Hola familia!
Its the start of another transfer, my first on the downhill slope, which I still can't believe. I was moved to an area called Olympic, spanish speaking, so really not that much has changed according to the work. I am still in the ghetto, which I love. We are "flushing," which means that both me and my companion are new to the area. My new companion is Hermana Garza, she is so incredible and I love her so much already. :) She was actually Sister Garcia's companion in the MTC, and Sister Garcia's new companion is Sister Stout, who was my MTC companion, which is kind of crazy. Hermana Garza is so sweet and loving. She is from Texas and her family is from Mexico. We are really excited, because together we are going to start this really awesome diet plan and get in really good shape. She is hypoglycemic and is trying to lose a lot of weight, and I'm pretty sure that I'm partially hypoglycemic too because I get really sick from eating sugar, so we're really excited to help each other out so that we'll have more energy and be able to do the work even better.
Our apartment is nice. IT was really dirty and gross at first because mostly elders have lived there, but we cleaned it up really nice. Its nice because it is pretty big. Another big change is that we won't be working in the Visitor's Center this transfer, which we are actually both pretty happy about, because flushing the area takes a lot of hard work, and it will be nice not having our time and attention divided between two different things. Our area is close to the temple, so they can pull us in if they do need us, and then they will transfer us in and out for different transfers. I'm hoping that not being there this transfer will give me a better chance of being there for Christmas when they have all of the lights and musical performances, but we'll see what the Lord wants me to do. :)
The only thing that I feel sad about is that I feel like the transfer ended when I was in a really weird place in my companionship with Sister Garcia and we didn't really get a chance to resolve it. I think is anything she was just really sick of me from being together for three transfers, so hopefully eventually we will be able to be really good friends again.
We had an amazing appointment this past week with a recent convert and his mom that isn't a member. The spirit was so strong, and you could tell that she knows that its true. I love how with the new method we are working on asking inspired questions that are guided by the spirit, and then truly listening to the people tell us their concerns. It helps us to get to the root of their doubts so much faster, because we take time to listen to what the spirit is telling us that they need and that they are thinking and feeling, like with Ammon in the Book of Mormon. It is really powerful. I've realized that the way we do missionary work can be so much more effective if we trust in the Lord. I have also been learning about the power of praying specifically, and asking Heavenly Father questions that we need to know the answers. I feel like he has answered so many of my prayers as a missionary. I felt so lucky that I got everything I wanted this transfer- I wanted a challenge, but I still wanted to be in a spanish area, and with a companion that knows how to follow the spirit so much better than I do so that I can learn from her example. It is going to be such a good transfer with so many miracles!
I love you all!
- Hermana Dansie
Showing posts with label Spanish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spanish. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
L.A. - Primera Semana del Campo! Maywood: Feb. 8, 2010
Hola Familia!
I'm in Los Angeles! I made it here safe. :) I got in Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful day. We had some orientation stuff, an interview with the president and then we hit the doors tracting with a temporary training companion while our mission president prayerfully decided who we should be with. I came in with a group of 14 missionaries, three of them sisters. My first tracting experience was really great- I thought I was going to be scared but i wasn't at all. All day i felt like the Lord just carried and supported me- I wasn't nervous or stressed or anything. That night we had dinner at the mission home and found out about our area and companion. I was assigned to an area called Maywood with my companion Hermana Salazar. She has been out for six months and this is her first time training. She is really great- she expects a lot out of me which is good, and pushes me to work hard and be 100% obedient, down to the minute and without any exceptions. Our mission president is extremely focused on obedience.
We have a lot of extra policies, one of them is that the zone leaders only get the mail on Tuesdays from the mission office and only distribute the mail on Fridays, so I haven't received any letters if you have sent them and won't get them til Friday. The mail will always be sent to the mission home, not to our addresses. Its nice that we won't have to worry about it when we transfer areas.
Wednesday night the Zone Leaders were supposed to bring all of my luggage and stuff to our apartment, but they accidently dropped it off at another apartment. At first I thought they were just teasing me. It was ok though because I had an extra outfit and stuff in my backpack thank goodness. They brought me my stuff the next afternoon, so it was fine, just kind of funny.
My bike got here Thursday, but I still have yet to ride it because the last couple of days have been really rainy, and surprisingly extremely cold. I am really glad I brought my coat.
I am in an area called Maywood. It is a little city in South Los Angeles that reminds me a lot of Midvale, except with more Latinos. Our apartment is actually pretty big, for a missionary apartment. We have a lot of muslim neighbors, and it is funny because I feel like we have an understanding because we both dress weird, so they always say hi and are really nice. We also have a rooster for a neighbor that is really noisy in the mornings, but I'm starting to get used to that. That and all of the big city sirens. I really do love our neighborhood though; it has a lot of cute little old houses that are painted in crazy bright colors and have weird statues and stuff.
