Email from Monday, January 19, 2015
Buenos Dias a todo mi familia y mis amigos!
This
week...I could lie or I could tell you that I am so so so far from being
perfect. This week was tough! It´s hard to have patience with myself
when I want so much to be perfect and know everything. But tough
times=opportunities to learn and I learned a lot this week!
First
of all, I got my first LATINA MAMÁ :) Oh yeah. It´s all Spanish, all
the time. Hna Mejia is probably the sweetest sis ever. She´s about to
have a full year in the mission. We get along really well and we have a
ton in common, not so much in our life experiences exactly but in what
matters most like our goals for the mission and our lives. She´s from
Guatemala so I told her about the time I went to Guatemala for 5 minutes
with the Meso2014 trip. (It still counts!) She speaks very little
English as in she knows a song from Dora and the word "freaking" hahaha.
She´s really fun though and it´s been a huge blessing that I understand
99% of what she says. The next goal is for me to be able to speak as
much as I understand! Already though, I´m thinking in Spanish most of
the time and learning fast. She´s really patient, even when I speak in
English on accident whenever I´m tired or not paying attention. It´s so
funny. She asked me for someone´s phone number yesterday and
instinctively I responded in English. She´s so cute because she just
smiles and waits until I realize. We´re going to have an awesome time
together.
As for my #justBoliviathings this week...
- During a lesson, I look down and see a baby SCORPIAN near my foot and I ask the member what I should do and everyone´s like "oh that´s not bad, you´re fine" and I was just staring at this SCORPIAN INCHES AWAY FROM MY FLESH and then the member realizes what it is and has her brother kill it and THEN the brother tells me "oh wow good thing you noticed that because recently a woman got stung by one of those and she died" ....I could have died...but I didn´t so I´m laughing about it now
- In other bug adventures, we found a giant dead cockroach when we cleaned this morning, I was just glad it was not alive and I killed the biggest ant that ever walked this earth during our mission coorelation meeting...it took 3 stomps to die...
- We contacted a lady while her kids were unloading a pick up truck bed FULL of cheese and she gave us a pound of cheese....shout out to those menonites because I ate some of the cheese and man it was delicious even though it came out of the bed of a dirty truck from a stranger
- I filled in the eyebrows of 2 latinas this week, I never thought I would be deemed worthy to do someone´s eyebrows before but they practically begged, it was hilariously awesome and I know my sisters are either laughing or rolling their eyes about this fun fact
But
seriously this week, I just went to my Heavenly Father a lot and just
talked with Him and a lot of the conversation was just me acknowledging
how weak I am. My first afternoon with Hna Mejia was so hard. I didn´t
know everywhere to go and when we found a house, no one was there and I
was supposed to be helping Hna Mejia know the area but I was just
praying in my heart and singing A Child´s Prayer in my mind and trying
everything I could not to break down in tears in the street. But let me
testify right now that prayers are answered and not in the way we
expect. I wanted God to provide a perfect map in my mind and have
everyone we meet invite us in and accept baptism but instead I had dear,
sweet, Hermana Mejia offer to head back a little early so we could have
a good daily planning and then we both cried when we got back because
this work is tough. And then a miracle came in the fact that Hna Lyon
got to come visit to pick something up and I needed that so badly, and
so I got to hug her, cry some more and get an extra dose of confidence
from my first mission mom that will forever have a special place in my
heart.
But I just want to take this chance to
testify that He is there, He hears and answers prayers, He wants to help
and bless us. He is our LOVING Father in Heaven and He is waiting to
hear from us through prayer. Without Him, I am nothing but with Him, I
am unstoppable. I am grateful for the example of my earthly parents who
love me so much that I cannot even fathom how much He loves me. I
testify that His love is for every single one of His children and it is
available every single second of the day.
I
love you all! Go take a warm shower and eat a strawberry for me! (We
can´t eat strawberries, pork, or lettuce so actually go eat all of those
things for me please!)
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Gauger :)
These are old but our bishop took these during Christmas time. Sorry its all I have this week! :(
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