HELLO!
So, I'm sure you know, that I am here in Texas! I am in the Hurst stake (right south of Fort Worth and just Northwest of Arlington) speaking spanish (por supuesto!) and I have TWO trainers! Hermana Hansen is my real trainer and she's from Centerville UT and she is AWESOME. She's been out 9 months and she has a motto to always be in the middle of her mission. I'm learning so much from her! Then my junior companion trainer (i don't know if there's a real title for this....haha) is Hermana Gomez, and despite what you might think, she is not a native :) She grew up in Tooele (spelling?) County UT and her Dad is from Mexico (so she looks hispanic) but she never spoke spanish until she got into the MTC 6 months ago, so all the Hispanos here are confused when she says she can't speak the language very well...haha But our Trio is seriously the best and we have great unity already and it feels like we've known each other since birth. I LOVE my companions sooo much!
Texas is the best. We have a car (i'm partially thankful and partially sad, but mostly thankful) and it's 100+ every day here. When we go running every morning by the library, it always says the temperature and we stay consistently in the 85 degree area at 7am... With humidity, if you're outside for more than 5 seconds, then you basically feel like you're in the upstairs room of 24 hour fitness after a 2 hour workout, except for that's how it feels all the time---AND I LOVE IT! It makes me feel like I'm working hard.
So the spanish....hahaha my companions always say I came into the field pre-loaded with the 12week in field training program because my spanish isn't terrible, but I realized VERY quickly that the gift of tongues is more present with me when I'm teaching lessons and less so during small talk... We had lunch with a puertorican family my first day (puerto ricans talk suuuuuuuuuuper fast) and all I could do was smile and nod because I couldn't understand a word they were saying! I'm getting better every day, but I'm not worried about it. The Lord is blessing me with sooo much love for these people, and even though I can barely understand them, I trust that I will be given the words to say that will invite them to come closer to Christ.
I LOVE this barrio/ward too! I had to bear my testimony in spanish along with the other new missionaries, and I introduced myself as Hermana Blood, but they could all call me Hermana Sangre. They laughed. :) Also, they are so willing to help the missionaries and they are so humble and amazing. The Spanish ward covers the entire boundary of our Stake, and so we have 10 missionaries in our ward (crazy, right???). We sisters have a majority of the area because we have a car, and so we get to meet with a lot of the members. Our Ward Mission Leader and his family are awesome and so strong, and they just got baptized 3 years ago! It's so cool because most of the ward are converts and they are so strong in the gospel and our ward is pretty big. It's really amazing.
One of the Members is named Hermana E and I feel like she's a mexican version of SisterP. She is so funny and awesome and the other day we took her on an exchange and she kept asking us these English words, so here's what happened (in English, even though most of it was in spanish).
Esparza: "What does whack mean??"
Me: "It doesn't really mean anything, Hma!"
Esparza: "So it's not a bad word? I would hate to say a bad word."
Me: No, it's not bad at all!
Esparza: "Ok! Tu eres whack!" (You're whack!)
She cracks me up. I love her, and ALLL the members!
We have had a bunch of meetings this week, so we weren't able to do a lot of contacting but we've had some really good lessons with Recent Converts, Less Actives, and some cool Investigators. And the members feed us like every night (The food here is soooo good! They eat rice and chicken here like it's nobody's business.) and sometimes it's in homes with families that have some really humbling stories. I feel so blessed and touched to know that these people are taking time out of their busy lives to feed us whatever they have.
I already feel like I should be Mexican. Or Guatemalen. Or Columbian. Or puerto Rican. These people and this culture is AWESOME.
I'm glad to hear that Utah was good! And that you didn't die from the probably awful smell of the floors, but I'm glad they're all finished. Thanks for the T-shirt! I can't think of anything crazy right now that I need...except for maybe like some hair-cutting scissors? I don't think we're gonna have tons of time today to get that for myself. And maybe print out a few pictures I'm sure you've taken the past few weeks? Those are always fun!
I LOVE being a missionary, and I am so humbled by this experience. I know that these Hispanics are who I'm supposed to meet and I love them already! Thank you for being such an awesome family and for letting me take a piece of my heart to leave with these spanish speaking people of Fort Worth Texas.
I love you!
Hermana Blood
No comments:
Post a Comment