm happy with just that. There have been a lot of incredibly fulfilling experiences where I've felt "Wow, if I came on my mission just for this, it would be enough." But then Heavenly Father just keeps blessing me with more opportunities to learn and to grow and to be part of these incredible people's lives.
Thank you all again for the love and support you always give me. Your love, your prayers, and your letters have helped to strengthened so much.
Dios les bendiga!
Hermana Dansie
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Cudahy: Translado 5: Semana 3 / Aug. 10, 2010
Hola Familia!
Wow, it has been quite a week. By far the most intense week of my entire mission up to this point. A quick overview of what happened would include the Visitor's Center opened, the branch i've been serving in for the last seven months just got demolished (absorbed into another ward), our two investigators that had a date set to be baptized kicked us out of their house within two days, the dress code for sister missionaries was changed, and they announced that next week they are training the whole mission with a brand new curriculim that they are starting to use in the MTC. So, needless to say, it has been quite a week. Its a really good thing that i like change, because otherwise I think this week would have done me in. The Lord has been helping me out a lot though.
So first of all, the Visitor's Center is open! And it is so cool!!! Everything is so beautiful with state of the art technology and brand new media just for this Visitor's Center. They have a 3D graphic model of Jerusalem as it would have been when Christ was here that they have been working on for the last couple of years, there are touch screens for everything, and a way to e-mail all of the media to yourself or to your friends. It is really nice. Elder Allen, the head of the church missionary department, came and did some training with us, and he called it the "crown jewel" of all of the Visitor's Centers that the church has. But more than all of the technology and cool stuff, there is an amazing spirit being there, and it is going to be an incredible tool to help so many people learn about the gospel and come unto Christ. It was neat having the training and hearing them tell us that as the sister missionaries here the center is just the box, and we are the pearls. We have the responsibility to use these resources to make it a special, life changing experience for everyone that walks in the doors, members and nonmembers alike.
With that said, anyone and everyone is welcome to come to the center. That includes all of you. The only thing that they ask is that you do not come just to visit me. If you happen to be in Los Angeles already and really want to come to the Visitor's Center, I hope you do because it is an incredible place and would be a really neat experience to see it. But with that said, I am not going to tell you what my schedule is, and please don't come here searching for me. If I happen to see you, then its ok, and they told us that it will just give us the opportunity to show our families and friends how we are within our role as a missionary. They just ask to be very careful, because visits could potentially completely unfocus the missionary and take us out of our purpose for being here. So, the point is, don't avoid the Visitor's Center because I'm here, but also, don't come just because I'm here.
Last Thursday they had a special event for the opening of the Visitor's center and Elder Hinkley came and spoke to us. He is President Hinkley's son, and he has a really special spirit and presence about him, and is like his dad in a lot of ways, so that was really neat. Elder Allen also talked to us about the privilege of being a sister missionary here and being part of this opening. It really is such a special thing to be here and to have been here for all of the excitement of opening. I was thinking about it the other day and realizing that I've gotten everything I asked for, because I had seven months to be in an area completely immersed in spanish and the latin culture and have all of those unique experiences and learn spanish, and now I get to use that spanish and those experiences from the Visitor's Center to help me here.
With the opening of the Visitor's Center alone my entire mission has completely changed. We are going to be commuting to work in the Visitor's Center every day, and also we will still have all of the weight and responsibility of serving in our areas, so it is going to be a little intense for awhile as we transition. We are one of three companionships that has to commute to the Visitor's Center, but we are by far the farthest out, and the commute takes an hour. A lot of the Elder's like to tease us about the Visitor's Center being a really cushy assignment, but it has been hard. We don't have any time to study or plan, and we have to be able to come up with something ion the spot all of the time to help anyone who comes in the door- to find out their situation and what they need. The last few days it has been so busy that we've been on our feet for the whole shift and haven't even had time to eat. We're getting the schedule and everything worked out more though, so its getting better. We are really lucky to be here though.
We had our adorable investigator family come on Sunday and they loved it! They were really touched by everything, and especially the message that we can be with our family for forever.
I'm running out of time, so i'll have to fill you in about everything else that happened next week. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the last of your summer before school and everything else.
