Health Issues: So I've been sitting on a couch with my leg up for the last two days. My left foot swelled up. We think some bug bites on my foot got infected from the water or something and then hiking up a mountain here to just visit two families probably didn’t help. The sisters here in the ward tried some home remedies with hot water and lemon leaves which was really nice, but it didn't seem to help. Sis. Klein had me get some sort of antibiotic so I'm taking those.
More challenges: I’ve cut my finger like 3 times in the mission so far, the latest is healing up pretty well but it totally scared me. I also lost the back of the magnet to one of my placas (nametags) while we were lugging our maletas across the flooded streets of Progreso in the rain, while people were calling out "¡Gringa!" last week!?
I was asked to bear my testimony in the ward here on Sunday. Number One: I don’t like bearing my testimony when I’m not expecting it. But I did it anyways. Number 2: I don’t like talking to people if they’re not paying attention. I went to the front and started to share some of the things I know when I sort of stopped and realized that people weren’t listening or paying attention. I was so hurt and frustrated.
The lady whose house I’ve been staying at the past few days is really nice but it's like I can’t understand Spanish all over again! I don't know what happened. I guess I just got used to how people talked in Ceiba....AHHHH Ceiba. I miss it.
Good stuff! We got to go to a conference in San Pedro this past week with some of the areas from our mission and the SPS mission"! We got to listen to our mission president, the other mission president, their wives, Brother and Sister Ochoa and then Brother and Sister Soares! It was really neat to think about the fact that he had just spoken in General Conference in November! He talked a ton about obedience and cleansing our lives, so it was a pretty "machete" talk but it was good and it was definitely inspired I think. It was neat to take a little trip and see some of the missionaries from our mission since not everyone goes to changes. And it was neat to be counseled!
Mi casa es su casa: The house here is gigantic and I feel like I’ve done my work out for the day by the time I’ve walked from my bed to the kitchen. We have to turn on a switch outside to have water run in the morning. The pila is too big and the water comes out of the spigot in the wall for the shower like a garden hose. It’s super hard to even just take a shower. I remember seeing a quote about missionaries and it was like "...nothing like a warm shower and a warm meal to soften the blow of a hard day’s work" or something like that and I was just like "Not sure I'm ever going to get that on my mission". It will just make the return that much sweeter! So the cool things about the house here are that we have a lemon and a banana tree. It’s actually pretty sick ;) The house was a total mess when we got there and there were dirty dishes all over and ants and no water and just junk. I’ve totally identified with “Milly” from the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It’s crazy! But we deep cleaned the house and we'll get things taken care of! We'll get things organized, baptize some people and support and encourage everyone to come to church!
We don’t write for too long here since we have to take a bus here to Progreso for an hour just to buy food and write and then we go back. But it will be okay and I won’t be here forever. I’ve been pretty discouraged the entire weekend but being able to read conference talks in English for the past two days and sleep some extra time has really been a blessing I think. I hope you all are doing well.
LOVE,
Hermana Despain
