A bear, a bear!

The second week in the mission field has been amazing! I feel so lucky to be in this mission. We are having such success and the crazy thing is it didn't start until I got here...imagine that. haha. The other day in ward council, in the Spanish I could understand, I gathered that just 6 months ago they fasted for missionary work to grow in the ward. A huge rush of love came over me, they fasted and the Lord sent me! I'm a lucky charm! haha. In reality I know it has very little to with me other than I followed the request of the Lord, I work really hard and I'm an obedient missionary. They tell you every five minutes in the MTC that you must be exactly obedient, but I have already gained such a testimony of this. The missionaries that have been in this area have been...well they have been less than totally productive and my poor companion was stuck with a semi-rebellious companion before me so as soon as we hit the ground, things have been blooming up everywhere! We've found 4 new investigators just this week from street contacting - Lizzy asked me about this, it's sort of tracting, but we just walk around town and talk to people, it's so much better than knocking on doors, because I just get to be nice and can usually trick people into talking to me. haha. Anyway, we have those new investigators we are teaching, we've found another half dozen for the English missionaries. We are reactivating several families and I committed my first person to baptism this week! I just can't even believe all the miracles we are having. It's also interesting to see how sneaky Satan is trying to be in all of this. Every morning he tries to get me to not be happy and to feel annoyed by the work or to not want to go out, but I do it and sure enough within the hour we are meeting someone new, having a great lesson or being uplifted with service. These are just some of the mini miracles we have daily. 

 

I want to testify that the Lord truly blesses us as we are obedient and rely solely on Him. I am currently in the war chapters of Alma and Heleman and although they were literally fighting for their lives it has made me think a lot about my mission and our lives here. We are constantly at battle with temptation and that jerkstore Satan, but what strengthens and supports us is our faithfulness, our obedience and our trust in the Lord. That alone is the answer. Heleman's 2,000 young warriors, who stand out  to me like true missionaries, were protected solely because of their faith and obedience. It is truly that simple. My first week and a half of my mission has already proved that to me. I'm grateful for that and I hope to continue to live up to it for the next 16 months. Watch out all ye forces of evil - we are bringing you down!

 

At every lesson, every church meeting, every dinner, they always ask me to pray. I think they love to hear my terrible Spanish and gringa accent, but at least I'm getting really good at praying. The other day we were talking to a member and she was like, "A bear, a bear" (my Spanish friends will get this) and I was like, Where?! Where?!, in sheer panic. After all, it is California and their state animal is the bear. But then I realized she was saying a ver, a ver which is like, 'let's see, let's see" but their 'v's and 'b's sound exactly the same so you can certainly understand the confusion. Ah language humor. I'm enjoying learning more about the Latin culture. It is a lot different than I thought. All the women kiss me on the cheek to say hello, it's nice but the other day one woman got me real good and I walked around all day with a bright red lip mark on my face - not the most ideal for a missionary. tehehe. There was a ward activity last week that we stopped by, the ward is so small and they need a lot of missionary help - there are even another set of Elders! They were playing some great music and I had to do everything I could to resist the urge to get up and dance. I couldn't control my hands though and I participated in a little hand dancing with the family at our table. I loved watching the members get up and dance - they were smiling and having such a grand time. They are such a loving people and my heart was just bursting with love for them. Love, love everywhere!

 

I've already got my missionary tan line growing - well, it's more like a freckle line, but it's pretty intense. I've been kissed by the sun a little too much already and have a nice pink glow as well. Gotta remember that sun screen here in the sunshine state. The weather has been amazing though. Cynthia mentioned that it's a billion degrees in Texas. I bet. I don't miss that and I don't miss the humidity. Even when it gets a little warm here, there is still a nice breeze and there are so many trees that generously provide shade. It's so beautiful here! Well, not our apartment, that is a dump, but we do what we can. I plastered the wall with Book of Mormon pictures so now it's pretty awesome.

 

Several times a week we do service at the Salvation Army. They have BINGO with the old folks and this week I got to be the caller. It was so fun! They loved me. Well...not at first, at first I was too loud, then I was too quiet, then I wasn't pronouncing things right but finally they loved me. That's been an interesting and fun experience. I also get to talk to a lot of drunkards...that also makes for an interesting day. The hard part is making sure they don't hug you. I've gotten really good at that though, they are not too hard to slip away from. My new nickname on the street is Hermana Rosita, which is perfect. I think they mostly call me that because my comps name is too hard to say in English let alone in Spanish - they totally give up, it's Higinbotham. Yikes. Pretty sure she went to Hogwarts.

 

Well, I'm sure I'm forgetting somethings, but I think I've told enough stories today and I'm just about out of time. The work here is hard, but we are seeing the fruits of our labor and they are grand. It's really tough getting people to read the Book of Mormon, it's like pulling teeth! I can understand though, I remember thinking it was so boring...like 3 months ago. We are working on some fun ward activities to encourage the members to read daily because I know when they do, like I did, they will see it in an entirely different light and will feel the power in the words and find answers to all of life's questions. It's a magical book!

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall