Hermana Sunshine

I can’t believe it has already been a week. The hours are long but the days are short and the weeks are even shorter.

But this week has been really good. I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of this place- I get where I am suppose to go and what I need to do and I love it, now I just need to get the Spanish down.

Yesterday we had a devotional that was live from Provo with Elder and Hermana Bednar last night- it was so good. But Hermana Bednar said the best way for a missionary to pick up the language is for them on their mission and their families at home to pray from the to have the spiritual gift of tongues. I have been doing this personally but kids, your the spiritual ones so if yáll would specifically pray for the gift for me morning and night I’ll promise to work really hard to answer those prayers.

Also if you are interested this Sunday I am going to fast and I know there is strength in numbers. I specifically need help on pronunciation and to be able to internalize and remember Spanish. xoxo.

 

Ok this week:

RANDOM:

-This place is the hunger games- seriously.

-There is an hma who braids her hair crazy and we call her hma katniss. Then their are weird birds with weird sounds. There are constantly cannons all day. We starve between each meal. We are in an enclosed arena that we can’t leave. We are in a new climate and terrain. And we are in districts.

-Also my companion laughs at my collection of ¨mom gems¨ haha. I have all sorts of cool rocks and feathers, flowers, leafs, etc. you´d love it here mom.

-Everyone still talks to me about Lone Peak basketball. Seriously yesterday this random kid I have never met just came up to me as was like, “your the lone peak kid right” and I was like “yeah”, and instead of introducing himself or anything he’s like ¨how do you feel about nick emery?”  Ha-ha.

-Also I have run into so many friends from byu. Best.

-It is so hard to sit in class when it is so sunny outside and I’ll send a pic but there is a big hill here that has a big “B” for the school on it (but we say its b for baptism) and it looks soooo hikeable.

-This place looks a lot like a mix of L.A./St. Geroge. I love it.

-We woke up Monday morning at 3:40-about 5 to take an hma to the bus and say goodbye bc she had been here for 6 weeks, she was my ¨momma¨ here. I miss her so much but I was and still am sooo tired. Also that morning we heard a ton of coyotes. Way cool.

-So there is this thing called dearelder.com and you can deliver Krispy Kreme to the mtc. Just throwing that idea out there-

-Ok I have 4 best friends here. The first is hma Jones. I will explain here in a minute. Then my companion rules seriously we get each other and really clicked and we are having a really good time. Then the two Hermana’s in our casa- hma buno and hma Clements. They are so darling and real. Seriously. I can see myself rooming with hma Clements at byu when we get home. The best. Then Elder Wasden is my favorite. Seriously he is exactly Miles Hewitt and I love it. We play basketball and sit by each other in the devotionals and it is so fun- he keeps me sane bc he has Miles humor so we can just crack jokes all day.

¨NOT BEST¨

-Ok first one of the elders in our district went home which was a huge bummer. Man I miss that kid.

-Then the temple is closed for a year for remodeling so I won’t be able to go on the outside but I wont be able to do a session. boooo.

-Food got to me. Oh baby. But imma doing good now. But for a while I was spending more time in the bathroom then out.

-There is one fruit here that the Latinos sneak in some of the food. I have no idea what it is but it taste like raw pumpkin and throw up.  I have an alliance with two elders where we take turns trying stuff to see if it is in it.

 -Ok the showers here. Sometimes hot and sometimes not. But it fills up to about mid leg and is nast. So it is a shower that is a tub and then on top has a sliding glass door so I stand on top of the tub and hold on to the door and shower with my head right at the faucet head. Its quite the experience and sometimes I slip and nearly die. But it’s worth it to not step in the tub.

-. Hah I learned to not ask the Latinos if something is spicy or hot. bc I have burned my mouth way to many times. :) Now the Latinos know imma baby to spices so they will give me something sweet to try and then watch me struggle for air and a drink. But I’ve learned my lesson.

-Ok this one is a killer. The pineapple is gold. Literally. Second best only to Peru’s pineapple. But now I have to cankers bc it is too good.

-Cockroaches.

 

FUNNY:

-So we were in one of our investigator lessons and it came up that my companion is adopted then the investigator said he wants to adopt- but I thought he said he was adopted so I went off on how dad and gma and gpa Ball are adopted and went on about eternal families and all this crap but mostly about adoption and I guess he kept trying to tell me he wasn’t adopted but I couldn’t understand him and he was trying not to laugh but then he just busts up and laughing and it was so funny seriously a spirit killer but funny.

