Today is my 5 monthaversery of the day I got here! How crazy! I cannot explain how big of a time warp the mission is. It's going by so fast. I'm almost a third of the way done and I still don't know what I'm doing!
I don't really know what went on this week that was exciting. But I'll just keep writing and see what comes to mind.
So far today I've taken 4224 steps. Fun fact.
The last month or so we've had a problem with a rat in our house. Every few days we've discovered what food it's gotten into and find it's little hide outs. So gross! But it's not like we've had time to do anything about it. So this morning I was eating my breakfast and I heard something in the trash. I hurried and tied the bag. We all listened and I'm 99 percent sure that the little critter was in there! So we hurried and threw the bag outside. As far as we know, we're rat free! That was our miracle this morning.
All the Christmas festivities are finally dying down. There have been crazy fireworks and parades for the last month. I think it's safe to say that it's all over. But who knows.
Elder Cook is coming to speak to us the 22nd! We're so excited. He's coming to talk to all the missions in the Capital I think. We have a lot of big things these next few weeks. Next week we have zone conference with President Brough. Then we have changes. I want to stay here so bad with Hna G! But that's doubtful. Then we have the day with Elder Cook. This next month is going to fly by. I know it!
We've seen so many miracles this week! We finally have an investigator progressing (and a ton of fireworks went off after our lesson with him. I wish I could say that's a sign, but fireworks have gone off all the time lately)!!! And we had an investigator at church! Ah! Little by little we're seeing things pick up here. We had 34 new investigators last week, but it's been so hard to find them again! It's been rough but we are so thankful for the really pilas people we've found lately. Every time I'm with the people who've been baptized with me I get so happy! It's so amazing to see how happy they are now and how much they love the Gospel. I love seeing how the Gospel changes people. It's such a privilege to see things like this. Seeing those converts flourishing in the church makes me so excited to help other people come to Christ like that too. I've learned a lot these last few rough weeks and I still have a lot to learn. But I'm so thankful that I get to experience all this, even the hard times. I've been able to come a lot closer to Christ these days. Every day it's harder and harder to stay motivated, but at the same time I get to rely more and more on Him to help me. When I get sad that no one is receiving us, or frustrated that no one is keeping their commitments, or when people who were so pilas stop progressing, I just think of Christ. I know He was right where we are now, and then went farther. He felt what we feel, and then more. He suffered what we suffer, and then more. He loved the people like we do, then more. I'm so thankful for the Atonement. Without it this perfect work could not be done with imperfect people like me.
Thank you for all the support and prayers and love! Love you all! Thanks for everything!
-Hermana Haymond
* Alexis sent us a letter in the mail the other day with 30 fun interesting facts and told me I could post it if I wanted to . I thought it was fun so here it is. -Jenn
1. I had to stop myself from writing Spanish thus far in this letter. That's a good sign right?!
2. You can buy 4 fresh tortillas for 1 Quet (5 if you buy from this on lady who likes us). editors note: I looked it up and one quet is 12 cents in U.S. dollars.
3. Corn tortillas aren't actually yellow like the ones in the states. They're actually nothing like tortillas in the states. They're smaller and thicker.
4. December 7th is a holiday here where they burn piñatas of devils. It's suppose to get rid of Satan before Christmas
5. "Christmas" is the 24th here. The 25th is just a day for everyone to sleep and recover from Christmas.
6. The hymn Called to Serve has 4 verses in Spanish.
7. The Spanish Bible has more Joseph Smith Translation footnotes. Maybe it doesn't have more but it has different ones than in English. So if you understand English and Spanish you get twice as many Joseph Smith Translation's!
8. There are some people here who think squirrels are mutant rants. We had an investigator who had a squirrel stuffed and put on his all because it was so cool to find a mutant rat.
9. We had over 60 quetz in in our piggy bank (in the shape of a bull so a bull bank?) for speaking English. Only because Hermana Hansen charged 15 quetz one day for every English word we spoke. She had to pay the most that day : )
10. People just laugh at us when we offer to help them make tortillas.
11. There's a verb that means to make tortillas. Tortillar, like "No puedo eschuchar. Estoy tortillando!" which means "I can't listen (to your message). I'm tortilling!
12. Tortillas here are made with just corn and water.
13. A lot of people don't know their birthdays here.
14. Canchita means white girl. There's no such thing as racism here basically. People call us canchitas all the time. Or is a kid has squinty eyes they all cal him China.
15. I've only seen 1 snake.
16. This morning in the shower/bucket I killed a centipede with my razor.
17. Little things in Spanish make a big difference. For example:
el papa pronounced papa with the last a stressed = the Dad
el papa with the el stressed = the Pope
el papa with the first a stressed = the potatoe
18. People here thing chile (like hot sauce) is one the things in the Word of Wisdom we can't use.
19. We say "Buenas" insteadof "Hola" a lot of the time. If you say "Hola" to men it's kind of like flirting. Like "Hello" versus "Heyyy"
20. The primary song Once There Was a Snowman is about a monkey in Spanish.
21. You know where a bus is going because there's always a man hanging out the door yelling "Antigua! Antigua!" or "Guate! Guate! Guate!" or "Chimalt! Chimalt!"
22. Hermana Godfrey and I ask each other one get to know you question every night. Fun Fact: if Hermana Godfrey were a kitchen appliance she'd be a kitchen aid mixer (a red one).
23. Hermana Hansen broke her fast in her sleep the other day. We woke up and there was a ton of bread on the floor. She sleepwalked and ate the bread DURING HER FAST!
24. The roads here are kinda set up like Utah's system.
25. There are a ton of fireworks this month. Small children light them all the time. And they're not pretty JUST loud.
26. If I had a super power, it'd be to turn dogs into trash cans. Too many dogs and not enough trash cans.
27. In Hermana Evan's old area they burn people at the stake.
28. The grocery store we go to is owned by Walmart.
29. A ton of kids wear Smurf shirts.
30. As of today I have taught 576 lessons in the mission field.