Les quiero mucho!
Hermana Dansie
Wow, it has been quite a week. By far the most intense week of my entire mission up to this point. A quick overview of what happened would include the Visitor's Center opened, the branch i've been serving in for the last seven months just got demolished (absorbed into another ward), our two investigators that had a date set to be baptized kicked us out of their house within two days, the dress code for sister missionaries was changed, and they announced that next week they are training the whole mission with a brand new curriculim that they are starting to use in the MTC. So, needless to say, it has been quite a week. Its a really good thing that i like change, because otherwise I think this week would have done me in. The Lord has been helping me out a lot though.
So first of all, the Visitor's Center is open! And it is so cool!!! Everything is so beautiful with state of the art technology and brand new media just for this Visitor's Center. They have a 3D graphic model of Jerusalem as it would have been when Christ was here that they have been working on for the last couple of years, there are touch screens for everything, and a way to e-mail all of the media to yourself or to your friends. It is really nice. Elder Allen, the head of the church missionary department, came and did some training with us, and he called it the "crown jewel" of all of the Visitor's Centers that the church has. But more than all of the technology and cool stuff, there is an amazing spirit being there, and it is going to be an incredible tool to help so many people learn about the gospel and come unto Christ. It was neat having the training and hearing them tell us that as the sister missionaries here the center is just the box, and we are the pearls. We have the responsibility to use these resources to make it a special, life changing experience for everyone that walks in the doors, members and nonmembers alike.
With that said, anyone and everyone is welcome to come to the center. That includes all of you. The only thing that they ask is that you do not come just to visit me. If you happen to be in Los Angeles already and really want to come to the Visitor's Center, I hope you do because it is an incredible place and would be a really neat experience to see it. But with that said, I am not going to tell you what my schedule is, and please don't come here searching for me. If I happen to see you, then its ok, and they told us that it will just give us the opportunity to show our families and friends how we are within our role as a missionary. They just ask to be very careful, because visits could potentially completely unfocus the missionary and take us out of our purpose for being here. So, the point is, don't avoid the Visitor's Center because I'm here, but also, don't come just because I'm here.
Last Thursday they had a special event for the opening of the Visitor's center and Elder Hinkley came and spoke to us. He is President Hinkley's son, and he has a really special spirit and presence about him, and is like his dad in a lot of ways, so that was really neat. Elder Allen also talked to us about the privilege of being a sister missionary here and being part of this opening. It really is such a special thing to be here and to have been here for all of the excitement of opening. I was thinking about it the other day and realizing that I've gotten everything I asked for, because I had seven months to be in an area completely immersed in spanish and the latin culture and have all of those unique experiences and learn spanish, and now I get to use that spanish and those experiences from the Visitor's Center to help me here.
With the opening of the Visitor's Center alone my entire mission has completely changed. We are going to be commuting to work in the Visitor's Center every day, and also we will still have all of the weight and responsibility of serving in our areas, so it is going to be a little intense for awhile as we transition. We are one of three companionships that has to commute to the Visitor's Center, but we are by far the farthest out, and the commute takes an hour. A lot of the Elder's like to tease us about the Visitor's Center being a really cushy assignment, but it has been hard. We don't have any time to study or plan, and we have to be able to come up with something ion the spot all of the time to help anyone who comes in the door- to find out their situation and what they need. The last few days it has been so busy that we've been on our feet for the whole shift and haven't even had time to eat. We're getting the schedule and everything worked out more though, so its getting better. We are really lucky to be here though.
We had our adorable investigator family come on Sunday and they loved it! They were really touched by everything, and especially the message that we can be with our family for forever.
I'm running out of time, so i'll have to fill you in about everything else that happened next week. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the last of your summer before school and everything else.
Les quiero mucho!
Hermana Dansie
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Cudahy: Translado 5: Semana 2 / Aug 3, 2010
Hola mi familia bonita!
