Well this week must have been boring because I can't think of anything terribly exciting. It was kind of a bad week and a slow week.
Since we have the 5 wards and the 1 Spanish branch, each ward takes turns having us over for dinner for a week, so we don't get Hispanic food that often. The last transfer when we were supposed to have dinner with them, we had appointments and couldn't make it to any of the dinners in the branch, so we haven't have Mexican food in what felt like forever. So we were really excited this last week!
The cool thing about the valley is that we have all different kinds of food. This week we had food from El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Cuba, and Mexico of course. Most were pretty good. On Thursday we went into one of our member’s house. We walked in and saw a giant table piled with food, so we wondered if more people coming? Is this a fiesta? NOPE, she expected us to eat all of it. They love the missionaries so much. They call us their little angels and daughters from heaven and they spoil the crap out of us, but unfortunately it is by feeding us. It's hard because they don't have a lot of money to begin with yet they spend all day making a ton of food for us. So we have discovered it is less offensive if we ask to take some of it to go. That way we don't have to eat 18 pounds in one sitting. It's working well so far.
But we have had some funny things to eat this week. Two nights ago we had "E" who is from Mexico. We get there and she tells us how excited she has been to cook for us and how she made something American and she was so proud of how it turned out. We were kind of bummed because we are sick of American food! We go in and it's spaghetti, but then she proceeds to put salsa, ketchup and beans ON TOP of the spaghetti with sauce and meatballs, and then puts saltine crackers on the table to dip into your spaghetti. That’s not all – there were potatoes on the side...Yep! Our eyes must have been huge.
Almost all of our Spanish investigators have asked if they can feed us, so we will be having more Hispanic food this transfer which is good:) They are so cute.
We met this cute couple the other day on the street and they were really excited to meet us because the guy had worked with a LDS member before and had wanted to know more. He was the one asking us if we would come and teach him - which we love it when that happens - but they asked if they could please make us dinner before our first appointment! We were like um yes duh you can make us dinner. Score!
We had an awesome lesson with them. First thing they ask when we get there is if it is okay that they are living together and not married. We explained everything and had a really good lesson and by the end they were talking about how they wanted to get married in the Temple. So they are awesome!
One of our other Spanish families tried to "make a deal" with us this week. He said “Okay, okay I’ll come to church IF we can make you dinner!" Once again we were like Duh- of course!!! They were so impressed that we could handle spicy food, and we were white they kept saying how proud they were lol.
We had an awful day last week. I don't even know how to describe what happened. It was an impressively bad day, Satan was working pretty hard. It all started out with this random convert chewing us out for something we didn't do, and she was really out of line and had no idea what she was talking about. For some reason it didn't bother me as much I was annoyed but not to the point of breaking down. I was just like “Whatever, that lady was ridiculous.” So we go up to talk to this lady on the street that looks really nice. Turns out she’s Anti's us!! lol! We start talking to another guy who is a huge jerk and ANTI's us. Now, we don't normally get Anti'd that often. Maybe like once a month is all. And the first really bad one was the other week. Now we are getting them constantly. So I suggest that we go get some ice cream so we can calm down and get it together so we can actually teach today. So we got ice cream and are happy again and then we go back out and get anti'd 5 MORE TIMES IN A ROW! At this point, I’m impressed and it's evidently clear that Satan is a huge part of this. So the last guy we talked to is the world’s biggest jerk and I'm finally on the verge on tears after 5 hours of crap. So we are walking down the street and and we just look like these broken down little missionaries. lol We are in the middle of nowhere, walking back to our car which is forever away, and then we see this white suburban pull up and the window goes down and it's Sister "S" and she is like GET IN. She is a member from one of our English wards. So she starts telling us how she is never in this area and how she took a turn down the wrong street and couldn't figure out why she had taken this way and then she saw us. We weren't even in her stake boundaries where she found us so it was random. So she is a returned missionary, so she makes us get in and drives us back to her house and cheered us up and let us fume. Sister "S" said “I think you guys should call it a day because something funky is happening today and even I was Anti'd at the gym. Satan's working hard today.” Luckily we had Spanish appointments for the rest of the night who cheered us up. When they found out we had a bad day, the men investigators were asking for these peoples addresses and they were completely serious! lol They are so protective of us it's cute.
I don't know if I mentioned this already but a lot of stuff is happening because of the Temple being built here in Gilbert. A lot of really great stuff is happening and prepared people are being gathered here to hear the gospel, which is really cool to see, but also a lot of people aren't happy about the temple. We found out that 5,000 anti DVD's were sent to people in Gilbert this month. A few of the Elders have been invited in to people houses who want to watch it with them and then have them defend themselves. Sometimes this world is ugly.
Luckily all the ugly crap we go through still is worth it. We had too many good lessons this week to call it a bad week. We had another Spanish-speaking family that told us that they want to change, and that whenever we come over they feel something. They said there's something bright about us and how they just feel so good when they read the Book of Mormon that they know that it is true they just want to learn more. Lessons with them are fun. They just can't get enough. Our last lesson ended up being 2 hours because they got so excited and had so many questions. So many people really are looking for this and have been waiting to hear it. It's very cool when we actually find them.
We took "M" to the visitors center by the temple and watched The Restoration, (which I have seen over a hundred times now) because he wanted to hear about Joseph Smith and prophets. IT WAS AMAZING. The whole movie he would lean over to mean and whisper "Wow- that makes sense, wow- that is true." So after the movie he told us he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and how he felt it and felt so good and he felt that what he was doing by being baptized was right. He asked a lot of questions about the Mesa temple which was in the background (gorgeous at night). It was really cool to hear his testimony. I just want him to read the Book of Mormon.
We also took "H" and her boys to a random baptism so they could see what theirs will be like which was good. But the kid being baptized was in high school, so it was packed with high school kids and probably some in college. We both got out to the car and were like “Okay I'm glad I’m here. Yes, this sucks sometimes. Nope I don't feel cute. No, this isn't cool. But it's worth it and I wouldn't trade it for the world some of these experiences and all that I have learned it's all so irreplaceable. I'll never regret this. I would have regretted not going for sure. No doubt in my mind this is where Heavenly Father wanted me. This has changed my outlook on life so much. My priorities are completely different then they would have been had I not come. I still don't know what the heck happened that randomly got me here on a mission but I’m so thankful that Heavenly Father cared about me enough.
We are thinking about bribing one of our ward mission leaders to take us four wheeling in his sweet jeep today, but everyone is complaining that it is cold today. lol It's 65 degrees and everyone has coats on and boots! We've totally acclimated. I start to shiver when it's fewer than 70. It's pathetic. We are spoiled in Arizona! I'm sorry that you are in the snow and cold. Most of last week was about 80 degrees, but the next few days are going to be "cold" in the 60's.
I'll be jealous of you in a few months though when it goes up 40-50 degrees and is 115-120 and I want to die...
Okay sorry this email isn't terribly exciting but I LOVE YOU. I Miss You.
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