#52

fThanks for the questions! It´s getting harder and harder to think of what to write!

1.    How do you do companion study?   Is it something you enjoy?

I love companionship study! Each companion brings something a little bit different, but here´s what we usually do. We sing a hymn (I like Christmas hymns) and then we kneel and pray, then we read 3 pages from the mission handbook and read the rules, then we share with each other what we learned during our hour of personal study. That´s my favorite part. I love sharing what I learn. And then from there we plan for the day. We decide how we are goingt o teach each investigator and with what scriptures and what compromisos (I can never remember that word in English) we are going to invite them to make, adn then we practice (that part I don´t like. It´s awkward). So that´s companionship study! One hour a day, every day. 

2.     How you and Hermana Isama ? We get along, which is great, but she doesn´t talk too much about things.  She has a super interesting culture, but she doesn´t share too much on her own, so I have to think of things to ask her. But she loves listening to my stories, she loves hearing about my high school and college adventures, because how we interact with friends and what we do for fun is SO DIFFERENT! 

3.    What are you in need of/want that we can send you for Christmas?

I am in desperate need of contacts. Especially for my left eye. They are double priced here. 6 contacts are 60 bucks.... Yikes. If you are able to buy contacts,you could send me one for the right eye and two for the left, and leave the rest there waiting for me, just in case the package never arrives. But I know that contacts are really expensive so if not, I can get along in my glasses. I´ll just have a funky face tan line.

4.    Do you go to members houses for dinner or do you mostly cook?

Here, the lunch is the main meal, so we eat with members in lunch time. Whatever they make us, it always has rice haha.  We don´t eat dinner, we just kinda eat in the house when we´re already home for the night. I make frozen bread thingies out of yuca, which my dictionary tells me is cassava or casava or something like that in English. Do they have that in the US? That would make me so happy. Pan de yuca is my addiction. I love it so much. It´s chewy warm deliciousness and it is absolutely delightful. 

5.    What has been the biggest change/addition to your conversion? Testimony?

I feel like I understand and realize my divine nature more. Having to rely on the Lord has made me understand more my relationship towards Him, and our divine destiny as children of Him more. Also, my understanding of the Atonement has increased big time. I definitely had used the Atonement before the mission, but I can say now that I understand the daily necessity of the Atonement more now than I ever did before. Also, my love and reverence for the Sacrament has increased. I look forward to and cherish the time that I have every week to partake of the sacrament. And my ability to recognize the Spirit has increased. 

6.      Tell us about your Sabbath Days.Sundays are so stressful, because all of your efforts during the week are basically to get people to come to church. Here in Samanes it´s different, because we have church at 3 o clock in the afternoon. We wake up, get ready, our ward mission leader picks us up and takes us to the church and we have correlation. Then, right after, we have ward counsel. Does anyone else think it´s funny that I´m in ward counsel? And then after ward counsel, we run around like mad women all over the ward trying to get people to come to church. We have two hours before lunch at 1 o clock to pass by for everyone, to secure their attendance, to promise them blessings, to try to get rid of whatever excuse they have to not go to church. In those 2 hours, we probably run a mile and teach 6 or 7 mini-lessons. Then at one, we go to lunch (this month we are lunching with a family that is just hilarious) and then we go to the ward mission leaders house (the ward mission leader is the one that you´re friends with on facebook) and he takes the four of us missionaries to pass by for all of our investigators and take them to church: I´m not kidding when I tell you that Sunday before church is a mess. It is so stressful! But it makes for a lovely contrast when the meeting starts and you feel the Spirit and everything gets calm. That´s part of why I love the Sacrament so much. That time is so serene and I can reflect on the week and what I need to improve on and I have a time to chat with the Lord. It´s nice. I love it. And then after church, we have 2 hours more of proselyting, which can be spent in 2 ways: 1) passing for all the investigators and asking them why in tarnation they didn´t attend (I don´t like doing that. It harshes my mellow) or 2) Teaching the less active members and asking them why in tarnation they didn´t attend. If it´s nice and there´s people outside, we contact them and try to teach them too. 

7.    What is the biggest cultural shock that you have experienced?

I can´t really think of cultural shock right now. It all feels pretty normal now. Even the weird stuff feels normal. I think the weirdest thing was being looked at constantly and having people think that I´m basically a goddess because I´m a tall blue eyed blonde,  but I even got used to that hahaha.

8.    What does it feel like to have someone accept baptism and change their life?  What are you feelings towards them?

Alkñasdj It´s the best! I love love love when someone feels the Spirit and they come to feel that what we´re teaching is true. The family that I baptized in February makes me so happy. I heard that the mom is in the Relief Society presidency and that they are just happy as can be. I just love it. I also love it when we help less active members come back to church - I think that might be an even better feeling.  

Hey those took up time! Thanks for the questions. ALSO I HAVE A NIECE WHAT?! I thought she was due way later! I feel way out of the loop here.
Fun fact - our neighborhood is COVERED in mango trees. And they are free for all. You pick it, it´s yours. We´re having a ball with all the mangos. They´re sweet, and in December, we are going to be drowning completely in mangos. Feel free to be envious. 

 This is the tree right in front of our house. In a month, all those mangos are MINE. 

 This is mostly for Holly and Beebz. They were sold out of Zayn dolls.