hey hey hey cool cats!
first of all, making the keyboard do capital letters is super weird here in the cybers and takes way too long, so for the sake of saving time, i`mma go ahead and not write in capital letters anymore. please send my regards to my debate coach. hey, bliss, i`m sorry. just know it kills me about as much as it kills you. but it must be done. it takes too long.
second of all, the subject line of this email is from the best two years, and it is talking about BAPTISMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHICH WE HAD THIS LAST WEEK!
Except we had TWO NOT ONE! HOLLA!
But i`ll get to that last, just to build up the suspense.
so first off, i had my second breakdown of the mish. but, no importa. i only bring it up because you all need to know that i thank the lord every day for a. HIM, B. the scriptures, and C. the three wonderful wonderful wonderful hermanas that i have the pleasure of living with, including my companion. hermana olson knows exactly how i feel because she knew next to no spanish like me before she came out, plus she`s just 24 and sings angelically and i love her. hermana ramirez, as i have previously said, is a peruvian princess. if she ever farted, which she never would, because she`s a princess, i think she would fart rainbows. (mom and dad, i`m sure you`d be giving me the "look" right now, and i apologize.) and there`s hermana goode, who is the most patient human being ever with my sucky spanish, spazzy behavior, and general awkwardness. okay, yeah, they`re all just capas and i`m obsessed with them. i basically have three moms, right in my house. que suerte yo tengo!
second of all, some random pieces of info, because other than the baptisms, not a whole lot happened.
1. while tracting, we came to the house of this lady who i believe was evangelica (she was speaking portugese so we only picked up bits and pieces.) she told all these crazy stories about getting rid of bad spirits and helping people find jesus. she was talking to us through her gate, and then she just reaches through the gate and puts each of her hands on our heads and in some freaky shaky voice, starts yelling out a prayer, and gives us a blessing! Those Evangelicas....bless their hearts.
2. i experienced my first awful bug in the house, when we came home to a spider the size of my hand in our kitchen. it was a fast little sucker, too. it took us forever to kill it with the broom. and when i say us, i mean me. and when i say me, let`s get real here, i really mean hermana olson. ha, you thought i killed a spider the size of my hand? silly. just silly. but we have lots more spiders that just happily chill in corners of our house. we leave them alone, and they leave us alone....i think.
3. President Smith is just the bombdiggity. We had Zone Meeting again this week and the ZLs told us all these new things Pres. Smith wants us to do now, and they are so inspired! Our mission is on fire right now, and it`s all because of him!
4. I forgot to mention this before, but because we`re so close to Brazil, we meet a lot of people who only speak Portugese. So, lucky me, I`m learning Portugese while learning Spanish. Most people here speak Portuñal, which is a mix. It`s a super blast. Sometimes I panic while we`re talking to someone because I will understand absolutely NOTHING and I worry it`s Spanish and i have suddenly forgotton everything i`ve learned. Then we walk away and I ask Hermana Goode "please tell me that was Portugese." And then she tells me yes, and I feel a lot better. Facepalm. But Portugese is a really beautiful language. I want to learn it when I get home.
5. Speaking of the Spanish, let me just give you Megan`s...i mean...Hermana Dolan`s....embarrassing Spanish story of the week. (at least the main one. i have many.) Some members outside our area came yesterday to fix our leaky bathroom, and the husband shook my hand and said his name was Hermano Son. Well, I understand Spanish pretty well, as i`ve said, until they turn and talk to me. So I suddenly think he asked us "De donde son?" So i answer, "Utah." So literally, in English, this is how that sounded:
Him: "Hi, nice to meet you, I`m Brother Son."
Me: "Utah."
Aye aye aye. Good thing I can laugh at myself. Then I told them I have three weeks here and they told me I speak Spanish really well for three weeks, to which I responded (jokingly) "You don`t need to lie. I just told you Utah after you told me you`re name." And then they laughed. That`s a plus side of people here, they think I`m funny. Mostly because I make fun of myself 90% of the time and they laugh in agreement, because let`s face it, everything I`m saying is la verdad. How I get let out of the house is beyond me. Even more beyond me is how I`m even alive with my overwhelming amount of awkward.
6. It is two months TODAY since I left home! And two months TOMORROW since I arrived at the CCM. One ninth of my mission! WHHATTTTTTTTTT.
7. People don`t knock or ring doorbells here. They clap. It`s a super blast. So we clap all the day. I`ll be super good at clapping by the time I`m home, and I will also hopefully be able to roll my R`s and do the Uruguayan salute, which I can`t really explain.
