Morning Everyone!!
I was so tired this morning, but am in such good spirits after reading y'alls emails and looking at pictures!!! Seriously, I LOVED looking at those pictures!!!!!! Oh my goodness! Is Garrett tall? I need to see a pic of him standing by Erika or Dad or something to give me some reference. I was cracking up because, I swear, in every picture Garrett has the drill, is on the foundation, or on the roof, or stapling or cutting mesh... and Erika? Well, she's watching...uh, I mean supervising :D. But hey, someone's gotta do it!! No, I know everyone was working, it just caught my funny bone. Dad, truly always happier with his kids and a project!! Haha, LOVE it! Also, the chicken coop looks legit! I love the names of the chicks. I'm so glad that Shaniquah made it as a name. Also, I loved "Lola" and "Gertude." The last one should be....Miss Bertha? Bertha kinda sounds like a cow. But it could work :) The "Miss" has to be there because that goes before everyone's name here, so there's a little southern flare :) Speaking of which, I've noticed I say "yes ma'am" and "no sir" ALL the time now. Before it was sometimes, but now I can't remember not always saying that. I guess it's about time I learned some respect :)
President changed his mind last Tuesday night about transfers. What's new? :) We're still here, but we're training! We took the visa waiter who's going to Brazil. Cool, huh? Her name is Hermana Solorzano, she is from Ecuador, but grew up mostly in New York. She's awesome! Her English is perfect, and she is already fluent in Portuguese, so she's tri-lingual! Pretty amazing because I wonder if I'll ever really be bilingual. She's a sensitive soul, and was only in the MTC for 2 weeks, and is doing well. She's a rockstar teacher, and has jumped right in with being part of planning and teaching. Before my mission, even before I knew I would be learning a different language, I said that if I was, I just wanted to have a native speaking companion, or trainer. Well... that never really worked out! But now, when I get stuck in conversations and lessons, she can help us! It's kind of a little tender mercy. After 9 months of a day in day out struggle on the language side, that's pretty cool. I'm just so excited to be around her accent 24/7. I want to pick up more Spanish idioms, be more comfortable speaking, and sound more native.
... All missionaries have to learn a language too - the language of the Spirit. President asked me last week which is more difficult - Spanish or language of the spirit. I'm not sure, but I think that the Lord has used Spanish to help me learn the language of the Spirit, which is of course more important. And I am very grateful for that. It's a pretty amazing ride to be on - fully relying on the spirit day in and out just to communicate. I still sometimes listen to Spanish, and don't fully understand what they are communicating (I mean the vocab I have still to learn is endless!) but a thought or scripture always comes as I don't worry, but just listen. Anyway, I don't feel I'm struggling, but I'm excited to get better! And I don't know how long she'll be with us, but it'll help to accelerate my learning. And in more ways than one - trios are a little tricky! And we are all certainly going to grow close real quick because of the proximity of our apartment! That's our joke. We had to do math just to figure out where to put a mattress because we have to sleep in the same room. They thought we'd have to move, but we did it!
That's pretty much my news for the week. Conference was amazing. On Sunday, we listened in Spanish, although we were invited to the mission home for the afternoon session, so we got to hear that in English. We were so glad, because I just had to hear Elder Holland's message in his voice! What an amazing talk! I had the thought, "how do I fan the flame of my faith?" Also, the same thing really stuck out to me, as did to Mom about how we need to acknowledge where we're at. There's really not much of a point of declaring our lack of faith, and it really hit home when he said that what we do know will always trump what we don't. We each have more faith that we think. Very true, I'd say. What a balanced person - the one who can feel happy, content, and acceptable for the faith they do have, while constantly and humbly seeking and building more faith and all that entails. A lot of the morning session was lost on me with the translator and quality so I'll be going back and listening to those soon, especially President Monson. I'm pretty sure it was about obedience... haha just kidding. As did... well parts from many of them. I loved President Packer's poem, and I decided I want to start writing bits of a poem every decade. Twenty two seems like a good place to start! Especially since lots of things rhyme with "two." :)
The weather here has been crazy so I've had quite the nasty head cold. It's 80, sunny, and relatively dry one day, and 40 degrees and humid the next. My system struggles with the up and down so I hope it'll level out soon.
I got the necklace Mom (a Spanish "I am a Child of God" necklace for Greysi)! It's awesome! I really hope we see Claudia and Greysi soon. We haven't taught them for almost a whole transfer. They are kinda breaking my heart. I don't really know how they are, so that's why you don't hear as much about them. We've spent a lot of time fasting, and also on our knees praying for them. The worst part is we just don't know what is going on in Claudia's head. Please continue to keep them in your prayers. Nancy and Vanessa continue to do ok. Although, each is having their struggles and are pretty insistent on not committing to a date. Vanessa had been excited and committed to coming to Sunday Conference, but didn't show up. But Nancy did!
So Spencer got his mission call (Marshall Islands)! What language will he speak?
And you drowned your worms?!?!?! How could you?!! Haha, chiste. That is sad though. That's funny you gave one to a chick. I feel like quite a bit of amusement could come out of those little chicks.
