An intermission: or Hermana, Interrupted (couldn't choose which)

I wrote this while sitting alone in the Houston international airport, the 8th of December 2015. After having my knee operated on and after going through physical therapy, I was given the green light to head back and resume my mission trip for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Honduras. Some of my feelings and opinions have changed since writing this 8 months ago (I also think I've found the answer to the question). But I thought it was an interesting window to the frustrating and eventually humbling experience of my own, personal, intermission.  

There's a bird inside here next to the gate sign how did that happen.
I just had some really nasty $12 nachos and also ordered myself a coke to get me back in the Hondy mode where they drink soda with breakfast lunch and dinner. ;)

I've been thinking about it and when i got called to serve as a full-time missionary in the Honduras San Pedro Sula East mission, i was so excited.
I was excited to try something new, explore a different country, learn a foreign language, have an adventure.

I get to Honduras the 8th of December 2014 and turns out even though everyone had already told me that missionary work was hard, it was actually really hard like frick!
I struggled with feelings of inadequacy and frustration for a while until I finally felt like I was getting the hang of things about 9 months into it.
Then I promptly slipped while playing volleyball one monday and dislocated my knee cap and broke off some pieces of the thing.

I attempted to continue walking all day and meeting people and teaching them about how to get to know Jesus Christ like normal but after about a month... there was little improvement and I was sent home for (North) American medical attention. "Sent home????" i thought, "Are you kidding me???"
"no, I know when I'm coming home, it's in 261 days, I already know what I'm going to wear, my whole family and all my friends are going to be there, I'm going to Spain with one of my old mission companions right after and then back to BYU Hawaii and it's all going to be awesome..."

So basically what I'm saying is that I had it all. worked. out.

Instead of a triumphant homecoming, my tiny plane touched down in the Bakersfield airport and I was greeted by concerned parents who didn't really know what was going on with me physically (all the tests done in Honduras were inconclusive as to what exactly was wrong with the knee) and they definitely did not know how it was affecting me emotionally.

Looking back, it doesn't seem like it should be that much of a problem. You got hurt, it happens, you're getting medical attention and then you'll be fine. Right?
Although I may be dramatic at times, I am in no way neurotic. But I was freeeeeaking out.
I had somehow gotten it into my head that I'd brought the injury upon myself.
Because I wasn't as obedient or reserved as most of the other sister missionaries so if I hadn't been running around playing sports, I wouldn't have fallen.
Yeah. Idk it made sense in my brain.

So...I was so so ashamed that I was sent back home. My injury wasn't that bad, I've heard of other missionaries lasting months with a torn ACL or endure their entire mission with awful back problems.

Basicially, I spent too much time comparing myself to others and worrying about what they thought about me.

Comparison robs us of joy.

And when I got home I was not happy. I was upset that my plans had been thrown off, I was upset that no one understood the culture shock of coming back before you're supposed to from a mission trip after being so immersed in that world.

I was also genuinely surprised when people would ask me if I was going back to Honduras.
Like it was a viable option to choose not to finish. I promised 18 months of my humble service to God. Is 9 months the same as 18? No...so my thoughts were: duh I'm going back to finish what I started. Just how I had planned. Only with a small pause in order to have surgery and recover from said surgery.

While I was recovering from knee surgery, I made a friend, felt a connection, and we started to kind of date...
And the only reason this is relevant at all is because up until that point, I had nothing making me want to stay. And then I randomly start getting to know this person that surprises me and inspires me and makes me happy and I'm just like well dang, maybe I should try and see where this relationship goes.
For the first time I had to actually pause and ask myself:

why am I going back?

why?

And the answer couldn't just be "oh well I miss my friends that I made there." "oh well I miss how cheap the coconut water was"
It wasn't as if I didn't have anything better to do either, I was eager to go back to school, I was excited about my career possibilities.
And I was just two months into a relationship; which seemed like too little time to ask that person to wait 9 months for me.

so the question again, why?

