It has only been a couple of days since my last email but a LOTT😉 of things have happened since then. It is going to be an adventure being Hermana Bowen's companion. You find out a lot of things once you start living with people. She is the opposite of Hermana Berry. She is super chipper in the morning and really talkative.
I said goodbye to Hermana Berry on Thursday. I am sad she's gone, but she was so excited to go home. The last three weeks she was as trunky as ever. At transfers we loaded up the car with Hermana Bowen's things and I drove back home. I am getting a lot of experience driving out here. After driving out here there is no way that I am going to be scared of driving on the freeway in Utah. I actually like driving now. I never thought that would happen out here.😂
I have the SIM card now in my phone. I thought it was crazy just answering all the texts on facebook. Now I have whatsapp and messages! It has been really interesting and fun trying to juggle it all. Especially because all of it is in Spanish. The super long texts are very interesting. Maybe my Spanish will improve with this.😅
We had English class and there was a really good turn out. There is a guy that comes to the muy avanzado class whose name is Francisco. I saw that he had a "5 minutes for 5 days" bookmark in his hand (It is a bookmark that had questions and scriptures that answer them in the Book of Mormon.). I brought him over a Book of Mormon and explained what it was and the bookmark very simply. He said that he was confused at first because he wanted to do the bookmark but didn't know where to find the scriptures. He said he wanted to do it! I invited him to church and he said that he was going to come...and he came! We set up a lesson with him and he started reading the Book of Mormon. It was super cool talking to him after sacrament meeting was over. Hermana Bowen called him a “Golden Chicken Nugget.”😂 Super excited to teach him and help bring him closer to Christ and His Atonement.
A little back I mentioned our Friday Soccer nights. (Hispanics love their three Fs: Family, Food, & Fútbol!) It was super fun and we had a lot of people show up. We started out with a prayer and shared a spiritual thought. There was one kid that nodded his head the whole time during the thought. We weren’t able to get his number, so hopefully he is going to come next time. This is going to be hopefully a good finding and fellowshiping tool.
Hermana Bowen was having a baptism in her past area and President Monson wanted us to go because the area just got two new missionaries. The drive was 2 hours and 45 minutes. We thought we calculated out the time correctly, but we didn't. We missed the baptism by 2 minutes! I had the zoom link up on my phone so I got to watch it, and Hermana Bowen heard it. But at least we were able to support her when she got confirmed. It was my first baptism on the mission and it wasn't even my baptism. It was really cool. It was the first baptism and confirmation of someone that I've seen who didn't grow up in the church. I felt the Spirit really strong. It was a really neat experience. I can't wait until I can go to another baptism.
I was studying patience this morning. I found the talk “Let Patience Have Her Perfect Work, and Count it All Joy!” by Jeremy R. Jaggi (Oct. 2020) He said, “...We had forgotten that having patience is the key to letting those trials work for our good.” We all have trials. Some are bigger and others are smaller, but we all have them. This life was meant to be a test. We can’t learn or grow without being challenged. Heavenly Father knew that we could do it, and you can. There is no trial placed in front of us that we can’t get through with patient perseverance. Jesus Christ has felt everything that we have gone through and will go through. YOU CAN DO IT!!!
Have a great week. ¡Les quiero!
Here are some pictures!:
1. Hermana Berry and I's last car selfie😫
2. There are signs like this along the freeway. It is pretty funny seeing them.
3. Bye Bye Berry
4. Reunited with Hermana Stewart for 3 minutes.
5. Two of my comps!
6. unpacking takes forever...
7. (Sorry for the cringy face I am making. It was a failed frown😂) Our blender doesn't work, so my smoothy died. Super chunky!
8-9. Fútbol night! I got hit in the face with the ball. It smacked right into the corner of my glasses. I survived but we lost that game.
10-11. On the way to the baptism. We ended up spending 6 hours in the car that day. It was a very long day.
