Hola from Mexico!!!
I hope this email finds you all doing really well! I'm going to try and focus more on the spiritual things this week since I've gotten all the other little details of things out of the way it seems :)
You know its been a good week when you get compared to Christ by your teacher. Yeah, it happened. We had an interview. He just wanted to get to know me a little. So he compared me to Christ in that Christ had to be the rock for his disciples and his apostles because oftentimes they were scared or nervous. So that gave me a big boost and I really appreciated it. He said I have a real light and that gave me a lot of comfort. Later in the week, he told me that one of the teachers of the natives overheard me talking to one of the natives and he said that I had an accent "como un nativo"! It blew me away, it was such a compliment. So despite the challenges, I have a lot of blessings and people looking out for me.
Things that made me happy this week
1. According to Hermana B., Elder M. flirts with me every time he sees me...which is pretty rare. It's just something to laugh at I guess as a sister missionary.
2. The chocolate chip/cheescake dessert thing they have is amazing. You just can't pass it up.
3. Chokis!!! They're a brand of chocolate chip cookies here that we get in the tienda. Let's just say that according to the scales here I should quit buying them altogether :)4. Nutella and peanut butter! They added it to the breakfast condiments area and it is the most genius thing!
5. Our investigator Raquel said she would pray to know if baptism was something that she would do in her life! Yeah sorry my English doesn’t even makes sense anymore.
6. I see Ethan Chaney like 5 times a day! So that's fun, it's nice to have a friend here :)
7. My interview with my bishop. It made me the happiest I've been in a long time.
8. I don't have a parasite and I'm not sick anymore! But Hermana B2 has a parasite and who knows what's up with Hermana B, but we're keeping an eye on it....
9. This week, Hermana B2's shining moment was when she started to walk into the guys bathroom. Yeah, we probably go to the bathroom about 15 times a day and for some reason the walk to the right bathroom has just not been ingrained yet I guess! So we had a good laugh :)Oh and its really good to not get rubbing alcohol on scriptures, I don't know why I had to figure that out the hard way but it's just something good to know.
I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt today, can you all believe that? August 29th! And I'm wearing a long sleeved shirt! Hermana B2 said it's a great color on me :) Of course it's hers though :)
So after my interview with the bishop, we raced over to the Sunday devotional and it was beyond AMAZING. Guess why....two words....ELDER HOLLAND. It was from a devotional at the Provo MTC on February 28th 2012. I still can't believe I got to shake his hand when he visited our stake like last year! So his devotional was great and I just want to share some notes that I took from it. He was talking about missionary work of course. He said that oftentimes missionaries will say that this isn’t real life, the life of a missionary, but he said that this is as close to real life as we're ever going to get. He also said that when we get back from our missions, we're just not supposed to go back to the way we were, ever, even if we were terrific. That really stuck with me because we really should never retreat to how we were, we should be improving day by day. He is just such a powerful speaker and he gives you so much encouragement. He talked about the use of the Book of Mormon and how we just need to give it a chance and tell our investigators the same. He talked about how just within the first chapter of 1 Nephi, we learn about prophets, revelation they receive, books, prayer, etc. So much! Just within the first chapter of the Book of Mormon! So we encouraged Fernando, our other investigator (aka Hermano Montés one of our teachers) to just read the first chapter. We'll see how it goes! I'll share more notes next week when I have my notebook with me. That thing is full of oro I tell you. Palabras del oro!During class sometimes as a district, Elder M. will have us guess his like insulin number or something because he has diabetes. Yeah, it's about as exciting as....well not a lot. But it's exciting for us!
Saturday night the ciudad must have been partying because literally, the bass was so loud we could feel it. I honestly dont know how I fell asleep that night!We had TRC last night for the first time!!! I still don’t know what it stands for but its where they have members from the city come and we teach them! More like we just share experiences because we technically don’t need to teach them. So we talked about prayer and taught three lessons, each 20 minutes. They went so well and we worked really hard at getting to know the members first because that’s something we struggle with, learning their needs so that we don’t teach a presentation. I must say that I don’t do a lot of the teaching, I do a lot of the Elder Calhoun (Best Two Years) smiling and reassuring and laughing and all the filler stuff and testifying.... ;) I've also learned a lot about body language. Actually I already knew about the importance of it, especially in a lesson.
At one point some sister missionary said something about my companion as we were walking past and I about lost it, I was so close to being like "you don't talk about my companion!" But then I remembered I am a sister missionary in a skirt and I didn't lose it. You really become protective of your companions though, I've felt motherly instincts kick in multiple times. Usually when we trip on the rocky roads in between buildings :)
We keep having light wars with the other sisters, idk why, but we do. I turn out the hall light and someone usually comes and turns it back on. I guess things do follow you from home ;) I hope you're enjoying the hall light staying on when you want it to Dallin, I miss our light wars :)
I realized that the Liahona....well I can’t remember what I realized this week about it....OH! Ok, of course it was from God, and of course it was un milagro porque honestly, no one but God could have made something so incredible. God is real and He loves us in case you didn’t know that :) I also realized that the Atonement brings about happiness!!!! Like of course repentance brings happiness in the end if you really do it all right, but I just always associated the Atonement with sadness and misery! But it really brings true happiness! Proof that you can find light in the darkest of times :)
We watched the Testaments this week and oh boy, those two kisses, you would've thought the auditorium was full of 6th graders....or just Elders and Sisters that just haven’t seen PDA or had any sort of contact between the human race other than a hand shake for weeks on end. So that was pretty hilarious. I love being a missionary. I was an idiot to think that I would have tons of issues, crying about missing home and missing a friends...instead I’ve had opportunities to care for others - being the mom and handing out tissues on the daily. It's really challenging and emotionally draining to have to be happy all the time. But my district and Elders help me. Guys are so carefree it's ridiculous.
My district recognized my facial expressions pretty early on and they comment on them like daily.I have so many blessings. Anyways, I pray for patience constantly and for love. I really do love it here. I notice new things everyday. I love applying what we learn and noticing my language skills increasing. I love the Savior, and I know we can be made clean from our sins through him. You better believe I know how to say that in Spanish. I can't wait for Honduras but I seriously love it here. I love it more every day even though others feel that it becomes a prison. I love the gospel and I'm excited to share it with others. I seriously love Hispanic people, they are incredible with such good hearts. I feel so lucky every day :) Thank you for the love and support everyone!
Love,
Hermana Despain