-Ok so they have water pools in the middle of the walkways that are the kind you can hop over. So we do it all the time and I can always do it. But we were walking with the elders and I go with a huge running start and I went to jump over it but I put my hands down to push off but then I like tripped and held on to long or something so I just fly over the pool straight onto my face. So embarrassing. But everyone was all worried the Latinos were all pointing and laughing and I thought elder wasden was going to die or pee his pants. So I’m just sitting there crying I’m laughing so hard and he’s dying laughing and everyone else is laughing but all worried. Oh it was killer. Now I’m the joke.

-Ok so my eye was all scratchy and red and its all good now (no I wasn’t wearing two contacts) but we went to the doctor and he helped me out with it and gave me some drops. I’m good. But I pulled the joke “eye'll keep and eye on it.¨  the doctor reminds me of doctor Tom and was dying and my companion was all embarrassed by my stupid joke. It was so good.

-Ok mom when we bought my g's something happened and we bought a huuuuge size. The bottoms are huge like tents huge. Like I wore them one-day ha-ha and they literally slipped off me and on to the ground. I can buy some new ones here and I still have like 9 that are my size so we are good but it was so funny.

-So my hma was trying to say foralece but said fartelece. But it means strength so I got a kick out of it bc it was like she was saying a strong fart. Killer.

-We were helping clean the kitchen and one of the elders told me ¨hma ball if you were as good at cleaning and you were at socializing this place would be celestial kingdom worthy. ¨, Which err one thought, was so funny.  So now that’s the joke with what ever I do. Like ¨hma ball if you were as good at learning and teaching Spanish as you are at socializing you would be the pope.”  And on and on and on. ha-ha

BEST.

- I can’t remember if I mentioned it last week but when we were driving though Mexico we saw a carnival- unlike any other carnival. It was full of taxidermied animals. So weird. So funny. My favorite was the lion and buffalo. So creepy.

-Then I play basketball-knock and or speed with the elders ever day. It is seriously my favorite. The best of stress relievers.

-Ok so there is one elder- elder weeks that is hilarious. But this week when all the new missionaries came in they were about to walk into the cafeteria from outside and he just starts screaming Spanish gibberish to them so they get really nervous then he starts yelling about zapatos. So they all take their shoes off and come in and it was so funny. When I am writing this is sounds mean but it really wasn’t when they found out he was fully of crap it was soo funny. And the Latinos were dying bc he was just spatting off nothing.

-Ok we have eaten cactus for the last couple of meals. It is nast but I just love it bc it is cactus.

-I have a nickname here and I love it. They call me Hermana Sunshine.

-my bff Hermana Jones started the nickname. She is one of the senior couples here. And dhe is just like grandma simpkins and l love it. And every time I see her she just gives me a big hug and kiss and we chat and I can actually talk to her about what’s really going on. Oh she makes me laugh and cry and I love her.

-For gym I played jump rope with the Latinos why others played ping-pong. Oh my so fun.

-I love our service projects.  We've taken down Christmas decorations, washed dishes, waxed the floors, washed houses and swept the carpet (a new one of me.) but they are the best.

-Ok we watched a recording from elder Holland and he kept talking about these ¨brown kids" and every time we would the whole ccm would crack up dying laughing bc it was so inappropriate but then it turns out he was talking about a family whose last name was brown and now it is the ccm wide joke. killer funny.

SPIRITUAL

-So our last investigator is now our night teacher. Which is the coolest thing ever bc he is so cool and the best and knows exactly how to help us. His name is hmo. Mendoza and he seriously is gold.

-Mom your quote book- inspired. As a companionship we read it before companionship morning prayer. Best.

-Ok so my hma gets nervous in the investigator thing or something, but she is killing it now. But at the first she ended in like 4 minutes so I have 20 plus minutes to just go with the spirit and try to speak Spanish and teach and testify all in Spanish. So hard but so spiritual.

-I memorized d&c 4 in Spanish and I love it.

-And we have 2 new investigators. They are fake but its still a way cool experience. One is Arturo (our night teacher) and the other is our morning teacher (Julia) and I love them. But I love Julia and especially her name bc it reminds me of Julia Iverson and I love it. And send me pictures of baby archer.

But I know I have missed so much in trying to explain this week. But it has been really spiritual a lot of it I can’t really explain but it’s been a crazy spiritual week from lessons I give, thoughts in my mind, feelings in my heart and scriptures I read.

2 cor. 5:6-7 is gold. ¨Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

This is so real in so many ways. First just in completely trusting and putting my all in for the Lord. Second for missing you kids. We´re absent from each other but I am confident in what I am doing, I am relying on faith not by sight and and loving and missing you so much.

xoxox. doubt not, fear not.

Hermana Sunshine.