12. After a bomb english lesson. Deniel wants to have separate lessons about the gospel and we didn't even have to ask! 😎
January 18, 2021
Wow! This transfer went by super fast. Hermana Berry is going home on Friday. That is crazy! I am now going to be officially out of training. From greenie -> greenie busting. My new companion gets to polish and sand down all of the rough edges of training. We got transfer news yesterday and my new companion is... Hermana Bowen!! Ahhh!!😍😁😎 She is one of my really good friends from home. We met in high school on the bus my Sophomore year and have been friends ever since. We never went to each other's houses but turns out we live a couple fields across from each other. I'm super excited!😊
Last p-day was pretty mellow compared to the ones we had been having. We played whiffle ball as a district. It was super fun and hard. That night we went to a member named Joanne's house. They have a puppy😄. His name is Tio and he is a maltador (maltiese & lab). It was super fun getting to play with him. Joanne made us some Arepas. One with ham, an egg, and cheese, and the other with this spicy meat and platanos. It was really good. (We ended up eating with members so much this past week. It was awesome! )
There is a really cool service project that we can go do if we hit a certain goal. Hermana Berry and I hit it, so we got to go! We went to Yorktown which is a WW2 Navy Ship, and helped them out with cleaning. Hermana Berry and I got to sweep a tour. It was fun because I got to take the tour while jamming out to music. The elders power washed the jets. (I was a little jealous, but glad I stayed dry) The layout and stair ways of the boat are cool. The stairs are super steep and sometimes the other flight going up is right there. I felt like I was going to fall and get a concussion. It would take a lot of skill to run up and down those. Hermana Berry and I had a member meal with the Mendez family. We had green spicy spaghetti, chicken, and mole (has bananas, chicken, cocoa, and a ton of other ingredients). It was really good. They are such a great family. At church on Sunday they gave Hermana Berry and I a late Christmas present, a Yeti rambler and a squishy stuffed animal.
On Friday, Hermana Berry and I went with Elder Pugsley & DeMille, Jorge, and Philippe to go get tacos. Apparently Hispanic tacos are just street tacos, which I love. It was pretty good. I got this orange sauce on one, it was (Carolina reaper or habanero) sauce. It had some kick and burn to it! It made my stomach hurt a little and reminded me of the N Sauce.
All of us went out again with Roger to a Brazilian Steak House on Saturday. It is in downtown Charleston and is probably the fanciest restaurant I have ever been in. I was in a dress and I felt underdressed. Our water was bottled and from a natural spring in Tuscany, Italy😮. The service and the food was great. My favorite thing that I ate was the grilled pineapple. I love that stuff sooo much. I ate way too much.
Osman is on date now!! Hermana Berry and I have been teaching him for a little while and we finally set the date! Whoop whoop! We taught him a lot of the commandments and it went really well. We are so excited, you don't even know it. Later, we went over to Roger's house. We had patacones and all this other stuff in it. It was like a sandwich, and tasted heavenly. I ate one and a half. Hermana Berry and I helped smash the plantain for the second one we had. It isn't as easy as it sounds. Those things are hard to squish.
Hermana Berry and I went over to another member's house this Monday. The Castillos are awesome. They have been members for more than a year and a half. They fed us pollo y arroz and patacones. Though these patacones tasted sweeter because they were more ripe.
At English class yesterday, we got transfer news during it. That made us go crazy. We took lots of photos with our SP. Squad. Hermana Berry and I said, "Whiskey!" (Inside joke with Johnny and Sandra), and Osman goes, "No, whiskey es malo!" Hermana Berry and I freaked out inside, apparently our Word of Wisdom lesson stuck. Heck yeah!
I read the talk "Plow in Hope" by Neal A. Maxwell (Apr. 2001) while I was studying hope in one of my personal studies. I really liked this quote,"Thus within the discipleship allotted to us, we are to overcome the world (see 1 Jn. 5:3–4); to finish the work we personally have been given to do; to be able to partake of a bitter cup without becoming bitter; to experience pouring out our souls; to let our wills increasingly be swallowed up in the will of the Father; to acknowledge—tough though the tutoring trials—that, indeed, 'All these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good' (D&C 122:7); and to plow enduringly to the end of the furrow—all the while glorifying Him and using the matchless gifts He has given us, including, one day, 'all' that He has (D&C 84:38)."
¡Espero que tengan una feliz semana!
Here are some pictures!!:
1. Whiffle ball! It was super hard playing it in the church parking lot.
2. Tio!!
3. Arepas
4-7. Yorktown Service. The boat is HUGE!
8. Elder Davis forgot his mask in the car. I let him borrow one of mine, the only one I had was this one😂
9-10. Spicy Green spaghetti and chicken, and male!
11. Street Tacos with Jorge and Philipee
12. Brazilian Steak house😋
14. Delicious Patacones that Roger made for Hermana Berry and I.
15. Pollo y arroz and sweet patacones
16. Hermana Berry and I went and got Cold Stone yesterday. It was really good!
17. Us with Osman. He is such a sweetie.
18. I got bored waiting for English class to start so I drew this.
January 11, 2021
Wow, it is crazy how time flies. This transfer is almost over and then I'll be out of training! Hermana Berry goes home in a week and a half🥺😥. I am sooo sad, and a little stressed. If I stay in Charleston, I need/have to know everyone and everything. Whelp here I go.