Going out on the mission the first time I was riding on a wave of excitement for the unknown, farewell gatherings, well wishes, and honestly a little bit of blissful ignorance.
The second time around it was a little less...excitement. Mostly everyone was just wondering if I really had to go.
"but you've already served more than half of your time, isn't that enough?"
I had lost my initial desire and I was feeling inadequate again.
"what's the point in doing 9 months if i wasn't that successful my first 9?"
"why waste 9 months being stressed out when I could just as easily go back to school and be stressed out while getting a degree out of it?"

so the question, ooone more time with feeling: why?

So I've thought about the answer for a long time and here it is:

                                                                   I don't know

Yeah that reason was totally worth this awfully long blog post right? But hear me out!

I'm okay with not knowing because I trust that I will know eventually. Maybe my first day back, maybe in 5 months, maybe years after my mission.
But if I do not get on this plane and back to hot, messy, lazy, stubborn Honduras, if I don't get back there and do my best and help as many people as well as I can, I have no chance of ever, ever knowing.

Es sencillo porque yo se en quien he confiado.

I don't ask to see the distant scene, one step is enough for me.
Sometimes whole paths are in our view and we feel like we have control, and sometimes everything falls to pieces and it's a mess and you don't think it'll ever get sorted.
There's just no way.
But I've learned to trust God enough to take one step and have faith that the path will be lighted enough for me to take the next one.

I'm not saying every case is the same for all injured missionaries. But this has been my experience and I hope it sheds a little more light on the situation of intermissionaries.

I just want to say that after doing what I said I would, after getting on that plane, I found the reason I went back every day. Every stranger that I got to smile back at me on the street, every child of God that I got to bring closer to Him, every new friend, every breathtaking moment in that beautiful country added to that reason that I came back. Thanks for getting to the end of this blog now go to the kitchen you deserve some icecream or something :) 

¡¡¡Mission Accomplished!!!

Hermana Emily Nelson has completed her mission and will be returning home Thursday, August 4th

arriving at the Bakersfield airport at 11:38p

Honduran Fav Fast Food Adventure

This week my birthday happened! It was great, elder Lucero sent me a package from Progreso with t-shirts from 

El Salvador and some other odds and ends. He really is my best friend! 

That was in the morning when the package arrived, and in the evening after all of our lessons my companion tricked me into the house of some members and they surprised me with cake and balloons and banners. it was s'cute.

I was so surprised! 

On friday everything was normal until my whole body broke out in a rash. So on saturday we went to the hospital and they said it was because I have a urine infection, so thats why my body was covered in a rash. 

So saturday and sunday they didn't let me go out during the day because the sun made it worse. 

Saturday in the evening we left the house to go to Braulio's baptism! It was so great and he gave his testimony at the end it was so sweet.

Sunday in the evening I went around saying goodbye and it broke my heart to itty bitty pieces.

Monday we went to tela and hiked up to campo hervir one last time. Elder Lucero and his comp met us there and half of us almost died climbing up the mountain. (guess what half i was part of) Then we went to the beach and this 

lagoon and we ate seafood at a restaurant on the sand.

Tuesday I went back to Morazan (my first area) for the first time in more than a year and everything has changed so much. They're going to have a chapel soon! 

And now today is wednesday and i dont want this experience to be over sorry... I love you all and everything but I feel like my heart is ripping in two.

Also there's a hurricane coming along the coast here so there might be some change in the travel plans, lets see. 

love you mommy! 

Rasta Gate

video from past travels

Happy Birthday Hermana Nelson!

Lunes 18 de julio 2016:

Basically all we did today was go to walmart, it was Hna Garcia's first time! But she was not too impressed,

I forgot to grab a shopping cart on the way in and i was accumulating to many things for my lanky arms to carry buuut we ran into the missionaries and took over half of their cart jajajaj 

Martes 19 de Julio:

"He aquì, Dios es mi salvacion, confiare y no temere, porque el señor JEHOVA es mi fortaleza y mi cancion; y tambien ha llegado a ser salvacion para mi. Por tanto, con gozo sacareis agua de las fuentes de salvacion."

