FA FA FA FAMMMMILY AND FRIEEEENDS!
Hola! Como estan?! Yo soy MUY feliz! I can´t believe it has only been two weeks. On the one hand it has gone by sooo fast, but on the other hand I feel like I´ve been here an eternity and known my district and comps for FOREVER. Time in the mission really is the weirdest thing.
Alrighty so on to this week. First of all, thanks to everyone who has emailed me either last week or this week! You have NO idea how much it means to get on and have so many emails that I don´t even know where to start! Your next challenge is to send me letters, send me letters, send me letters! That way I can have time to read it during the week and respond on P Day! Plus, there´s just something about getting letters. CHALLENGE INITIATED! (i´m making it a challenge because many of you are like me and can´t resist a challenge.)
After emailing last week, we got to go to the TEMPLE!!!! The Buenos Aires Temple is so beautiful. We went with the other district, so since most of the session was Americans, they did it in English for us! We still had to say everything right before the Celestial Room in Spanish, but they gave us a script to read off of so it was good! A lot of people here tell me I have really good pronunciation with the language, so at least it´s not like poor Elder Bronson in our district who has THE most Gringo accent ever. Bless. his. heart.
Before my comps and I went through the veil, Hermana Hunt had the three of us hold up the names we were going through for. After we each said our names, she said "they´re going to help us learn Spanish." We were all stressing about the language until we got that peace from the knowledge that those women we did temple work for are really going to help us. In the Celestial room, I sat down and started praying for a lot of different things. I got the very real impression that my own special angels were right there with me. Grandma and Grandpa Poulsen, Grandpa Dolan, Barb...I looked around at the 20 other missionaries and I could feel that we were all surrounded by angels. I tell you, there is nothing like going through the temple with that many other servants of the Lord. We all have our angels and they´re taking good care of us, so don´t you worry about me!
On Saturday it RAAAAAAINED. And I tell you, they were right when they said it rains cats and dogs in South America. I´m used to it storming for an hour or two then letting off back at home, but it was storming ALL THE DAY LONG. I was in heaven! Thunder, lightning, the works! It was the best! Hermana Buss and I ran out and danced around in it for awhile during Actividad Fisica. Funny story, Hermana Buss went inside and I was just standing there dancing and singing "I´m singing in the rain," and I look up and my whole District, the other American District, and alllll the Latinos who were looking out their windows upstairs, had been watching me. So. I know I make you guys proud.
We also had our last lesson with our investigator Rocío. We were pretty glad because Rocío was a difficult person. Teenagers are lazy! But on the plus side, my comps and I were the only ones earlier in the week who got her to agree to go to church! I don´t think the real Rocío liked Elders very much, because from the sounds of it the fake one gave our Elders a hard time. HERMANA PODER! It was funny though; when we were all talking about how we were done, someone jokingly said "did Rocío just die or something?" (the fake Rocio, not the real one) and Elder Bronson said "good riddance!" Elder Bronson is probably the funniest Elder here. one day in class when we were in Spanish class and had to ask each other questions, he looked for five minutes in the dictionary just to be able to ask Elder Dye how his "pet rock" was doing. And he was pretty proud of it. He is a crack up. Maybe you had to be there. We all died laughing when he said it.
In other exciting news, the cold is traveling around the CCM and my comps and I caught it last week! Okay so not that exciting. But it was the worst cold ever. So then when I was getting better, I decided to run around in cold rain. Smart Megan. It´s amazing they sent me on a mission folks.
I love love love love love Sundays here in the CCM! We have Sacrament meeting bright and early at 7:50. So no one gets to complain about 9 o clock church anymore! What happens is during the week we´re given the topic we have to write a talk for in Spanish. Then on Sunday after sacrament, they announce the names of the people who will have to give the talks. I got away with not having to this week! Phew!
After sacrament we once again have priesthood and relief society. Hermana Openshaw still teaches Relief Society. That woman is seriously so scary. She´s just not really the warm mission mom you´d want to have, you know? But she can be funny sometimes and her lessons are actually really good.
My favorite part of the day is when we have Sunday class with Presidente Openshaw! His knowledge of the Gospel and especially the scriptures is AMAZING. It blows my mind every time. It reminds me a lot of you Dad. Since Hermano Eckel couldn´t be there on Sunday, we got class with him twice! The first class, he talked about the Spirit World. I feel so spiritually fed whenever I have class from him. He just teaches us so many things we had never even thought of! In the class we had with him later that day, he talked all about the relationship between Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I´m a scripture marking/note taking fiend whenever I have class with him, because I don´t want to forget any of it! That class was probably my favorite because I hadn´t ever thought that much about their relationship. I loved that he applied it to us too by saying "I testify that God loves His Son. But I also testify that He loves His Son no more than he loves each and everyone of you, because just like Jesus Christ, you are all His children and loves you. He´s proud of you. He´s always watching over you." What is also so cool about being here in the CCM as opposed to Provo is that we actually GET to have a personal relationship with the President. He does personal interviews with every one of us every week and he knows all (or at least most) of us by name. That is just the coolest thing to me. I would definitely say this is the best MTC in the world!