Its August! Can you believe I'm almost at my halfway point? Sometimes it is still really shocking to me that I'm actually a missionary and I'm actually here, let alone I'm almost halfway done. :P The Visitor's Center is going to open this Saturday, so tomorrow we start training up at the temple. We are going to have to commute for the next couple of days, and then we'll see how much we actually will go to work there this transfer. We are really happy that we get the best of both worlds, because we're not missing out on the Visitor's Center opening, we still get to stay in an awesome area where people listen to us and the ward loves us, and we are away from all of the drama of living with an entire zone full of sisters. My companion and I are the only sisters in our zone, which, to be honest we are pretty happy about. Its kind of sad though because we realized that most of the elders generally do not like sister missionaries. The sisters generally have the reputation of being way too intense and uptight, trying to be like the perfect "robot" missionary, or of being super needy. I've realized that it is because we try so hard to fit the mold of what we feel the perfect missionary would be instead of being ourselves and using and magnifying our personal talents and abilities.
My companion, Hermana Garcia, has slowly but surely been helping me to break out of that and realize that i can be a good and obedient missionary, but i can still be myself and act human, and actually have fun and enjoy my mission. So many times i think we fall into the trap of getting to focused on all of our weaknesses and the things we do wrong, and we forget that having that perspective is selfish and wrong. Hermana Garcia flat out told me that I was being selfish because I was beating myself up about some things and some mistakes I'd made. She told me that it wasn't about me, it was about us as a team. I realized that I have spent so much of my life trying to do everything on my own, never needing anyone else or asking for help, and that I was being selfish. Hermana Garcia has helped me a lot. She likes to tease me sometimes that she is working probono as my therapist. She is really honest and blunt, but at the same time she is a great friend, and I know that she would do anything to help me. Yesterday for our zone activity we played "the newlyweds game" as companionships and we got almost all of them right, because we basically know everything about each other. It is such an interesting thing having a companion, because there really is no other situation in your life where you will have to be with someone always, 24-7 within sight and hearing of each other. Its just another one of those mission experiences that I don't think anyone can understand that hasn't lived it for themselves.
We got permission to start e-mailing Tuesdays now, because the county libraries all closed on Mondays for tax cuts. Apparently there has been a huge issue in the news here in California because the city of Bell, which is where we live, has municipal employees that are getting paid over 800,000 a year, or something like that. We really only hear bits and pieces. We saw a ton of news people and helicopters and crowds the other day though for a big political rally, which is really strange for such an obscure and remote part of Ls Angeles, and we found out that that was why.
The work has started picking up again and has been going really well. We met the most adorable family ever a couple weeks ago and we're helping them get ready to be baptized. They are a couple with four kids, two little girls that are three and five, a seven year old boy, and an eleven year old girl. They are some of the most well behaved children i have ever seen. They all came to sacrament meeting with us last week and they were quiet the whole time. The only challenge that we have with them is helping to get them married. They couldn't for awhile because they had to wait for everything to go through with the immigration papers, but they finally got the ok from their lawyer. Our only worry is that she might want to plan a huge wedding ordeal. We thought it would be fine and we could probably convince them to have a simple wedding and then do something big when they get sealed next year, but then we stopped by the party they had for their little girls' birthday, and it was catered and decorated and they had matching outfits and everything. It was so cute! We're going to have to find a way to become wedding planners. Maybe some of that talent that Aunt Jennifer has will miraculously rub off on me so we can help put something together.
I also had another experience of eating something really strange last week- maybe even worse than the pig ear. We were at a dinner appointment, and they had given us some food but then gave the husband something else to eat. It was another kind of soup, and it looked kind of strange, so I asked about it and they said it was a soup with pauta de pollo, which are chicken feet. its an acquired taste even for them, so they didn't offer, but Hermana Garcia decided it would be really funny to make a big joke out of having me try it, so i did. It was awful, so they didn't make me eat it and i didn't feel bad because Hermana Garcia doesn't like it either. It is a really gross texture.
This week I also spent some time writing down all of the miracles I've seen here on my mission. It was amazing looking back and realizing how blessed I've been, and how many incredible experiences I've had that are helping to change my life for the better, and helping me to love and understand so many different people. I am so grateful to be here serving a mission. Thank you all for your prayers, love and support.