8. I can`t even explain how much food we get fed here with members. And some of them just stare at you to make sure you finish, even if you`ve already had two helpings. Never en mi vida did I think eating would seem like a punishment, but sometimes I have to pray for help to finish. Yikes. (not that I need help finishing when it`s milanesa. I could eat ten milanesas. mmmm.)
Okay, so, BAPTISMS!!!!!!
It was literally a fiesta de bautismos! Between four pairs of missionaries, we had twelve! Hna Goode and I had two (not that I can take credit for either, but I`m excited that I get to teach the CROMA lessons, or lessons afer abaptism, with them), one of the pairs of Elders had two, the other hermanas had one, and the other pair of elders had a whole family get baptized, so they had seven! And they`ll still be here when the family gets sealed, which I just think is the coolest thing. So yep, you counted correctly, TWELVE PEOPLE GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!
It was Saturday that I realized how little it mattered that i can`t speak Spanish yet, because THIS is what it`s all about. Yenny, the woman whose husband passed away, just cried and cried and talked about him and kept thanking us. Hermana Goode tells me that when they found her, she was just so sad all the time. And now, she is just always smiling, and even tells us how her friends tell her all the time how different she looks and how she looks so happy. And she does. She is always smiling and just glows. And Sole, awww Sole! the 9 year old whose sister is a member, and my best friend. Her eyes just shine with the joy of the Gospel. Hopefully I`ll be able to send pics today, because i want to send the one of her right after she came out of the water. The smile on her face is SO what it`s all about! I am in love with my little Sole. Now, we just need to really work with her mom, Carol, my Uruguayan mom. And after her, her husband. But the family who was baptized gets to be an eternal family in no time! And Ruben, who the Hermanas baptized and is a total capo, he hugged his bishop who baptized him, and just had tears in his eyes. He`s one of my favorite people here. And Gladys, who the other Elders baptized, is fifteen and has the smile of Rachel McAdams. She is always so excited to see us Hermanas and will just hug us in the middle of conversation with her. She got baptized! All of these wonderful wonderful AMAZING people, who are now on the path to exaltation. You could see the joy in their eyes, in that moment that they caught their very first glimpse of Heaven`s light. What a blessing we have!
Megan, Yenny, and Hermana Goode
Megan and Sole
Sole after Baptism, Pure Joy!
I won`t lie, the mission is hard. It`s also the most bipolar experience I`ve ever had, because one moment can be pure joy, and the next is either tears for someone saying no or frustrastion with the language. But it is so worth it, and i know it`s just going to get better and better and fly right by. The people here are PHENOMENAL. So warm, and friendly, and loving. I am so going to miss giving a beso to every woman and child that I meet. I may even miss awkward encounters with men who try to give me one too. And don`t worry everybody, I`m slowly teaching all of the Elders in my zone how to give a firm handshake, because all of their handshakes were travesties when I got here. But we`re working on it! Now they all compete for who has the strongest handshake with me. Word. But back to the people, I love them. And you know, sometimes I miss the beauty of Salt Lake. I miss the colors of October, my favorite month of the year, and the crisp breeze. The mountains stretching out before me. But then, I stand at the topmost part of Rivera and look at our neighborhood. I look at the kids who are perpetually playing fùtbol. I look at the sky, which is somehow different here,literally a painter`s dream, with clouds and colors and a vision that i can`t even describe. And I remember that Heavenly Father created all of it. And I remember that He has given me the amazing privilege of being here. And He trusts me enough to put the lives of some of His most choice children, in my hands. And you know, that`s something pretty special.
Okay, now stop crying, you big boobs (cough Dad cough)! And excuse me for any misspelling that may have occurred. Spanish ruins your English, and English ruins your Spanish. It`s just fact.
I still don`t speak Spanish, but you know, it`s all good. Because I watched some people I`ve come to love in so short a time enter the waters of baptism, and that`s a language everybody can understand. It`s the language of the Gospel, and it`s the most beautiful language there is.
The church is true, and I love you! I mean...I love you, I love you, I love you! Have a great week! Thank you all so much for the support!
Always remember to turn,
Hermana Dolan
| one more thing |
I forgot to tell you all that we went to Brazil today. Like, Brazil Brazil. Like, 30 blocks past the border. We went there to go to a store that is basically Walmart. I felt like I was in the states. We mostly went for peanut butter, but sadly it was ALL out. (they don`t have peanut butter in Uruguay.) But it`s okay, because I got a Hershey`s bar, Snickers, and peanut m & ms. And that`s perty swell.
Yeah, best area in the best mission area, where we can just go on over to Brasìl like it`s no big thang!
ok that`s all, peace out loves!
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