About 90% of all of our tracting and teaching has been in spanish, which is really great- i'm learning a ton really fast. The people are really sweet and loving, and even when we are tracting people are pretty nice and will talk to you even if they're not really interested. It is funny because even the stores and everything are spanish- a lot of the names are spanish names or a funny mix of spanish and english- like a store called the "Wateria." (Bob- it reminded me of that one time we were riding bikes over the summer.)
Thursday, my first real day in the field, we taught about six lessons. They went really well- amazingly I can understand the spanish even though it is really fast, and I can communicate back, mas o menos. Sometimes I fell like I am really blessed to speak really well and communicate what I need to, and other times it is really hard for me, i think maybe because the Lord wants to keep me humble, and also because sometimes it is more effective when people sympathize with me trying to speak spanish. There really have been some miraculous times though when I have really been able to speak pretty good spanish. Thursday night i extended my first baptismal commitment in spanish (we extend the committment every lesson), and she thinks she doesn't need to get baptized, but I felt really good about having had the courage to do it. There have been a lot of things so out of my comfort zone, but i have decided just to throuw myself in to it and go for it, because I know that the lord will help me.
It has been kind of a hard adjustment, and it has definitely humbled me, but i am definitely being pushed to grow and reach my full potential. It is really hard for me not really knowing all the rules and having to figure it out as I go along and also being told that I am doing things wrong. For the most part though things have been good. i am amazed at how well my companion and I teach together. We really are pretty similar in being motivated and driven, and so we have gotten along really well.
For church on Sunday there is a spanish branch that we go to first and there is also an english ward. I got up and bore my testimony in the spanish ward sacrament meeting yesterday, in spanish. It wasn't the greatest ever, but again I was just glad that I did it and wasn't afraid. I know that this truly is the Lord's work and he has been with me every step of the way.
I never realized how much there is to do and how much hard work it takes to be a missionary. But I know that it is worth the reward of being able to be part of changing peoples' lives and helping them be happier. There is a really sweet older latino man that just got baptized two weeks ago who had an extreme change in his life, he completely quit drinking and smoking and he loves reading and studying the scriptures, and he is so grateful to my companion and to missionaries in general. I am excited to help and be part of that.
I also have loved my personal study time. My companion gave me an article to read called "The Fourth Missionary." It talks about how there are four kinds of missionaries, the first is disobedient and gets sent home or decides to go home, the second is disobedient but makes it all the way through, and I just got finished reading about the third missionary, who is obedient but doesn't ever recieve the benefits, because even though they are obedient it says "you can't be happy if you don't want to do the things that make you happy, even if you do those things." I thought that was interesting, and it made me realize how our attitude really is important. I've had a couple moments where my attitude hasn't been the greatest, because this is hard, but I am excited to keep improving and trying to do my best and give my best to the Lord. I've also learned a lot about the importance of sincere, specific prayer. We pray so much. I know that it definitely is important though.
Anyways, what are your questions for me? I don't really know what else to tell you. All of the food I have had is really good. I love all of the authentic latin american food. I still have yet to eat something really spicy- apparently spicy is only a Mexico thing. There is an incredible restaurant here we just ate at that is a lot like the Red Iguana. It was so good. I'll have to take Angela there after my mission. :) I hope everything is going well at home. I will keep praying for you.
Love,
Hermana Dansie
I'm in Los Angeles! I made it here safe. :) I got in Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful day. We had some orientation stuff, an interview with the president and then we hit the doors tracting with a temporary training companion while our mission president prayerfully decided who we should be with. I came in with a group of 14 missionaries, three of them sisters. My first tracting experience was really great- I thought I was going to be scared but i wasn't at all. All day i felt like the Lord just carried and supported me- I wasn't nervous or stressed or anything. That night we had dinner at the mission home and found out about our area and companion. I was assigned to an area called Maywood with my companion Hermana Salazar. She has been out for six months and this is her first time training. She is really great- she expects a lot out of me which is good, and pushes me to work hard and be 100% obedient, down to the minute and without any exceptions. Our mission president is extremely focused on obedience.
We have a lot of extra policies, one of them is that the zone leaders only get the mail on Tuesdays from the mission office and only distribute the mail on Fridays, so I haven't received any letters if you have sent them and won't get them til Friday. The mail will always be sent to the mission home, not to our addresses. Its nice that we won't have to worry about it when we transfer areas.
