Week Two

December 8, 2014 

Hellooooo!! 

Well, here's something weird for ya. It's December! Crazy, huh! I have now been gone seven months, What the weird? So, so so weird. I remember getting here and thinking that the missionaries with seven months were so wise and experienced and could do everything perfectly. Hahahahahaha. Silly past me. Granted, I have grown a lot, that is undeniable. But soooo not perfect. Nope. In fact, I said to my companion this week, "I think by the time I get to 18 months, I'll feel like I'm really ready to be a missionary ... and that's when they'll put me on the plane." SIGH. Oh, well.

Sorry I have been AWOL for the past few weeks. An hour and a half just gets shorter every week. Plus I had to download Christmas music from LDS.org last week. But here we are.

 

Highlights from two weeks ago (my last week in Sochiloa):

- Instead of peepholes, some people here have one-way mirrors in their doors so that they can see who is outside but no one can see in. Well, sometimes we encounter these doors when we are looking for people (who I am pretty sure don't exist), and, while I am a bit more humble, I still have a decent amount of vanity, so I definitely did a hair adjustment in one of these mirrors. And I'm pretty sure that there was someone on the other side because a few minutes later when we were a few houses down a woman came scurrying out real fast.

-One morning we were bored and I was antsy so we squeezed all the juice out of the grapefruits we had and saw who could drink it faster. My companion was winning because I was busy laughing at what a wuss I was because I didn't want to drink all the pulp ... but then she spit everything out onto the floor. I died laughing. And I have it on video. :D

-Sad things: talking about what it's like living in snow and then just really, really missing the snow.

 

Last Week’s Highlights (my first week in Del Valle):

-I really stand out in this area. Also, there are more children who play outside here. Well, we were walking down the street and we passed by some kids and all of a sudden one of them yells from behind "¡ESA SEÑORA ES GIGANTE!" I turned to my companion and said, "Well, at least it's not because I'm fat."

-I saw people throwing giant cement bricks. Fortunately it was to each other while building a house, and not at each other, but I am not ruling that out of things that I may see before I leave. Oh, and also they threw them from the ground up to the guy on the roof. Talk about Skillz.

-Something really wonderful is that I now live in a house, not an apartment! That means that I can do exercise!! All my other dwellings have been the upper floor of an apartment so I felt really guilty about doing exercise and jumping around at 6 or 6:30 in the morning. It's been great!:D

-The people here don't like making U-turns. They prefer to drive backwards until they get to the intersection, then change direction that way. Fun cultural differences.

-The cockroaches here are funny because they seem to have designated dying areas – under the little table in the corner or in the shower. They live in all sorts of places in the house (like when one almost got me last night during our closing prayer for our planning session.), but they only seem to die of their own accord in those two places. Weird, right?

-My companion is Sister Perez. She is 24 and from Jalisco, really smart, we get along great and I am learning a ton. Also, we are both crazy, so randomly singing nonsense words while walking down the street is a normal thing for us.

-A new area means a new array of American music to distract me, including, but not limited to: Ice, Ice Baby, Gentleman, and Call Me Maybe.

-Something really different about this area: It's much more rural. And when I say rural I mean that there is often a herd of cows grazing in the field in front of our house.

This week's Highlights:

-I was flipping through a Liahona magazine in a member’s house and BAM! There was a picture of an elder that was in my district in the MTC.I nearly dropped the magazine. What the weird.

-Someone asked me if I was a Mennonite. My companion said, “Yeah, she's from Chihuahua.” And the lady almost believed us.

-My companion gave me a shirt the other week and I finally got around to wearing it. While putting on my sunscreen and brushing my teeth I was trying to figure out why I looked so different to myself. Then I realized that the shirt was a dark purple. I didn't bring any dark colored tops with me here. One other unexpected thing to get used to when I go home I guess, haha.

-I would like to congratulate two of my very best and oldest besties, Chrissy Hansen and BreeAnna Lesher, on each of their personal wedding engagements! While I sadly will not be there for either wedding, I am super-duper happy for them, and love them dearly. :) 

OK, to finish up: This week an investigator’s house caught on fire. Fortunately no one was hurt, and even though they lost a lot of stuff it could have been much, much worse. While helping to scrub the soot off the walls to try to get rid of the smell of smoke before they paint, all I could do was reflect on how temporary all the "stuff" in life is. That combined with how much we are sharing Él es la Dádiva (He is “the gift”. If you haven't heard of this I'm pretty sure you've been under an internet rock and need to go to the following website and share it with all of your friends christmas.mormon.org).

I am just so grateful for all my blessings – my calling, my area, my wonderful friends, and excellent family. So, my cliché spiel is to not forget that this time of year isn't about stuff, it's about people, and it's about the love that Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us.  

Love you all, and until next time!

 

Hermana Anderson