2 Nefi 22:2-3

translation:

 2 Nephi 22: 2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.

 3 Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”

(video of previous companion w/umbrella)

So it was raining and my comp has broken all of the umbrellas we have in the house so i was like sweet we should contact because people will have pity on us and let us in out of the rain so the very first person we contact we ask him his name and his like ummmm my name...Hernan and we were like sweet Hernan is it okay if we can talk w/u for a lil bit? So he's like sure and goes back inside and never comes back out.

Miercoles 20 de Julio:

Knowledge- one of the attributes of God. Knowledge of divine and spiritual things is absolutely essential for one's salvation; hence the gospel is to be taught to every soul. "how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" (Rom 10.14)

Knowledge is not obtained all at once, even by revelation, but line upon line, precept upon precept. 

The scriptures , and also living prophets, are given so that the people might have knowledge of the things of God and "know how to worship and know what you worship" (d&c 93;19)

Knowledge is one of the endowments of the holy ghost and one of the gifts of the spirit.

Since no one can be saved in ignorance of the gospel, and one progresses only as fast as he gains knowledge, it follows that the person who gains knowledge will have "the advantage in the world to come"

Someone gave me a *topogigio and there was hair inside #saboraheadandshoulders
*topogigio is frozen chocolate milk or fruit juice inside a little sandwhich bag that we buy for about 2 lempira. you bite the corner off and eat it as it melts haha

Jueves 21 de Julio:

"Leaven; anything that in cooking produces fermentation, a lump of old dough being used in most instances. 

It was probably forbidden in the passover feast because there was associated with it the idea of corruption.

So we went to go help our little neighbor Jasmine with her english today and her parents are SO SWEET. They said that the dad can fix my camera, like he looked it over and said that it's possible! 

After working with Jasmine for a little while it was time to go but before we left her mom commented in broken english that i am a very gentle person and very kind with her daughter. #d'awwwww 

I did not contact at all today it was v sad

Viernes 22 de Julio:

We met an inactive member of the church today. He studied a lot of theology and now he's confused. He talked a lot about sexism in the church and i tried to explain to him that more than anything, it's the country. The majority do not respect women at all it's so sad.

Sabado 23 de Julio:

"ay de4 todos aquellos que tiemblan, y estàn enojados a causa de la verdad de Dios! pues he aqui, aquel que esta edificado sobre un cimiento arenoso, tiembla por miedo de caer." 2 Nefi 28:28

2 Nephi 28:28 And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are angry because of the truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the rock receiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall.

I just asked my comp, "How do you spell exagerado? "e-x-a-g-e-r-a-d-o" "its with just one g? "yep" "oh for a minute i thought it was with two, but that would be exaggerado" lololololol

Basically we spent all day in the house because my comp is not doing too good :( back problems.

We went to go eat almuerzo and it was pigs feet. Hno Marco was CONVINCED that we weren’t going to like it: Jennifer told us that he was complaining all morning as they were out buying groceries 

i just told them that when i told them in the beginning that i like EVERYTHING, i meant it. 

Domingo 24 de Julio:

The light of christ is just what the words imply; enlightenment, knowledge, and an uplifting, ennobling, persevering influence that comes upon mankind because of Jesus Christ.

Lunes 25 de Julio:

i went and bought souvenirs today and got my nails done and we went out to lunch for mah birthday since there's not going to be time on thursday to party jajaj

its been a really good day tbh

The Tortilla Inflated!

Viernes 8 de Julio:

My companion asked a lady that we contacted today if she was pregnant.

she wasn’t.

Sábado 9 de Julio:

Some members fed us dinner! and one of the daughters wanted to practice her english with me and every few minutes she would ask, "how do you hear my english?" and i was like uh.... with ma ears? but what she really wanted to say was how does my english sound.

Domingo 10 de Julio:

When explaining the doctrine of baptism for the dead in church today, the teacher said that we're "lending" our bodies to our ancestors. That sounds weird.

We had 7 investigators in church today! Rosa came with her daughters even though she was going to have people coming over to visit. she said, "they can come visit but they have to wait until I come back from church"

And Marta found us in the hallway and asked for help filling out a tithing slip. She is so amazing to me. She has next to nothing. She isn’t even baptized yet! But I think she loves the lord and she understands that she needs blessings.