Wednesday night the Zone Leaders were supposed to bring all of my luggage and stuff to our apartment, but they accidently dropped it off at another apartment. At first I thought they were just teasing me. It was ok though because I had an extra outfit and stuff in my backpack thank goodness. They brought me my stuff the next afternoon, so it was fine, just kind of funny.
My bike got here Thursday, but I still have yet to ride it because the last couple of days have been really rainy, and surprisingly extremely cold. I am really glad I brought my coat.
I am in an area called Maywood. It is a little city in South Los Angeles that reminds me a lot of Midvale, except with more Latinos. Our apartment is actually pretty big, for a missionary apartment. We have a lot of muslim neighbors, and it is funny because I feel like we have an understanding because we both dress weird, so they always say hi and are really nice. We also have a rooster for a neighbor that is really noisy in the mornings, but I'm starting to get used to that. That and all of the big city sirens. I really do love our neighborhood though; it has a lot of cute little old houses that are painted in crazy bright colors and have weird statues and stuff.
About 90% of all of our tracting and teaching has been in spanish, which is really great- i'm learning a ton really fast. The people are really sweet and loving, and even when we are tracting people are pretty nice and will talk to you even if they're not really interested. It is funny because even the stores and everything are spanish- a lot of the names are spanish names or a funny mix of spanish and english- like a store called the "Wateria." (Bob- it reminded me of that one time we were riding bikes over the summer.)
Thursday, my first real day in the field, we taught about six lessons. They went really well- amazingly I can understand the spanish even though it is really fast, and I can communicate back, mas o menos. Sometimes I fell like I am really blessed to speak really well and communicate what I need to, and other times it is really hard for me, i think maybe because the Lord wants to keep me humble, and also because sometimes it is more effective when people sympathize with me trying to speak spanish. There really have been some miraculous times though when I have really been able to speak pretty good spanish. Thursday night i extended my first baptismal commitment in spanish (we extend the committment every lesson), and she thinks she doesn't need to get baptized, but I felt really good about having had the courage to do it. There have been a lot of things so out of my comfort zone, but i have decided just to throuw myself in to it and go for it, because I know that the lord will help me.
It has been kind of a hard adjustment, and it has definitely humbled me, but i am definitely being pushed to grow and reach my full potential. It is really hard for me not really knowing all the rules and having to figure it out as I go along and also being told that I am doing things wrong. For the most part though things have been good. i am amazed at how well my companion and I teach together. We really are pretty similar in being motivated and driven, and so we have gotten along really well.
For church on Sunday there is a spanish branch that we go to first and there is also an english ward. I got up and bore my testimony in the spanish ward sacrament meeting yesterday, in spanish. It wasn't the greatest ever, but again I was just glad that I did it and wasn't afraid. I know that this truly is the Lord's work and he has been with me every step of the way.
I never realized how much there is to do and how much hard work it takes to be a missionary. But I know that it is worth the reward of being able to be part of changing peoples' lives and helping them be happier. There is a really sweet older latino man that just got baptized two weeks ago who had an extreme change in his life, he completely quit drinking and smoking and he loves reading and studying the scriptures, and he is so grateful to my companion and to missionaries in general. I am excited to help and be part of that.
I also have loved my personal study time. My companion gave me an article to read called "The Fourth Missionary." It talks about how there are four kinds of missionaries, the first is disobedient and gets sent home or decides to go home, the second is disobedient but makes it all the way through, and I just got finished reading about the third missionary, who is obedient but doesn't ever recieve the benefits, because even though they are obedient it says "you can't be happy if you don't want to do the things that make you happy, even if you do those things." I thought that was interesting, and it made me realize how our attitude really is important. I've had a couple moments where my attitude hasn't been the greatest, because this is hard, but I am excited to keep improving and trying to do my best and give my best to the Lord. I've also learned a lot about the importance of sincere, specific prayer. We pray so much. I know that it definitely is important though.
Anyways, what are your questions for me? I don't really know what else to tell you. All of the food I have had is really good. I love all of the authentic latin american food. I still have yet to eat something really spicy- apparently spicy is only a Mexico thing. There is an incredible restaurant here we just ate at that is a lot like the Red Iguana. It was so good. I'll have to take Angela there after my mission. :) I hope everything is going well at home. I will keep praying for you.
Love,
Hermana Dansie
Saturday, January 16, 2010
MTC - Semana Seis, Dec. 29, 2009
Hola Familia!
