Prudence: It's a Family Name

Happy Preparation Day everyone!

Another week down in Del Valle and here's how it went!

Highlights:

-While eating with a member, a few of her family members whom we had never met were visiting. One of them asked where we were from and I asked, "Well, where do I look like I'm from?"

"Mmm, say something."

"What would you like me to say?"

"You're from Argentina."

"No."

"England?"

Thing is, my accent doesn't sound anything like an Argentine or an English person. Crazy guy. 

-While we were walking from one lesson to another our district leader randomly called us and said, "Sisters, I just got the revelation that before the end of the day you need to contact four guys with beards." And then he hung up. Right after this we ran into an investigator who is basically an unbaptized member (we're working on that, don't you worry) and we told him about the phone call. Just before we moved on I said, "Ok hermano, we gotta go. We're going to go look for men with beards." Add that to the list of things I never thought I would say. 

-The graffiti is different here. I like it :)

-There are fun houses here. Like houses where there are no gates, just wooden boards and no entrance.

-The elders in my ward have an investigator named Gloria de Jesus. In English her name means Glory of Jesus. It's a very different culture here.

-Sometimes missionaries like to mess with each other. And sometimes we talk about what our real names are with our district leader (don't worry, we can know each other’s names, we just can’t call each other by them). And sometimes it's fun to mess with district leaders. So I told him that my name is Prudence. And he believed me. I first made a real big deal of it, saying things like, "But if I tell you you'll make fun of me," and he promised he wouldn’t. So I told him, and he took it really well and even asked where the name came from. While silently laughing my head off, I said "I dunno, probably England." Don't worry. I told him the truth the next day, and he said, "Oh that's good, because that name is just awful."

-I went to Wal Mart today! I haven't been since April last year. It was weird because on the one hand I was all missionary-like and thinking, "Wow, so many material things. I just want to leave." On the other hand I was thinking, "This feels like home. I don’t want to leave."

 

Big news! The movie Meet the Mormons is coming to Mexico! We got to see it this week so that we could explain it to people and so that we could really appreciate how wonderful it is. If you haven't seen it, well, in a word … GO! It's a beautiful movie. You'll feel all warm and fuzzy afterwards.

Love you all!!

Hermana Anderson

God's Army and Valentine's Day

Oh dear goodness, so many things to tell you all I just have to get started right this minute!!

Highlights:

-That awkward moment when you are talking to a fellow American and for some reason your words come out in English, not Spanish, and he tells you, "Hermana, no; don't speak English. You sound dumb." :(

-We got fog a couple mornings this week! It was really cool and crisp and wonderful. Then hot in the afternoons. Tis my mission, what can I do about it?

-I am now certain that I will never have an American companion. We would just be too crazy. We had exchanges this week and this time I got to go work with Hermana Garry, who is fabulous. But also crazy.

After taking this picture we looked at it and died laughing. Then we said something like, "Oh no, we're missionaries? This is who makes up God's Army!"

-While waiting downtown for the STLs to start said exchanges, Hna Siza and I were waiting outside a shoe store and they had sandals and flip flops on display. It was a warm day and while looking at them I thought. "Oh, summer is coming." And I started remembering all my lovely summer memories, and getting out of school and going to the mountains … Then I realized, "No, summer is NOT coming. It is FEBRUARY! Where do I live?"

-I got to eat asparagus this week. For those of you who don't know, I love that tasty green vegetable. And I was super-duper happy.:D

-While talking with some members about weird national holidays I found out that in Peru there is a Día de Pollo, or Chicken Day. And people just buy and eat chicken. Guess who will have her own personal chicken day when she returns to the U.S.

-That really frightening moment when you are teaching a lesson outdoors and hear something like a dinosaur growling (I know I sound like a nine-year-old boy, but that’s what it sounded like). That frightening moment turns into a hysterical one when you realize that sound came from a nearby rooster.

-So, this week was Valentine’s Day. If you don't know how I feel about February 14th you can check out my blog post from V-Day last year. Or you could look at the following picture, because it pretty much says the same thing.

-BUT!! It was a really great Valentine's Day, because we had a baptism!!

This is Roberto Razo Luna. He's 28, shy, has had a really hard life, and is so, so ready for this gospel. Because none of his family lives here he has to live in a rehab center, even though he lives completely clean. But because he lives there he has to follow the rules, and so we could only teach him on Sundays during Sunday school. And that meant that we had to teach all five of the lessons in exactly five weeks (the entire Plan of Salvation in an hour-and-a-half). But because the Lord prepared him super well, it worked out. He's a real sweetheart and it's been wonderful to see him grow more confident and understand more and more of what it means to be a son of God.

-And another one on Sunday! Kind of. I'll explain:

This is Angie. She's eight years old and both her parents are members but are inactive. So, she's not really "our" baptism, she's "the ward's". But since her parents are inactive (she goes to church with her aunt and uncle who are super strong members and really cool), Bishop said that she needed the missionary lessons first before she could be baptized. And that we had less than two weeks to do it. So once again we taught the five lessons, in only a couple weeks. But this time to a child. We've learned a lot this transfer about teaching simply. But Angie is super smart, and super excited about the gospel, so it was actually pretty easy. She's such a sweetie and way fun. 

 

Well, transfers were this week. And nothing changed. I will be spending another six weeks in Del Valle with Hna Siza, and with both Elder Rodriguez and Elder Cutler. This is starting to reflect spookily of my time in Sochiloa ... but we'll see what this transfer brings.

Love you all!

Hermana Anderson