Lunes 11 de Julio:

So today we were supposed to get to Progreso (three hours away) by 8:30 to go to this cool park called Zizima where we were going to rock climb and stuff.

 so I called the taxi the night before so he would come and take us to the bus stop by 4:40

But the thing is that I was up so late getting everything ready that I didn’t hear the alarm in the morning! We didn’t wake up until 6:00 and by then I had like 30 missed calls from Elder Lucero because he was the one that invited us since we had to go through there on the way to San Pedro. 

I felt so bad!

We went to Progresso anyway, just late. But it was still a really good day just not exactly what we had planned.

The good thing is that I get along great with my comp so even when things don’t work out, we don’t stress.

Martes 12 de Julio:

We met an Israeli mind reader, missed the bus, and had one of the most spiritual lessons of my life and afterwards one of the biggest baleadas of my life i fell in love.

Miercoles 13 de Julio:

We got back to our area at 9:30 am took a quick shower (in our respective bathrooms) and then straight to some lessons but afterwards we were so tired I thought we would take a nap for an hour since we woke up at 5:00 but 4 hours later we wake up and there were 39 missed calls from Hna Rojas, Elder Lucero, and my district leader. they thought we had died. I felt awful. But dang I have not taken such a mega nap in 4 ever

 

Jueves 14 de Julio:

"And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity." Leviticus 5:17

"se que las palabras de verdad son duras contra toda impureza; mas los justos no las temen, porque aman a la verdad y son constantes." 2 Nefi 9:40

"I know that the words of truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them not, for they love the truth and are not shaken." 2 Nephi 9:40

12:25 pm Okay so we were making tortillas in the house and my tortilla INFLATED! like idk how to describe how excited I am about this like I can’t explain it. 
The tortilla inflated! 
A tortilla that I made! 
Yeah this isn’t making sense but yeah. 
it was exciting, we hugged, we screamed, we cried, we ate tortillas.

Viernes 15 de Julio:

So I just had my last interview. 

President told me he wasn’t going to have enough time later to interview me when I’m finishing up in a few weeks. 

So that was unexpected.

But he seems to have a lot of confidence in me and in my ability to make good decisions.

In the evening we had a lesson with Marta and we talked about temples and how people can receive saving ordinances after they're dead. She looked up and said "does that mean that someone can help my son?" and I told her "yes"

I don’t know if I've mentioned this before but Marta heard the shots when they killed her son, she was out in the street, homeless, and her son was only 21 years old.

Sabado 16 de Julio:

Marta got baptized today! }It was so stressful though and I felt like nobody wanted to help us.

But in the last minute everything fell into place.

Afterwards Marta shared her testimony. Six years living in the street, being spit upon, kicked, and walked over. Losing herself in alcohol and hard drugs, losing her 21 year old son to gang violence.

I don’t think there were many dry eyes in that small classroom where we held the baptism. 

She even said that she admires herself, she should. She fell so hard and I'm so happy that I could be there when she wanted God's help to get back up.

Domingo 17 de Julio:

Marta got confirmed a member of the church today! I am so grateful for an amazing relief society president that is putting forth such an effort to make her feel welcome.

Oh! in the evening we were out doing lessons and we were sad because we didn't have dinner and we knew that we had no food in the house either.

But! When we visited Leticia the saintly woman gives us two baleadas each and now I know that God loves me 

#itookthepilltomakemetaller

Martes 5 de Julio 

"Y sucedió que se humillaron ante el señor, de tal modo que sentí gozo y grandes esperanzas de que anduvieron por las sendas de la rectitud." 1 Nefi 16:5 

 “And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord; insomuch that I had joy and great hopes of them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness.” 1Nephi 16:5

So today we were contacting and we met ANOTHER super receptive family from the Mosquitia and we had a v spiritual lesson, the mom wants to go to church and she wants to bring her 4 kids #yeahhhhh #pense 

I tried out some of my Misquito on them and they thought it was cute and they let me check out their bible  "God" is "Gad" and that's basically the only word I recognize.

