"For the Kids"

So apparently everyone else can steal from, throw rocks at and be rude to innocent little sister missionaries, but we can’t swing on the swings at the local park in Santa Rita because they’re "for the kids"......#irony

This was a really great week actually. We improved a TON in our number of lessons. I was so proud of us! A little healthy competition never hurt, so that helped us to be motivated. We taught 9 lessons in a span of 4 hrs! It was great to see my companion so motivated to work hard and move quickly. Most of the time I think that is our challenge, finding motivation to work in the heat and deal with frustrating people who don’t really progress. No one ever said it would be easy! Haha...

So we had two investigators in church yesterday! Hermana A.and Hermana M.! We went and picked up M. and she brought her baby and little girl. Her baby has been sick and so she wanted help going to a doctor or a hospital so we called our Zone Leaders to see what the best option would be. We ended up telling her to come to church and we'd have someone give her baby a blessing afterwards. So she came to church but she showed up in clothes that aren't as nice as ones she has. Her baby without shoes, and her hair kind of crazy....hmm....little suspicious... She seemed to enjoy church but after the Elders gave her baby a blessing she kept complaining a bit and the Elders told her her baby would be better according to her faith and she kept talkin about goin to a doctor...and left right after sacrament meeting. When we went to the cuartería (this little set of apartments that we've started to teach in quite a bit!  she wasnt there, she was visitng her mom and her neighbors said she wanted to be able to go in front of everyone at church and tell them about her baby and like ask for help.....rightttt cuz we totally go to church for that....but I understand that that's what happens a lot here. People go to church because they know we help people. But it was a little frustrating. So who knows, maybe we've been getting lied to for a month...but that happens all the time. We'll see if she progresses or if she just wanted to get help financially.

Let me tell you guys about this cuartería. We love that little cuartería, it's like a little colony - it's so cute! :) Most of the people that live there are from broken families. A ton of single moms and there's abuse and junk that happens but some of them are really good solid people. We're teaching about 3 people mainly that live there but whenever we walk into the cuartería all the little kids come running and are like "Mami! Las hermanas! Ay que linda andan" It's so cute! We've worked with them on paying attention but they're doing their "tarea" almost every time. We think one of the investigators is gay but we let them choose the pamphlets they would study and when they say the Chastity pamphlet they were like "castigar??" Sometimes it's really hard to feel the Spirit there but little by little it's gotten better. That tiny little space is just so much evidence that the family is a blessing from Heavenly Father and that we are supposed to have families made up of a dad and a mom and children and that life doesn't have to be so complicated. We want to give that little cuartería another name cuz we just really enjoy going there so much :)

The other investigator we had in church was A, the little old lady who has been super pilas! She is really receptive and she's surprised us a few times with how  much she retains and knows! I'm still learning patience with how many times she interrupts us haha. But she came to church all by herself again! She is so great. She even stayed all three hours! So we've set a baptismal date with her and I think it will actually happen :) She was baptized in the Pentecostal church before, is that the evangelic church? So she’s had some questions about answers to prayer and sacerdocio and baptisms and everything so we'll see what more we can do for her but I could see her being a great member. The members actually do an incredible job of taking her in and by incredible I mean they say hi to her and invite her to sit with them. It's really a miracle for this ward.  But we were sitting behind her in our principios del evangelio class and I was sharing my scriptures with her and I was like putting my finger under the words of the scriptures and she started reading them really really slowly to herself so it took about 6 minutes but it was great to be sitting there helping her. With M during the sacrament she took the bread then just sort of held it there and I was like "lo come" and smiled :) Super simple but it was neat to help someone learn just a little part of taking the sacrament :)

As we were walking on the Calle ocho up to visit Hermana A. in Bella Vista this week we walked past these little kids and they were all whispering and then at the same time they were like "Adios gringa!" and I couldn’t help but smile and laugh. It was actually cute :) I also noticed one of my t-shirts from home was made in Honduras. I loved that I was like "Whoa, it was made in Honduras and I’m IN Honduras!?!??!!"

