Hey kiddos! How the heck are all of ya? Good? Good. I hope good. If not good, then....well, be good.
This week was...phew, just a whole lot of lots! I don`t even know where to start. So, sorry if this seems all over the place.
First off, changes are next week. So that means P Day is on Tuesday. So I`ll be emailing on Tuesday. It also means that Zone and District Meeting will be on Thursday, which gaves you two extra days to send me a letter by emailing the mission email. Don`t let me down!
Alrighty so I`ll start on Tuesday. It was actually a pretty grand day for the most part. Zone and District meeting which is always good. We had some lessons with menos activos. And then that night, we went over to the church because Hermana Goode needed to practice a musical number an older man in the ward wanted to do with her. Then Hermana Olson and Ramirez came over too because Hna Olson was going to do it with her. Well, that`s when my pride set in and I got to thinking about how I can`t sing very well and I don`t play the piano and wahhh wahhh wahhh.....folks, pride`s a vicious cycle. Then that turned into I have nothing to contribute and I will never learn spanish and none of the people here care and wahhhh wahhhh wahhhh. Well a couple of tears squeezed out and I pulled my classic "pretend to yawn so people think that`s where the tears are from" trick. The trick that NEVER works. So Hna Ramirez notices, and takes me into the bathroom and we talk it out in Spanish. Anywho, Hna Ramirez is well, as I`ve said, a princess, and a motherly one at that, so I felt a lot better after my chat with her.
BUT THEN.....so we`re walking home from the ward and I feel better but not as god as I could, when this little boy stops us and says "Are you the Mormons who invited us to the Halloween activitiy?" (we weren`t, it was Hna Olson and Ramirez.) But he INSISTED it was us and not them, and told us his name is Nicolas and he`s ten. And he says "I like you Mormons. Especially you girl Mormons." So we say we`d love to come back and talk to him and his family, and he gets SUPER excited and says yes. So then we keep walking home, because we`re almost late.
But THEN.....so his little friend Luis who was also there, runs after us and yells "wait! Wait!" And we turn around and he says "Que Dios les bendiga!" Which means "God bless you!" Now, let`s talk about the fact that Luis is literally six years old. What six year old runs down the street after two Mormons to say "God bless you" and give us a beso? N O O N E. My heart pretty much melted.
BUT THEN. We turn around to keep walking, and what do I see, but a f a l l i n g s t a r. Now, those who know me well know what a nut I am about astronomy and how excited I must have been. I became immediately aware that the Lord is aware of me and Luis and the falling star were his simple, yet powerful way, of reminding me.
Alrighty so then a blur of a couple days and then....ZONE CONFERENCE!
We went to the lovely Artigas! We had to leave at 3:30 in the morn for a three and a half hour bus ride. Let`s just talk about how funny a bunch of missionaries, who are already tired all the time, are at 3:30. It. Is. Nuts.
Soooo yep. We met up with Zona Artigas and Zona Tacuarembo. President Smith was there (obvi) and the assistants. I had to bear my testimony since all the Oros had to. And I started it out with going "phew....bueno...mmmm bueno. bueno. ok. ok here i go." Haha embarrassing. But everyone laughed. We`ll just pretend they thought I was joking. But I got through it, so it`s all good!
We learned a plethora of things at Zone Conference that I could never even begin to explain, but I`ll just tell you that it was AMAZING and President Smith is AMAZING. En serio. He is SO inspired. And I loved the testimonies from the fieles (the missionaries who will be dying (dying as in finishing their missions)). They all looked so torn at leaving. It gave me even more motivation to live up every moment and make them count, because in so very short a time that will be me. I mean, I am almost done with my first change in the mission field. You know how many I have left? Ten. Only. TEN. I cannot believe it. Time is going so fast. Already Christmas seems like next week, and when that rolls around I`ll have one week left of training! Ahhhhh!
We also found some BOSS people while out contacting. There was this really cute little blue house that we walked past, and I just kept thinking "we have to go there. we have to go there." So finally I asked Hna Goode if we could go back. And, okay, so we have this thing we do sometimes. When the person comes to the door we say we`re looking for somebody (we just say a random name), and then the person usually comes out and gets confused and says there`s no one here by that name. So then we go "Huh. Welllllll....what`s your name?" And that`s how it starts. So the name Hna Goode says this time is "Lucia." Well, the cute little lady at the cute little blue house tells us Lucia actually lives two houses down! Hahahaha. So first she invites us in for cake (which tasted like banana bread. mmmmm and her house smelled like it too) and we talk to her for a bit. THEN she takes us over to meet this mysterious Lucia! And that turns out to also be a cute little old lady! And they both said we could come back and we will be seeing them this week. Haha but just out of all the random names, she turns out to be right there! We have a good feeling about both of them. It`s just like Pres. Smith tells us, "no one does nice things for you if they`re not prepared to hear from you." So we will definitely be going back to them, and to Nicolas and his family, and to some others that we found that i don`t have time to write about!
Yesterday we had THE BIGGEST STORM EVER AND IT WAS SO AWESOME. En serio, I have never en mi vida heard thunder like that before. The only bummer thing about it is people in South America have some sort of fear of rain. That`s a problem, since it tends to rain here. Soooo we had literally 25 people at church, and that`s including us. Speaking of church, i gave my first talk! Yikes. It was a little rough with the spanish at times, but it turned out really great and the Lord F O R S U R E helped me out! Good thing 25 people heard it....bummer. People, just C O M E T O C H U R C H.
Anywho kiddos, that`s all for this week en la vida de Hermana Dolan. All I can say is I have never had anything so hard, but I have also never felt so much joy. This week, I have become even closer to my Savior as He has helped me overcome my challenges and strengthen my weaknesses. It is His promise to Us that if we come unto Him, He will strengthen us. We just have to let Him. As I have let Him take my hand, I have never felt so strong. The Atonement is R E A L. The Book of Mormon is T R U E. The Gospel is H A P P I N E S S. Christ is the L I G H T.
The true light is always there. The sun always shines, even if you can`t see it. When you think you`re living in darkness, remember you probably just need to open your eyes!
Remember, it`s simple: learn of Christ, listen to Christ, then W A L K like Christ. The Lord will take care of the rest.
You can do hard things!
I love you, I love you, I love you!
Hermana Dolan
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