In the evening hermana Elena called and we spent the rest of the night hauling water to their house because it's been a month now and they still don’t have water 

crabs keep getting into our house

Miercoles 6 de julio

 This little boy told us a story today, it started with, "there was a little girl living in a forest, but she wasn’t alone, she had a dragon"

This guy said I look like Alice in wonderland

#itookthepilltomakemetaller #twinkletwinklelittlebat

Jueves 7 de Julio:

A year ago today I fell and hurt my knee a year ago today and Elder Lucero told me he started his mission a year ago today. He's cursed my life from the beginning hahah

"The first epistle of John emphasizes that Jesus has come in the flesh, and shows its bearing on the life of men. It was probably written after the Gospel, for it assumes in the reader a knowledge of the facts that Gospel records. 

It also contains warnings against the dangers that beset a true faith in the literal incarnation of Jesus even before the end of the first century, both from teachers who claimed an authority independent of our Lord's in the revelation of truth and from teachers who refused to acknowledge a real manifestation of the godhead in human flesh.

Viernes 8 de Julio

"Te tengo grabada en las palmas de mis manos”

“I have graven the upon the palms of my hands” Isaiah 49:16 or 1 Nephi 21:16

Marta is so excited for her baptism next week, I’m so proud of her and all that she's been through.

She also goes by Maribel in case there's any confusion, she's the woman that spent 6 years of her life homeless.

She wants us to visit her every day until her baptism. sounds good to me!

Sabado 9 de Julio:

We were trying to go to lessons in the morning but all of the appointments kept falling and between each one we would run into the same little old lady carrying firewood and then help her carry it back to her house until I was just like what are we thinking? the lady keeps showing up with more firewood! So we asked her where she was getting it from and found a muchacho to help us and we got all the wood to her house in two trips. Sure, we didn’t have any lessons, but there's more important things sometimes.

Vos Sos Mia

Martes 28 de Junio:

"Asì, como el señor vive, y como yo vivo, no descenderé hasta mi padre en Bakersfield hasta que haya cumplido lo que el Señor me ha mandado." 1 Nefi 3:15

There's some muchachas in our ward whose mother is pregnant but with a lot of complications, and she works full time too, and on top of that, they still haven't had water for about two weeks in their house. So the poor things came over and showered at our house, we have two bathrooms anyway. And we filled up some 2 liter bottles for them to take home and bottled water to drink.

I was thinking about how even during droughts, we've always had water. Like we knew that we should use it sparingly, but it was never like we turned the knob in the sink and nothing came out.

never like that.

Mièrcoles 29 de Junio:

"According to the OldTestament, things or places were holy that were set apart for a sacred purpose; the opposite of holy is therefore common or profane.

The Israelites were a holy people because they stood in a special relationship to Jehovah.

Under the guidance of the prophets it was seen that what distinguished Jehovah from the gods of the heathen was his personal character.

The word holy therefore came to refer moral character"

"The value of worship in the eyes of God depends upon the personal character of the worshipper."

We contacted a transvestite today. It was 9:00 but we had only contacted 7 people and we needed 8 so we walked around the block one more time and found Paula. Later, when we asked his full name, told us it was paulo. He was baptized a member of the church of Jesus Christ when he was 12 and distanced himself from the church when he was 16 or 17, and now he's 19.

He said he stopped going because of the negative comments from his own relatives that have been members for years. 

He says that sometimes he feels like he should go back, but everytime he gets close to the gates, he turns back around. 

Jueves 30 de Junio:

"A major difficulty in understanding the book of Isaiah is his extensive use of symbolism, as well as his prophetic foresight and literary style. These take many local themes (Which begin in his own day) and extend them to a latter-day fulfillment or application.

Consequently, some prophecies are probably fulfilled more than one time and/or have more than one application."

We contacted this crazy DJ from Guatemala he is so hipster it's nuts and he showed us some of his music and recorded me singing and told me he's going to use it in a remix. Definitely one of the most interesting people that I have met here. His artist name is Aviikell if anyone wants to check him out. I don’t recommend all his music, I’m pretty sure he just showed us some of the cleanest songs, but interesting stuff!

Viernes 1 de Julio:

La Tahzan innallah ma'ana - don't be sad, allah is with us.

I bought teatree mint shampoo and now my hurr is delicious minty fresh.