We got to walk around the temple grounds on Sunday and take pictures because all of our Latinos left for their missions on Tuesday, since they´re only in the MTC for twelve days. We were so sad to see them go. Our roommates, Hermana Rodriguez and Hermana Ferrari, were the best girls. Hermana Rodriguez is the one who can speak English and she has the kindest heart. She said the prayer on Monday night in our room and although she said it in Spanish so we didn´t understand most of it, what we did understand was that when she start to pray for me and my companions, she started crying. I will never forget her. Hermana Ferrari left us a note in Spanish and we had our teacher translate it for us. It was the sweetest letter. I will miss those girls a lot. None of the latinos we get now will ever measure up to them.
I also never told you guys about Toledo! Elder Toledo. Yes, as in "Holy Toledo!" Except it´s actually pronounces To-lay-do. Not that it matters, because I called him Tornado. He is from Chile and his mission is one of the ones in Argentina. Tornado and I became really fast friends here.
I especially knew it when I asked him how he learned English and he looks at me and goes "I watch Big Bang Theory."
mmmmmk so yeah I found my new best friend.
He said the jokes just aren´t funny when translated to Spanish, so he learned English watching American television! We had a good ol´time talking about Sheldon and teasing each other a lot. When I said bye to him on Monday night, he got this really sad look on his face and said "I going to miss you." I said "Tornado, you´re my Chilean brother." and he said "And you my American seester." GAAAAAAH that tugged on the feels. He was like a teddy bear. I will definitely miss my Chilean brother.
Anyway, my point is we got to walk around the temple grounds. I loved the peace and the Spirit that is there, even more so than in the CCM, if that´s possible.
That night was MOOOOOVIE NIGHT as always. We watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration." I can´t believe I had never seen it before! Tears. Tears the whole movie long. I cannot describe the love I have for Joseph. The best part was at the end of the movie, a quote came up that said something along the lines of how Joseph gave his life so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ might be spread to all corners of the earth. Then, the last line that came up said "Shall we not go on in so great a cause?" I was and am filled with gratitude for the fact that I get to go on in so great a cause, with so many other wonderful missionaries.
Monday we got two new investigators. Pablo and Delfina. Pablo is technically played by our teacher Hermano Abad, but Pablo was one of Hermano Abad´s investigators in his mission. And Hermano Abad and Hermana Gutierrez are both reaaaaallly good actors, so we don´t even notice.
Pablo is in his forties and his wife and kids have been members for a year, but he´s scared to join the church because he´s afraid he´ll have a hard time keeping the commandments and following through on commitments. The first lesson with him wasn´t all that great because we were thinking more about the lesson and less about what HIS needs were. Well last night we changed that. We gave him the lesson on the restoration but focused on Joseph Smith, and how Joseph was feeling lost but got answers from God. We then told him how Joseph was commanded to do many hard things by the Lord and probably felt inadequate and like he couldn´t do them sometimes. But then we had him read 1 Nephi 3:7 and explained that the Lord will help Pablo accomplish all the things commanded of him, because through God and Jesus Christ he can do all things. Hermana Buss rocked it in reciting the First Vision in Spanish, and the spirit Hermana Hunt brought when she bore her testimony was indescribable. We know Pablo could feel it. And guess what guess what guess what? PABLO SAID HE´D BE BAPTIZED. We came out of that lesson and jumped and screamed. That was THE best feeling ever and made me so excited to get out in the field.
Our other investigator is Delfina, this old lady who has been a part of every religion on the planet. She´s a little difficult because she thinks she should be baptized into every religion, not just ours, but she is a HOOT AND HALF. We like teaching her.
As for the language, I guess it´s coming. I just always get frustrated with myself when I don´t get things down really fast, which obviously isn´t how things like this go anyway. But I don´t feel behind anybody else or anything so I guess that´s good. I´m getting else frustrated with the language and more frustrated with feeling unable to bring the same Spirit to lessons that my companions do. I feel like any success we´ve had has been because of them and not me. Obviously I know I need not compare myself, and either way what´s most important is the investigator and not WHO made them feel the Spirit. But I just feel like I can be doing a lot better and it worries me that I´ll have that same problem in the field.