Last P-day was our Zone P-day. We all hit our goals, so we were able to go to the beach. The sunrise was beautiful. Last time I was at the beach there were too many clouds and it was stormy. It was nice to get a lot of pictures. My zone is huge, but that just made it more fun. It was pretty cold for a little while, but to counteract that we played soccer. We went to a flat area, set up the goals, and went ham. Playing soccer on sand is super hard. You slip and slide around because you can't get a grip on the sand. It was super funny when we had reached the point of exhaustion. No one could kick the ball. Everyone cheered when the ball was stopped from going into the ocean.😂 We all picked up lunch and went to a church. After we ate we played uno, signs, and chair soccer. We had a blast. While we were playing uno and spilling tea got brought up. It was hilarious and went as follows:
Elder (I don’t remember who): Is spilling tea against the word of wisdom?
Elder Bates - Not when it's "Verbal tea"
Elder Hubbard - That's the best thing I've heard all week. I'm gonna tattoo that on my forehead 😂
I laughed soooo hard. There were a lot of other things that made me laugh really hard. The next day my stomach hurt so bad. It felt like I had done a good ab workout, but all I did was laugh. Apparently I need to laugh more.
On Thursday, I got super stir crazy. Hermana Berry and I were in our apartment for over 24 hours. I was going nuts! I wanted to go on a walk, but Hermana Berry didn’t want to go outside. She said that it was too cold. She told me to go out on the balcony, so I did. And then she locked me out!!😂 Turns out she unlocked the door right after she locked it, but I didn’t know that. So, I stayed out there for ten minutes messing around. It was actually pretty nice to be outside and see the sun start to set.
Philipee (a member in our branch) to Hermana Berry and I put for sushi. I am not a big fan of sushi, but I'll eat it if it's cooked. It was a lot of fun. The sushi got brought out on this little wooden boat. We all were not expecting that. I got sushi with soy paper instead of seaweed, and it tasted a lot better. It didn’t taste like I was licking the ocean.
Hermana Berry and I found two new people in the past couple of days which is really good for what we have been having recently. We found David on Facebook. I had been messaging him for a day or so and then we did a video call. We taught him about faith and he wants to know more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are so excited to teach him. We found Henry through an ad that was posted on our Spanish FaceBook page. He started texting us about wanting more peace in this crazy world. He is really looking forward to learning about God’s plan for him and more about the peace that Christ brings.
Hermana Berry and I went over to Johnny's yesterday. We taught him about temples, eternal marriage, and family history. It was a really good lesson. He said that he wants to go into a temple someday and be baptized. Now all we have to do is set a date!😜 They fed us patacones (smashed/fried plantains) and Ceviche. Ceviche is shrimp or fish in a lemon juice sauce with sliced up tomatoes, peppers and red onions. It was pretty good. Plantains still taste like potatoes.
During one of my personal studies I was reading a talk called "Christ: The Light That Shines in Darkness" by Sharon Eubank (Apr. 2019) A part that I really liked says, "Not many years ago, I was weighed down and irritated with questions I could not find answers to. Early one Saturday morning, I had a little dream. In the dream I could see a gazebo, and I understood that I should go stand in it. It had five arches encircling it, but the windows were made of stone. I complained in the dream, not wanting to go inside because it was so claustrophobic. Then the thought came into my mind that the brother of Jared had patiently melted stones into clear glass. Glass is stone that has undergone a state change. When the Lord touched the stones for the brother of Jared, they glowed with light in the dark ships. Suddenly I was filled with a desire to be in that gazebo more than any other place. It was the very place—the only place—for me to truly “see.” The questions that were bothering me didn’t go away, but brighter in my mind was the question after I woke up: “How are you going to increase your faith, like the brother of Jared, so your stones can be turned into light?” We all have stones in our life that make us feel enclosed and like we can't breathe. They hide the light and bring a sense of foreboding. But! it isn’t the end. As we go unto Christ with faith, he will help us turn our stones into light. It reminds me of Ether 12:27, “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” Our weaknesses can become strengths.
¡Espero que tengamos una feliz semana!
Here's some pictures!:
1-4. Beach P-DAY!!!
5. MEPS walk
6-7. Hermana Berry and I went and got Raising Canes. It is fried chicken, fries, and bread. It was really good.
8-9. Broken vacuum and Sister Whitaker & Goodfellow. They are office missionaries with their husbands. They brought us a new dryer (ours has been broken for 3 weeks) and a new vacuum. Our vacuum decided to crap out too.
10. Our sushi boat!