A lady gave us mangos the size of footballs (north american) and I almost ran into a parked bus waving happily at a person that I recognized. 

Sábado 2 de Julio:

"Y él dijo: Mi presencia irá contigo y te daré descanso

Y Moisés respondió: Si tu presencia no ha de ir conmigo no nos saques de aquí."

Exodó 33:14-15

It's interesting to see how many accounts there are of the Lord taking out or separating his people from the rest. But he wants a holy people, separated from what is common or profane. There has always been a need to be united, one heart one mind. 

So much of the gospel focuses on being able to work together in harmony.

I've also come to realize that exaltation is a team sport, not that I’m thinking too much on getting married or anything hahah but I do understand more that picking a good player 2 will help in the success I acheive. 

Hermana Elena just explained to us that the "bread con quesillo" (white cheese) that she gave us is "quesillo, like what they put on pizza? and bread" okay i would not have been able to guess that hahah

We had another lesson with hna Maribel (the one that was homeless for 6 years?)

she wants so badly to do the right thing, and wants to get baptized asap, but I told her that it would be better to wait until the 16th, but she's excited and ready to leave everything behind her, it's great.

oh and we had hamburgers for lunch! But seriously Im so happy we started eating lunch with fam vasquez, they're kids are adorable and the food is so sososo good. 

Domingo 3 de Julio 2016

Today at lunch with fam Vasquez, their little girl said,

 Hna Nelson?

 yes? 

vos sos mia 

alrighty then. jajaj but it is true that we play and laugh a lot, it's ok Eilene, I can be yours.

oh and while we were outside today I found a huge lizard with like this crazy crest on his head and I caught it! I was so proud of myself, my comp was grossed out, and the investigator took a picture, so Im gonna tell him to send it to me later because... i still don’t have a camera. 

Lunes 4 de Julio:

ummmm yeah there's gringos in my zone here but we didn’t do anything, we just played Monopoly for a little bit and then my companion and I went to Wendys but they only had vanilla Frostys, they didn’t have chocolate. 

happy fourth of July! #murica 

A Magical Dolphin

Lunes 13 de Junio 2016

El: might, strength. In Hebrew and related languages it designates "divine being" many biblical names emply El with other words such as Bethel "house of God" , Eleazar "God has helped".

Possibly the best known use of El is in Elohim, a plural form signifying the almighty or omnipotent, a name applied to the Father.

Martes 14 de Junio

The last multizone of President Klein

We did a quintet of Be Still My Soul as a musical number and Pres. LOVED it. #winning I was so proud of my companion for singing it in english, she did a really good job! 

They explained to us that we were now allowed to use sunglasses and hats and what not but i've been using sunnies since I got here tbh 

Pres. said that the sun shouldn't be a problem because we should always be inside teaching. Our shoes should be new but our pants and skirts worn out from sitting down so much hahah.

I'm gonna be honest tho, I cried in the closing hymn, I'm going to miss President and Sister Klein so much! They are amazing amazing amazing. But three years is a long time, and they need to go home. :(

Miercoles 15 de Junio

"Salvation of one's soul comes only by personal integrity and willing obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel"

Dude Joseph was in prison for more the two years in Egypt because his homie the butler didn't put in a good word for him when he got out #cold But if he would have gotten out, he wouldn't have been able to interpret Pharaohs dream! Crazy how some things work out. Like two whole years in prison for absolutely no reason! 

Jueves 16 de Junio:

Trying to get a companion that's finishing their mission next week to do weekly planning with you........

 is a lot like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.

Viernes 17 de Junio:

"The Lord has revealed himself and his perfect character, possessing in their fulness all the attributes of love, knowledge, justice, mercy, unchangeableness, power, and every other needful thing, so as to enable the mind of man to place confidence in him without reservation"

"who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Am not I the Lord? Now therefore GO, and I will be with they mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say" Exodus 4:11-12

Today was fun.........my camera is broken and we walked a TON and had only 2 lessons.......

The only part that I liked was giving away the coconut bread that we made, everyone that we gave a piece to was so happy to recieve it and said that we bake like garifunas (the original makers of coconut bread) 

Sàbado 18 de Junio:

 Jesus wants ME for a sunbeam,

to shine FOR HIM each day. 