The food here is still absolutely positively delicious! And they feed us soooo much. Most people here have gained at least some wait. So. Holla for a high metabolism. All of the staff and the cooks are so friendly. The cook thinks my comps and I are the funniest people in this world. And let´s face it.....we are. Of course, there´s a really good chance he´s just laughing at our poor Spanish. Yeah, that´s probably it.
I didn´t really get any culture shock. The Latinos are just so warm and kind and friendly all the time, and they all think everything us Americans say is hilarious! So that´s a nice confidence boost for sure. Although it´s probably just because we are hilarious. Can you tell I´ve become so humble while being here? I can. And i am PROUD of it. (ha.)
Oh yeah, wanna here a funny twist of fate family? Want to know what day we leave the MTC for the mission field? OCTOBER 8TH. So I leave for my actual mission the same day Kenz comes home from hers. I´ll be thinking of you Kenz! My flight to Montevideo is only like twenty minutes though, so no complaints there in comparison to your forever long flight. I think I´ve figured out why missions are a year and half or two years. It´s because it takes us foreign missionaries that long to recover from the trauma of that awful and loooooong flight to the mission. Yikes.
My district and I are still obsessed with playing Ultimate Frisbee every day and we are boss. Most of us are pretty athletic so we TRASH anyone else who dares play with us. We played with the Elders from one of the american districts the other day. My comps and I were on their team and we played vs. our Elders. Well, those Elders suck. And for the first half of the game that wouldn´t pass to us because they figure us Hermanas probably aren´t very good. Until they passed to us and figure out we were the ONLY ONES WHO WERE SCORING. Sheesh. We played their district again and they ended up quitting because they just couldn´t hack it. Yesterday when we played, I sustained my first mission injury. You know, besides the one I got when I tripped coming outside of the stake president´s office after officially beings set apart as a missionary the night before I left. But we don´t need to talk about it. Anyway, we were playing ultimate again (duh) and the frisbee was passed to me. Well me and Elder Teloma both went for it because Teloma was on the other team and wanted to keep me from catching it. Well he knocked it out of the air.....and into my face. He felt sooooo bad though. It´s not bad anyway, it´s just a little goose egg on the side of my face. I didn´t even care about the pain. The frisbee knocked my super awesome bright orange shades off my face and so the only thing I said was "my glasses!" Hermana Hunt said she felt bad because she knew she should´ve made sure I was okay but as soon as she heard me say that, she had to walk away to keep me from seeing her laughing. We just teased Teloma for it because it was pretty funny. It was nice too because I went to take a breather just to be safe, and my whole District came over. I was like "Guys! Don´t stop the game! I´m fine! You better keep playing!¨And Elder Dye said "but....you´re our sister!" I love our cute little family that kicks the pants off anyone who dares match us in Frisbee.
STORY TIME. So many funny things happen here. Sorry if it´s not as funny to you as it is to me. Here are a few of them.
Me (after saying a really boss sentence in Spanish to Hermano Abad): "how do you like THEM apples?"
Hermano Abad: "how do you like....them....what?"
Me: them apples!
Hermano Abad: "why are you asking me if I like apples?"
the next day (after explaining the saying to him)
Hermana Hunt: how do you like them apples?
Hermano Abad: yes, i like those apples.
story number two:
so the Elder´s bathrooms are community bathrooms, and apparently every stall has a bidet in it. Well Elder Boyer told us that on the first day it was really embarrassing because he thought the bidet was a urinal.
Elder Teloma: "wait....that´s not a urinal? I´ve been thinking it was for the past two weeks!"
Last night with our new roommates:
Hermana Hunt: is this word a word we shouldn´t use?
our new roommate (in broken English): depends on the situation.
Hermana Hunt: depends on the situation?
roommate: yes.
Hermana Hunt: YES. I understood what you said!
Me and Hermana Buss: Hermana....she said that in English.
We´re all going crazy here. We think English is Spanish and Spanish is English.
I really love it here. I´m not fond of being in a classroom for that long, but I know it´s because I need to learn Spanish. I get frustrated with the language sometimes but for the most part I know I´m doing okay.
Anyway kiddos, that´s all in the life of Megan for this week. It´s weird to say Megan. No one calls me that here. Is that even still my name? I think so....but that was a faraway time......
okay dramatic moment over. I love you all and you are all in my thoughts, but not too often because I´m a missionary now! I love being able to put on that black name tag every morning. I love love love love love my companions and I literally have the BEST District EVER.
We go proselyting in downtown Argentina for the first time on Saturday so please pray for me that I can actually talk to people in Spanish! And that it doesn´t rain too hard because it´s supposed to on Saturday!
I sure hope my suitors are all doing okay without my constant presence. Actually, I sure hope all of you are doing okay without my constant presence and undying humility.
I love you, I love you, I love you! I am ultra happy!
Hermana Dolan
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