Monday, December 20, 2010

Dreaming of a white Christmas (with baptisms)

Hey family!
Welp, I think I’m going to stage a protest because I’ve been on this computer for 20 minutes and still haven’t been able to read anything you all have written me. The only thing that has opened so far was the finance email telling me how much money I have on my card. Derp derp.
Last night we sang as a zone in a Christmas Devotional that the stake primary put on. It was so awesome to see it. They did the nativity story and they were so cute all dressed up their costumes. I kept thinking about the movie Millions :) The spirit was strong and it felt so good to be there. We sang Oh Holy Night at the request of the stake president (I think because there are tons of Americans in this zone so he wanted us to sing in English) and despite the short notice I think it turned out mas o menos good?
Umm, Brenda got baptized on Saturday! She’s way cute and was super excited, I love her! Her mom, Maria, is the best too. She’s been inactive for years but wants to come back now that her daughter has gotten baptized. Maria is super blunt and is always yelling but it doesn’t mean she’s mad, she’s just like that. Heh. And her other daughter is the cutest little girl ever! I’ll send pictures when I find an internet cafe that isn’t teeming with flesh-eating viruses.

We’re also teaching Yulissa, our next door neighbor. I think I already mentioned her, but she is the best. She’s 16 and wants to get baptized and she had a date for Christmas day but yesterday she told us that her mom said she wants her to wait more time/be more prepared.
Last night we talked to President Ward for a little bit and he told us that we should just teach her mom the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and then she’ll be excited for her daughter to get baptized. So that’s going to be our next move. Other than that we’re still looking for new people.
Hmm, cool story:) When we moved into the house we found a book of Mormon without a cover. When we saw it we figured we shouldn’t really give it away to anyone but that we could leave it in a park on a bench somewhere for someone to find...haha. But then last Tuesday when we were on the bus to go to district meeting we were sitting next to a young teenage boy. My compita started talking to him about how school was out, asking what he was going to do for summer vacation, etc. Then she asked him if she liked to read. He said yes and she pulled out the coverless Book of Mormon and gave it to him. His eyes looked all bright and shiny and he just said thanks and opened it up, almost caressing the pages. He started reading the introduction right then. Later when my companion and I talked about it we shared that we had both felt the Spirit super strongly and we think he did too. Who knows what’ll ever come out of it, but it was inspired. Warm fuzzies!
Hmmmm que mas? This week we have lots of Christmas activities planned. With the hermanas on the 24th we’re going to make cookies and go around singing to the lonely people in each of our areas. Thursday is the mission Christmas party, wahoo!
Love,
Hermana Dance
2 Nefi 1:23 Despertad hija mia!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Sometimes people think we're crazy...

Hey family!
Hmmm, I’m happy to know that you’re getting into the Christmas spirit and that your zone conferences are more fun...lettin loose eh? We’re also getting stoked for Christmas. On Friday they annouced that as a companionship we all have to contact 4 Diablos Rojos (the huge, crazy super full buses here) by singing Christmas carols. We’ve already done it twice, it’s actually kind of fun even though somewhat embarrassing. We still haven’t done it by ourselves though, we were always with other missionaries from our zone. The point is to get the name of the church out there and to show them that we believe in Christ and that we’re different from the evangelicos that get on and tell a sad story about orphans and than ask for money. :)
Hey but I like that cookie idea, maybe we’ll do that too. Except we don’t have an oven.....
We’re getting settled in and love the members here because they’re sweet and they give us tons of references. We’re excited to be here for Christmas.
Right now we’re prepping for a baptism and a huge branch Christmas party on Saturday. We’re also hoping to have another one on Christmas day; but we have to put the fecha still.
Ok love you all lots, sorry this email is so scatter brained, I keep getting interupted!!
Love love love
Hermana Dance

Monday, December 6, 2010

"Excuse me, do you know where we live?"

Hey family,
This computer has like a hundred viruses and is moving super slow so I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to write you all. I'm jealous of your Christmas plans. We're doing something similar with the training then Christmas celebration after. I'm not sure what all we're going to do but I know it includes a slide show and some talents and some games...
Everything is going well. I love my compy, she's so sweet and helps me not be such an awkward companion, haha. She's always happy and opimistic and I think she has a magic touch because Saturday when we went out contacing all day, every house we knocked on let us in. We have one baptismal date the elders left and we're planning on putting at least one more with week. The members here are awesome and seem really pumped to have hermanas again. I never really wanted to open an area but it's cool because we get to start fresh and there is no one to say "nah, we already contacted there"
Grr, I don't have the patience for this virus infected computer!! Sorry this is so short but I'm almost out of time already.
Love you all!!
Hermana Dance1 Nefi 10:17 by faith we receive the power to teach and to inspireothers to act
P.S. I love my life.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

I have a puppy!! (Don't worry, he lives outside.)

Hey family!
So I got transfered to Chorrera and I'm opening an area called LosAltos...eek!! Well, white-washing it because there were elders herebefore but they sent us here instead. I haven't slept in like three days from all the traveling. The house was trashed (elders are gross) so we spent from 10-12:30 last night cleaning as well as all morning. We're almost done.....haha. The house is way nice (we have a dog!!) and the members have been so nice and considerate showing us around and letting us know about the different meals and investigators, etc. I feel sort of over-whelmed but also excited because this is the zone I wanted to go to....woot.
My compy is Hermana Serrano from El Salvador (my Spanish will improve again, yay!) She has two transfers and is way cute and I'm super excited to be with her. They sent her with her trainer to open an area when she first got here and they had 13 baptisms last month so she already has experience doing this and doing it well....I'm stoked. Oh and my district leader is one of my favorite mission friends, Elder Gomez from Boston. So pretty much life is awesome.

Oh, they white-washed our area in Bolivar and put in elders (one of the ones that used to be here so we just changed places) We definitely weren't expecting it and Hermana Graham was really really sad because she thought she was staying another transfer and we were sad to leave this super cute family we've been teaching for about a month. But so it goes. I think they will do well there...
Ok sorry for all the boring transfer updates but that's all I've been doing since Monday (packing, saying bye to people, traveling, taking 50 buses here and there, unpacking, cleaning, blah blah blah. Hermm, what else to tell you all. Oh, wanna know how I know God loves me? Ok lots of things but last night I was reminded again. Lots of my companions have laughed at me because I pray for silly insignificant things sometimes but I have always been like that and I like it because I always know He answers even though it's not a big deal.
So last night it was 12:30 a.m. and we'd been scrubbing and cleaning and I finally wanted to finish rinsing out the shower and then shower and go to bed, but the llave (in english, knob? I dunno, something like that) to turn on the water was broken and we couldn't figure out how to get the shower on. We tried for like 15 minutes, and then I went outside to look for buckets to use to take a bucket shower but there weren't any, and then I just felt all frustrated. I cleaned some other stuff and then came back and tried again and then I remembered duhhh, say a prayer. So I told Heavenly Father that I was really tired and icky and wanted to go to bed but I wanted to take a shower and could He please help me to fix it. And then 2 seconds later I had an idea, tried it, and it worked. :) God loves me. I sort of feel like a doofus for writing that all out but it gave me warm fuzzies. I told my compita that it was working and she asked how and I told her I said a prayer and she smiled and laughed a little. I like her.
Annnnnyways. Hopefully by Monday I'll have something interesting to tell you all, but for now that's it. Love you all, have a good weekend!
Love,
Hermana Dance