Today was ruff. My comp is pretty much over it all hahah 

I asked her what she wanted to do, "rest"

girl you can rest in your house when you're done!

Okay so today we had our first lesson with Maribel! She told us about how she was homeless for 6 years and had to raise children like that and how she sat there and heard her son getting shot and killed without knowing that it was her own boy that they were firing at :( She's only 50 but she has the eyes of ages and so dim and so sad.

She told us that the other missionaries she'd met before had helped her to leave all her vices and that she's ready now to be baptized. 

Domingo 19 de Junio

Fear: "fear is spoken of as something unworthy of a child of God...the first effect of Adam's sin was that he was afraid. Sin destroys that feeling of confidence God's children should feel in a loving Father, and produces instead a feeling of shame and guilt. Ever since the Fall, God has been teaching men not to fear, but with penitence to ask forgiveness in full confidence of receiving it"

Lunes 20 de Junio 2016

Mango banana orange smoothie to start off ma p'day #Iamjambajuice

Mièrcoles 21 de Junio:

I told my comp to call a taxi and our normal driver (hno Summer) was busy, would take about 20 min, so she didn't know what to do.

I told her to look for a different contact in the phone that's a taxi driver. She calls the contact "taxi driver" it's hermano Summer, but she doesn't recognize his boice but he comes anyway lol. 

We went to one of her old areas, Por Venir, to say goodbye to the people there and at one point she asked me "where should we go?" "this is your thing girl" 

I think the girl has been junior companion her whole mission haha she's so sweet.

Mièrcoles 22 de Junio 

we went to the bus stop for all the transfers. And it was just like ahg, coming here and dying is just a transfer away for me. I got to hug Hermana Torres and Hermana Alvarez goodbye.

Haight sent a package! A bunch of melted chocolate and a collage thing in a picture frame. The card make me remember how much I love her.

Jueves 23 de Junio 

Exaltation: El màximo estado de felicidad y gloria dentro del reino celestial 

Today was a trial of patience 

I tried to figure out why they cut the power and the power company assured me that they had not. After a ton of running around (including locking they keys in the door and having hno sumer open it again with a card) we finally got the problem resolved: turns out the apartment above us hasn't paid, but instead of cutting their power they cut ours.

Every single appointment fell but at least my companion is awesome and we have a good time.

Viernes 24 de Junio

I made us oatmeal pancakes with fig jam and honey on top :)

"Although God created things and is the ruler of the universe, being omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent (through his spirit) mankind has a special relationship to him that differentiates man from all other created things: man is literally God's offspring, made in his image, whereas all other things are but the work of his hands." 

"Latter-day revelation confirms the biblical account of God as the literal father of the human family: as a being who is concerned for the welfare of mankind, and a personage who hears and answers prayers."

Leticia told us that she was baptized at 12 years of age because that's how old Jesus was when he got baptized....what....

Sharon, this cute little girl, was looking at a picture of Christ so I asked her

 "quièn es èl?"  

"Dios" 

"No, es Jesucristo"

"Oh, se parece a Dios"

Translation: 

"Who is that?"

"God"

"No, it's Jesus Christ"

"Oh, he looks like God"

Sàbado 25 de Junio:
"It is...through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strenth and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts"

Jovan tells me today "your voice is like a magical dolphin" Thanks?

Sharon, same little girl, tells me "que gordita esta"

We met the strangest child today, THis little garifuna would roll her eyes back and then lunge out at us and yell. She did this like 5 times in a row with us laughing a ton and then all of the sudden she's like "ya no" and stops.

Domingo 26 de Junio

We started eating at a new house and the food is wayyy better (not boiled green bananas every day) 

I gave the lesson today and I think it went pretty well! we talked about charity.

We had like 9 lessons today, it was really fun we just run around singing and ringing doorbells. this is too much fun im never going home ;)

Lunes 27 de Junio:
we started the day off walking along the beach that starts in front of our house until we got to the peir.

It was fun, but a ton a ton a ton a ton of trash, super sad.

okay well now I'm caught up! love you mom!