An hour and 45 minutes to email doesn't feel like enough time still!
Here's what a typical day is like:
We wake up at 6:30 a.m. and "Are supposed to work out," but that doesn't always happen. 7-8 we get ready and eat breakfast. 8-9 a.m. - we have personal study. 9-10 a.m we have companion study. Sometimes we do Spanish studying from 10-11 a.m. but usually we're too busy. Then we go all over the place, checking in on members. We'll go to find former investigators or friends of members who we're told are interested in the church. Usually no one is home.
Everyone in this branch recently joined the church, but they don't know a lot about religion. Church meetings are held in a tiny room. This last Sunday was Fast & Testimony Meeting so they called on me to bear my testimony because I was the new missionary. At this point I'd already met them all. They're a very loving branch. One lady walked 45 minutes to come to church last week. We've got a few main families that pretty much make up our branch and hold it together.
Hermano R is someone I've mentioned before. He's in his 40's and single and the definition of a member missionary. He's the best person I've ever met. He doesn't have a job though, but he takes care of the members all day and comes out with us and even plans much of our day.
There's one Hermana - who walked 45 minutes to church. She's our Relief Society President and has been a member for 2 years. The rest of her family aren't members. We're talking to her 18 year old daughter.
We have the "M" family. The "Fiestas" are usually at their place. They're cute. Whenever we go over there, he's highlighting a Book of Mormon to send to friends in Mexico. They don't have much but because of the gospel they are happy and are always trying to share it. It's admirable.
Then we have the "R" family. The Mom, has cancer but she's really good at keeping the members we have in the loop and helps us round up everyone on Saturday to make sure they'll come to church.
That's pretty much our Branch. They live all over town but they're always together. Seriously - it's always a fiesta.
We actually have a lot of investigators. One in particular "A", is 15 years old and he's here for the year as an exchange student and living with an English member family. We have dinner there once a week and teach him afterward. He's awesome. He loves the gospel. He even goes to seminary. His family is taking the lessons in Mexico, so they want to wait and have him baptized with them - as a family.
We're also teaching another family the importance of families. They have three small kids. We're showing them how to have a Family Home Evening tomorrow.
There's another family that we LOVE! They have about 10 kids. They all love Hermano R and jump all over him the entire time. He brings candy in his pockets for them. They have a nine year old, "M" and she loves us. She reads the Book of Mormon on her own and looks forward to when we come. It's really cute. The whole family is very open to the church and they all participate. I'm excited to see where they go.
We're also teaching another couple. He is very interested in the church. He loves the Book of Mormon. We're reading 3 Nephi 11 with him and we were each reading a few verses, but he didn't stop and kept reading into chapter 12 & 13 by himself out loud. So we kept letting him read. He just keeps saying, "Que Bonita." (How beautiful)
Oh - funny story. So we were reading out loud with him and it was my turn to read. We got to this verse where it was one of those "and he begat ___, who begat ___, who begat ___" with a ton of hard to pronounce names in English - let alone Spanish. I STRUGGLED through it trying to pronounce all 50 names. Hermano R was laughing so hard. Later during an awkward silence, Herman R said, "Hermana, could you please read that verse again?" Jerk.
Hermano R doesn't speak any English. Actually just about everyone doesn't speak English. They correct my Spanish. One of my favorite things is to hear someone whose never said a prayer, pray for us out loud. I ask everyone to kneel down together to pray. I think the spirit is stronger when we do that and it's really cool when a whole family does it. It just invites the spirit and drives out all contention.
Speaking of contention, I had my first bible-bash with a woman and her family. I was 100% sure what was going on even in Spanish. Hermana J talked with her. Her Spanish was fast when she was mad, but at the end I tried to bear my testimony of what I know is true. Even though she wasn't happy with us, she helped me with my Spanish and kept winking at me and encouraging me to keep trying. Everyone loves that we are trying to learn their language. At the end I asked them to kneel and pray with us - I think it helped. She invited us back and gave me a kiss on the cheek - which they all do, especially women.
It's cool when we're in a lesson and an investigator will tell us the experiences they're having with the Holy Ghost. One guy prayed that Sister Missionaries would teach him because he didn't like the Elders. The next day the President put Sisters up here for the first time. He had a really strong impression to do that - then we found out about that investigator. :)
I love all our member's conversion stories. One member had a dream about the Salt Lake Temple - he had never seen it before. The next day the missionaries gave him a pass-along card with a picture of the Salt Lake Temple on it. All of them have cool stories. We have a Hermano in our branch who is white and married a woman from Peru, His wife has advanced cancer and it's not looking good. It's hard to understand why this is happening to her. It's heartbreaking because she's the best woman. I hate all these bad things that are happening to our amazing members.
Hermana J took Spanish in high school and college so she communicates easily. She's been pretty patient though. There are 8 Spanish Sisters in the mission. Everything with the families we're teaching remind me why I'm here.
***The rest is just answering questions
Love,
Kaitlyn
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