Hermana Dansie
Its August! Can you believe I'm almost at my halfway point? Sometimes it is still really shocking to me that I'm actually a missionary and I'm actually here, let alone I'm almost halfway done. :P The Visitor's Center is going to open this Saturday, so tomorrow we start training up at the temple. We are going to have to commute for the next couple of days, and then we'll see how much we actually will go to work there this transfer. We are really happy that we get the best of both worlds, because we're not missing out on the Visitor's Center opening, we still get to stay in an awesome area where people listen to us and the ward loves us, and we are away from all of the drama of living with an entire zone full of sisters. My companion and I are the only sisters in our zone, which, to be honest we are pretty happy about. Its kind of sad though because we realized that most of the elders generally do not like sister missionaries. The sisters generally have the reputation of being way too intense and uptight, trying to be like the perfect "robot" missionary, or of being super needy. I've realized that it is because we try so hard to fit the mold of what we feel the perfect missionary would be instead of being ourselves and using and magnifying our personal talents and abilities.
My companion, Hermana Garcia, has slowly but surely been helping me to break out of that and realize that i can be a good and obedient missionary, but i can still be myself and act human, and actually have fun and enjoy my mission. So many times i think we fall into the trap of getting to focused on all of our weaknesses and the things we do wrong, and we forget that having that perspective is selfish and wrong. Hermana Garcia flat out told me that I was being selfish because I was beating myself up about some things and some mistakes I'd made. She told me that it wasn't about me, it was about us as a team. I realized that I have spent so much of my life trying to do everything on my own, never needing anyone else or asking for help, and that I was being selfish. Hermana Garcia has helped me a lot. She likes to tease me sometimes that she is working probono as my therapist. She is really honest and blunt, but at the same time she is a great friend, and I know that she would do anything to help me. Yesterday for our zone activity we played "the newlyweds game" as companionships and we got almost all of them right, because we basically know everything about each other. It is such an interesting thing having a companion, because there really is no other situation in your life where you will have to be with someone always, 24-7 within sight and hearing of each other. Its just another one of those mission experiences that I don't think anyone can understand that hasn't lived it for themselves.
We got permission to start e-mailing Tuesdays now, because the county libraries all closed on Mondays for tax cuts. Apparently there has been a huge issue in the news here in California because the city of Bell, which is where we live, has municipal employees that are getting paid over 800,000 a year, or something like that. We really only hear bits and pieces. We saw a ton of news people and helicopters and crowds the other day though for a big political rally, which is really strange for such an obscure and remote part of Ls Angeles, and we found out that that was why.
The work has started picking up again and has been going really well. We met the most adorable family ever a couple weeks ago and we're helping them get ready to be baptized. They are a couple with four kids, two little girls that are three and five, a seven year old boy, and an eleven year old girl. They are some of the most well behaved children i have ever seen. They all came to sacrament meeting with us last week and they were quiet the whole time. The only challenge that we have with them is helping to get them married. They couldn't for awhile because they had to wait for everything to go through with the immigration papers, but they finally got the ok from their lawyer. Our only worry is that she might want to plan a huge wedding ordeal. We thought it would be fine and we could probably convince them to have a simple wedding and then do something big when they get sealed next year, but then we stopped by the party they had for their little girls' birthday, and it was catered and decorated and they had matching outfits and everything. It was so cute! We're going to have to find a way to become wedding planners. Maybe some of that talent that Aunt Jennifer has will miraculously rub off on me so we can help put something together.
I also had another experience of eating something really strange last week- maybe even worse than the pig ear. We were at a dinner appointment, and they had given us some food but then gave the husband something else to eat. It was another kind of soup, and it looked kind of strange, so I asked about it and they said it was a soup with pauta de pollo, which are chicken feet. its an acquired taste even for them, so they didn't offer, but Hermana Garcia decided it would be really funny to make a big joke out of having me try it, so i did. It was awful, so they didn't make me eat it and i didn't feel bad because Hermana Garcia doesn't like it either. It is a really gross texture.
This week I also spent some time writing down all of the miracles I've seen here on my mission. It was amazing looking back and realizing how blessed I've been, and how many incredible experiences I've had that are helping to change my life for the better, and helping me to love and understand so many different people. I am so grateful to be here serving a mission. Thank you all for your prayers, love and support.
Hermana Dansie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