So I wanted to share some chistes I got on little gum mint candy things here..."¿Cuál es el aparato electrónico más antiguo en la biblia? El ministerio" HAH! "¿Qué le dijo el agente de seguros a Adán y Eva? Ya veo que no están cubiertos." Heh. this one is my favorite! "Qué le dice un jaguar a otro jaguar! Jaguar you?" SO FUNNY :)

So Sunday afternoon we needed to find a ton of nuevos so as we were goin down this hill we heard these three guys talkin about "el senor" so I was like "Perfect!" Uh,yeah actually not so perfect! Turned to one of the guys was an evangelical pastor of 28 years or something and there was his little sidekick and the random friend. He tried telling us the Holy Ghost was God and the prophet and I literally was like "HUH?" I didn’t even say like "Uh, ¿cómo?" Hahaha and while we're standing there being preached to, we're being destroyed by ants! They were getting into our shoes and biting our feet! Oh I swear you guys it’s the most painful thing! So you could say our patience was being tried. In the end I was tired of trying to share even just one principle with him so I was like "Look we have a cita but thank you and we'll see you..." We ended with a prayer....then I was halfway down the hill by the time my comp told me that they had thrown a little rock at us! I swear y'all if I had been up that hill!! It wouldn’t have been pretty...I'm also learning patience in talking to Evangelicals in general. They do a lot of "si...si...si...si..." and I'll be like "Oh, you knew there’s a prophet on the earth today?" and they'll be like "Uh, yeah" and then they realize they don’t but patience, patience patience. During a lesson it got to the point where I was just laughing at the fact that one lady was literally saying "si" every 4 seconds to everything my comp said. You just gotta laugh sometimes. Or when people pray and there like "Padre Jesus.....Señor Jesus....dios....padre Jesus" and you’re like we just tried to explain how to pray to you! But it's all a big learning process :)

I had heard of families being so poor that they use notebook paper for toilet paper....but I never thought I'd be in a house where that happened....mental note #alwaysbegratefulfortoiletpaper #imsoblessed I just don’t know how people live like that, but they do and it just makes me  so grateful for what I have.

I almost kissed a member this week :-0 We teach a lot of hermanas so I get super acostumbrada to doin the abrazocheek kiss thing haha but it was funny cuz when I went in  to "greet" the man of the house I like freaked out and tried to pretend I was like lookin at a newspaper he was reading but man his wife saw and just started dyin' laughing :) Pretty Funny!

We played with water balloons for our pday today, We just tossed them around in a circle and we were all super quiet and awkward, but we're missionaries, what can you do? It was a ton of fun to get soaking wet in the blazing sun and just laugh and have fun :) #cleanfun #simpleyetthebest

We sister missionaries were asked to give talks on Sunday on whatever we felt the ward needed. Um how about a fresh start and being strong members? But no I was going to use sister Oscarson's talk from this last conference about conversion and I had it all prepared but then I was last and only had time to share a scripture from D&C to Emma Smith about leaving the things of the world and I shared my testimony. Short and sweet but hopefully it stuck with the people there :) #learningtoadjust

I had a hard day this week I can't remember when but things just weren’t going well. A lot of citas fell through. It was hot and I was frustrated and then I fell down a hill again. Stupid hills. Then we were teaching a less active and out of the blue this random man comes up the stairs and just starts talking and talking and talking to himself/us about "ay esta gringa.....soy pobre....los estados....esta gringa" and we just kept going with the lesson. Crazy stuff happens like that all the time and its incredible how used to these things you get but hopefully its making me a stronger, more tolerant person. Everyday has its challenges but I'm still amazed at how much we learn every minute. Whether its things I want to look for in my future husband. Things I want to do with my future family. Things I want to change about myself, how I talk to people, how I won't talk to people, things like that :) The mission changes you if you let it, and it can be a life changing sort of change :) hope you all have a great week! love you all!

love,
Hermana Despain