I feel a little burnt out with writing letters because I wrote you so much on Christmas. So if you haven't got those letters yet, you should soon. I had a really good Christmas. Elder Perry came and talked to us and i met him at dinner. I talked to him for like two seconds, but it was still really neat. We got to watch a really fun talent show put on the missionaries. There was one Elder that did a techno style dance (the kind of dance that Philip from So You Think You Can Dance this summer does) to the song "When I am baptized" from the primary songbook. It was pretty awesome. Christmas night Greg Olsen, the painter, came and did a fireside that was really incredible. He told us the background stories to a lot of his paintings. Overall it was a really good and memorable Christmas, but it felt really different from what you expect Christmas to feel like considering I wasn't home with you all. But giving up two Christmases is worth it to have this opportunity to serve. :) This really is such an incredible once in a lifetime experience.
This week my district has been challenged by one of our teachers to speak completely in spanish- not one single word in English. Today is the first day and it has been difficult, but at the same time incredibly rewarding. I love spanish and can't wait to get out there and use it. It is funny because I realized that my favorite food is mexican food, my favorite dance is latin dance- so it isn't going to be hard at all to love and embrace the latin culture. I do need to build up my tolerance to spicy food though. Which reminds me- Angela, do you want to send me a little bottle of one of your spicy sauces you like? They have tabasco here, but I have heard it has a really gross flavor. It you don't have time don't worry about it.
Oh, and just so you know, I realized I never told you that my actual departure date is January 27th. They had it wrong in the beginning for some reason. January 27th will be exactly ten weeks- nine for spanish and one for Visitor's center training. I'm really excited for visitor's center training because we get to go train at temple square for a day which will be fun. I won't tell you which day because I don't want you to be tempted to try and see me. I can't believe I only have four weeks until I'm out there for real! Time really has started to go so fast.
I hope you are having so much fun with the holidays, even though I know it is hard without me there. :D I'm working hard to make it worth it though. This past week I was in the referal center making calls and a woman answered and said "no habla ingles," which is i don't speak english, so i fumbled through the call in spanish and shared my testimony and it went alright- mostly because she was being really nice because she could tell I was struggling. It was funny because the other elders in my district noticed that I was doing a call in spanish, and they just thought that I was being really ambitious so they started making calls in Spanish to keep up with me. So, if nothing else at least i am motivating and inspiring the other elders to work hard. :D
Well, i love and miss you all. I hope to hear from you soon, but i know you are all very busy. Take care of yourselves and don't forget what is most important.
Love,
Hermana Dansie
I feel a little burnt out with writing letters because I wrote you so much on Christmas. So if you haven't got those letters yet, you should soon. I had a really good Christmas. Elder Perry came and talked to us and i met him at dinner. I talked to him for like two seconds, but it was still really neat. We got to watch a really fun talent show put on the missionaries. There was one Elder that did a techno style dance (the kind of dance that Philip from So You Think You Can Dance this summer does) to the song "When I am baptized" from the primary songbook. It was pretty awesome. Christmas night Greg Olsen, the painter, came and did a fireside that was really incredible. He told us the background stories to a lot of his paintings. Overall it was a really good and memorable Christmas, but it felt really different from what you expect Christmas to feel like considering I wasn't home with you all. But giving up two Christmases is worth it to have this opportunity to serve. :) This really is such an incredible once in a lifetime experience.
This week my district has been challenged by one of our teachers to speak completely in spanish- not one single word in English. Today is the first day and it has been difficult, but at the same time incredibly rewarding. I love spanish and can't wait to get out there and use it. It is funny because I realized that my favorite food is mexican food, my favorite dance is latin dance- so it isn't going to be hard at all to love and embrace the latin culture. I do need to build up my tolerance to spicy food though. Which reminds me- Angela, do you want to send me a little bottle of one of your spicy sauces you like? They have tabasco here, but I have heard it has a really gross flavor. It you don't have time don't worry about it.
Oh, and just so you know, I realized I never told you that my actual departure date is January 27th. They had it wrong in the beginning for some reason. January 27th will be exactly ten weeks- nine for spanish and one for Visitor's center training. I'm really excited for visitor's center training because we get to go train at temple square for a day which will be fun. I won't tell you which day because I don't want you to be tempted to try and see me. I can't believe I only have four weeks until I'm out there for real! Time really has started to go so fast.
I hope you are having so much fun with the holidays, even though I know it is hard without me there. :D I'm working hard to make it worth it though. This past week I was in the referal center making calls and a woman answered and said "no habla ingles," which is i don't speak english, so i fumbled through the call in spanish and shared my testimony and it went alright- mostly because she was being really nice because she could tell I was struggling. It was funny because the other elders in my district noticed that I was doing a call in spanish, and they just thought that I was being really ambitious so they started making calls in Spanish to keep up with me. So, if nothing else at least i am motivating and inspiring the other elders to work hard. :D
Well, i love and miss you all. I hope to hear from you soon, but i know you are all very busy. Take care of yourselves and don't forget what is most important.
Love,
Hermana Dansie
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