Hey everybody!
This
is my first week in the field, and it has been so wonderful!!! First I
have a couple more funny things from the MTC then at least for this week
I'll try to give you a run-down of each day, but I'll have to see what
we can do for the rest of the weeks. People can still write/DearElder me
to the mission office or if you want to send letters to my apartment or
email me you can as well. I won't be putting that information on the
blog though, so you'll have to find out from someone who already knows
or send me a DearElder with your email and I'll write to you. :)
3/20
Elder Barkdull was our District Leader
for our last week in the MTC. He had a funny habit when he would ask
people to pray. The word for 'to pray' is orar. To say 'you will pray'
is orara with an accent on the last A. Since the last syllable is the
one that is stressed, and to remind himself of that, Elder Barkdull
would always go up on his toes for the last syllable. It's not as funny
on paper as in person, but you could try it out yourselves... Say
or(sounds like oar)-a-rA and lift up your heals to stand on your tippy
toes as you say the last a.
3/22
This day was infield orientation, and it
was really pretty fun. The thing I remember most from that day is one
of the demonstrations. It's sad, but I can't really remember exactly
what the point was (I'll have to look back in my notes.) but the teacher
had someone come up to the front and hold two ballons while she listed
something. Then the teacher used a tac and suddenly popped one of the
balloons. No one was expecting it, and I was sitting right up front so I
jumped a little. Then I plugged my ears for the rest of the
demonstration until he popped the other one.
Now for Field stories!!!
On
Monday the 25th we flew out to California. The mission president, some
couples, and the Assistant's picked us up and drove us to a stake
center. There we did a little bit of orientation and ate lunch before we
were split into two groups. My group went out with some of the 'older'
missionaries finding around that area while the other group stayed and
did more orientation, paperwork, and interviews with President Hall.
Finding was such a cool experience!!! I went out with Hermana Hansen who
was going home that week, and it was so good. She picked a street where
there was a large hispanic population, and we parked and started
walking down the street. She told me to pick an appartment complex that
felt good, so I waited for a while then pointed one out. The gate (most
of the appartment complexes and houses and other buildings here have
fences and gates) was locked so we waited outside for a little bit, but
then a woman came and let us in. We started talking to her, and she
invited us into her house and let us teach her the first lesson. I
shared my testimony a couple of times, and said the first vision! She
agreed to read the Book of Mormon (3rd Nephi 11) and have the
missionaries come back!!!!! It was so exciting!!! She had a very cute
little daughter who gave me a flag sticker that I put on my planner.
After finding we went back and did the other stuff then we all drove up
to the mission home to have dinner with the Hall family. After dinner we
talked a little took lots of pictures (that hopfully mom got) and then
headed out to where we were sleeping. Hermana Hall and I were in a hotel
with some other missionaries.
The next morning on Tuesday the 26th we got up had
breakfast at the hotel and went to another stake center for more
training and the transfers meeting. Training was with the Assistants and
Sister Hall, then President Hall brought us all into the transfer
meeting. He talked for a little bit and then started assigning
companions/transfers in all the zones. I was the very last sister
assigned a companion. My new companion is named Hermana Whetten and
she's from New Mexico. She is amazing, and I'm so glad we got put
together. The rest of that day was kind of crazy since we had a lot of
errands that we had to run and didn't actually do much 'missionary'
stuff. We had to do some things for the car, and we ate lunch at a
Papusaria owned by one of the members. I ate a papusa. Wait ... that
wasn't nearly excited enough. I ATE A PAPUSA!!!!! on my first day in the
area! It was really exciting although it's not really that strange of a
food. It's some kind of corn dough stuffed with cheese and then fried.
It actually tasted pretty good and I've had them one more time since. We
also had frozen yogurt later that night at a place called Menchies
while we were waiting for some work being done on the car. Then we went
shopping really quickly and headed home to plan, eat, and get ready for
bed.
So, I might actually not do a run down of every day.
This is getting pretty long... But I'll tell the coolest stories from
each day at least.
On Wednesday the 27th we did
weekly planning which took almost 5 hours since it was my first time and
I had no idea who any of our investigators were. Hermana Whetten told
me most of their stories as we went along which is why it took so long.
Then that night we had Correlation. The Ward Mission Leader was out of
town, so the 1st counselor in the bishoprick was subbing. He had asked
me to give the spiritual thought (all in Spanish of course) so I did,
then he said that I sounded like a Nativa!! It was a nice compliment,
but I didn't understand much of what went on for the rest of the meeting
so I definitely still have a long way to go with the Spanish.
On Thursday the 28th we had a couple of interesting
experiences. We went to find an Antiguo (old investigator who was
previously dropped) who wasn't home so we knocked some doors in that
appartment complex. We got an appointment for this week with one couple,
but then ran into an anti-mormon guy who gave us a rundown of false
doctrines Joseph Smith supposedly taught that we should look up and ask
our bishop about. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a pass-along card and
told him he needed to find answers for himself and he could do that by
reading the Book of Mormon. Who knows if he'll actually read it, but it
was definitely an interesting experience. On our way back to our car we
talked to a man named Francisco over his fence who was especially
interesting to me. As we walked up he was smoking, and he said that he
was Catholic, and really didn't act interested, but he did stop smoking
while we taught, and when we prayed at the end he flicked his cigarette
away. I knew he didn't seem interested, and he wouldn't give us a
specific time we could come back but he took our pass-along card. Mostly
I just had a really good feeling about him and that we needed to go
back and try him again. Later that day we were also able to teach the
first lesson to a woman named Esperanza who the missionaries had been
trying to set up an appointment with for weeks, but her work schedule
was so busy that she couldn't meet. She was so cool! She talked a mile a
minute about everything, so it was hard to sneak in the actually
lesson, but we did. She agreed to be baptized!!! and even prayed to feel
good about April 28th. It was an amazing experience.
On Friday the 29th we had District Meeting which was
great. All the zone districts have district meeting in the same chapel
so I got to see Hermana Hall since she's in my Zone. It was also good to
get to know the elders a little better. Elder Winward is our district
leader and his companion is Elder Lopez. Then we have a set of bike
elders who are Elder Garland and Elder Ellsworth. They are all really
nice, and Elder Winward expecially wanted to be sure we let him know if
we needed anything.
Saturday the 30th we did a lot of finding, but I don't
have very many stories about that. We went back and tried talking to
Francisco again, but he and his family were just leaving for another
city so we couldn't talk for long. We went to try to find a potential
investigator we'd contacted, but she wasn't home so we knocked other
doors. One door the woman who was home wouldn't open the door so we
introduced ourselves and our purpose through the door before she finally
told us she just didn't have time right then. It was really funny.
Sunday the 31st was great because it was fast and
testimony meeting in the Spanish ward (Yes it's a ward not a branch!
They have a whole Spanish stake in this valley.) We went to the English
ward's sacrament meeting earlier that morning to give a little blurb
about asking for referalls of their friends who speak Spanish. Our
church was good, although I didn't understand all of it, but I can feel
my spanish improving little by litte. In Sacrament meeting it was
interesting b/c we had 2 confirmations a boy who we think was ordained
to the aaronic priesthood, and 3 baby blessings. Hna Whetten assures me
that they don't usually have that many in one day. We were talking to
the Elder's after the meetings, and Elder Lopez told me I looked
Argentinian. We also went finding in a park after church and actually
found a potential investigator. We're going to go try to talk to him at
his house later this week.
Well, that's really all from last week that was fun or
exciting. I'll try to send another email next week, but we're having a
hard time getting me a library card so it might be really short.
Love,
Hermana Marin Hardy
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