I was so tired this morning, but am in such good spirits after reading y'alls emails and looking at pictures!!! Seriously, I LOVED looking at those pictures!!!!!! Oh my goodness! Is Garrett tall? I need to see a pic of him standing by Erika or Dad or something to give me some reference. I was cracking up because, I swear, in every picture Garrett has the drill, is on the foundation, or on the roof, or stapling or cutting mesh... and Erika? Well, she's watching...uh, I mean supervising :D. But hey, someone's gotta do it!! No, I know everyone was working, it just caught my funny bone. Dad, truly always happier with his kids and a project!! Haha, LOVE it! Also, the chicken coop looks legit! I love the names of the chicks. I'm so glad that Shaniquah made it as a name. Also, I loved "Lola" and "Gertude." The last one should be....Miss Bertha? Bertha kinda sounds like a cow. But it could work :) The "Miss" has to be there because that goes before everyone's name here, so there's a little southern flare :) Speaking of which, I've noticed I say "yes ma'am" and "no sir" ALL the time now. Before it was sometimes, but now I can't remember not always saying that. I guess it's about time I learned some respect :)
President changed his mind last Tuesday night about transfers. What's new? :) We're still here, but we're training! We took the visa waiter who's going to Brazil. Cool, huh? Her name is Hermana Solorzano, she is from Ecuador, but grew up mostly in New York. She's awesome! Her English is perfect, and she is already fluent in Portuguese, so she's tri-lingual! Pretty amazing because I wonder if I'll ever really be bilingual. She's a sensitive soul, and was only in the MTC for 2 weeks, and is doing well. She's a rockstar teacher, and has jumped right in with being part of planning and teaching. Before my mission, even before I knew I would be learning a different language, I said that if I was, I just wanted to have a native speaking companion, or trainer. Well... that never really worked out! But now, when I get stuck in conversations and lessons, she can help us! It's kind of a little tender mercy. After 9 months of a day in day out struggle on the language side, that's pretty cool. I'm just so excited to be around her accent 24/7. I want to pick up more Spanish idioms, be more comfortable speaking, and sound more native.
... All missionaries have to learn a language too - the language of the Spirit. President asked me last week which is more difficult - Spanish or language of the spirit. I'm not sure, but I think that the Lord has used Spanish to help me learn the language of the Spirit, which is of course more important. And I am very grateful for that. It's a pretty amazing ride to be on - fully relying on the spirit day in and out just to communicate. I still sometimes listen to Spanish, and don't fully understand what they are communicating (I mean the vocab I have still to learn is endless!) but a thought or scripture always comes as I don't worry, but just listen. Anyway, I don't feel I'm struggling, but I'm excited to get better! And I don't know how long she'll be with us, but it'll help to accelerate my learning. And in more ways than one - trios are a little tricky! And we are all certainly going to grow close real quick because of the proximity of our apartment! That's our joke. We had to do math just to figure out where to put a mattress because we have to sleep in the same room. They thought we'd have to move, but we did it!
That's pretty much my news for the week. Conference was amazing. On Sunday, we listened in Spanish, although we were invited to the mission home for the afternoon session, so we got to hear that in English. We were so glad, because I just had to hear Elder Holland's message in his voice! What an amazing talk! I had the thought, "how do I fan the flame of my faith?" Also, the same thing really stuck out to me, as did to Mom about how we need to acknowledge where we're at. There's really not much of a point of declaring our lack of faith, and it really hit home when he said that what we do know will always trump what we don't. We each have more faith that we think. Very true, I'd say. What a balanced person - the one who can feel happy, content, and acceptable for the faith they do have, while constantly and humbly seeking and building more faith and all that entails. A lot of the morning session was lost on me with the translator and quality so I'll be going back and listening to those soon, especially President Monson. I'm pretty sure it was about obedience... haha just kidding. As did... well parts from many of them. I loved President Packer's poem, and I decided I want to start writing bits of a poem every decade. Twenty two seems like a good place to start! Especially since lots of things rhyme with "two." :)
The weather here has been crazy so I've had quite the nasty head cold. It's 80, sunny, and relatively dry one day, and 40 degrees and humid the next. My system struggles with the up and down so I hope it'll level out soon.
I got the necklace Mom (a Spanish "I am a Child of God" necklace for Greysi)! It's awesome! I really hope we see Claudia and Greysi soon. We haven't taught them for almost a whole transfer. They are kinda breaking my heart. I don't really know how they are, so that's why you don't hear as much about them. We've spent a lot of time fasting, and also on our knees praying for them. The worst part is we just don't know what is going on in Claudia's head. Please continue to keep them in your prayers. Nancy and Vanessa continue to do ok. Although, each is having their struggles and are pretty insistent on not committing to a date. Vanessa had been excited and committed to coming to Sunday Conference, but didn't show up. But Nancy did!
So Spencer got his mission call (Marshall Islands)! What language will he speak?
And you drowned your worms?!?!?! How could you?!! Haha, chiste. That is sad though. That's funny you gave one to a chick. I feel like quite a bit of amusement could come out of those little chicks.
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