Seriously, I can't believe how well my spanish is coming along. I know i am nowhere close to fluent by any means, but it's crazy how much and how fast you can learn in just a few weeks with the Lords help!
We have three investigators now, one of them, Eduardo, is so hard to teach. His wife and two kids are LDS and his wife is the Relief Society president. He noticed that they are always happy when they go to church, so he wants to be happy like them! you'd think this would be super easy to teach him, but he is SO stubborn. Our first lesson with him was really bad. When I gave the opening prayer I started to pray for him, but I couldn't remember his name so I just sat there for a good like 4 second then my companion had to whisper it to me. Then whenever we teach we really don't know 100% what the other person is saying because its still kind of hard to follow along with them, and in the lesson Hermana Dodge talked for awhile about the restoration, then looked at my to bear my testimony, but I thought she wanted me to teach the restoration, so i started teaching it again! She didn't know what to do, so she just sat there while i blabbered on and on about the exact same thing that she had just said. It was really funny but yeah.. not our best lesson.
Last thursday night was a crazy night for our district. Our teacher and district leader had this huge long talk about how we as a district need to be better about being obedient and more diligent. By the end everyone was crying and everyone felt so bad that we were not as focused on missionary work as we should have been. I especially felt really bad because I knew I could be doing better, and for some reason I got really homesick for the first real time that day. I don't really know why, but I think it was just emailing everyone and stuff. Me and my companion walked outside after to go talk and I just started crying. Seriously so embarrassing. Then to make things worse Elder Christiensen and Elder Faas came over to talk to us. And hi, obviously I can't talk because I'm crying at the moment so.. I basically just cried. Lucky them! But ever since then for some reason, me and my companion are so emotional. We were standing in the hallway after one of our lessons one time just talking, and we both started crying because we saw this picture on the wall of Christ being resurrected! It was awful, who just breaks out in tears??
But me and Hermana Dodge decided that we were going to be better about being obedient. Friday was our first day and it was one of the best days! Not exactly sure why, but we both just felt so good the whole day. We also taught Abraham that day. It went pretty good, he accepted to baptism and agreed to go to church with us, the spirit was definitely there. But because he's our teacher he gave us feedback after and he told us that we need to stop reading our notecards as much as we do because it takes away from our message and the spirit. So we were way terrified of teaching again because we are like what are you serious we don't even know enough to teach a lesson in english, let alone spanish! So we have been practicing a lot at teaching lessons in Spanish, and hopefully we are getting there.
Sunday was a sad day because it was the older district in our zone's last Sunday. In sacrament meeting they called on me to come up and give the opening prayer, on the spot! They usually give you a heads up so you can kind of prepare, but nope, I had to go up right then. And I wasn't even paying attention because when people just talk in español really fast you just stop listening you know? Then i hear my name and i'm like wait what? But, according to everyone else, i nailed it. So that's all i'm gonna say about that. But besides that it was a really good Sunday. The devotional that night was the President of the MTC, Presidente Cates. At first I thought it was going to be really boring, but it was WAY good. He is also pretty young which probably helps(he and his family actually live here at the CCM and his kids are so cute! They're like half mexican babies) But he talked mostly about not giving up on our missions and always trying our hardest. Something he said that I liked was: "Stick to your work until it sticks to you." Really liked that.
Also, funny story that night when we were in the auditorium to watch a movie, my companion speaks fluently in ASL (American Sign Language) so she teaches me some cool stuff, but she was trying to teach me how to say JK and I thought I had it so i yelled to Elder Christensen to look at me so i could show him and I completely *accidently* flipped him off and everybody that turned to look at me. So awesome. It was like the worst thing that everyone here has seen for like 4 weeks. Also, i had my very first super blonde moment on my mission. When we walked out of sacrament there is a big map of the world you know that everyone and their mom takes a picture with pointing to where they're going, and we walked over to it to look. Everyone is showing where they're going and i walk up and I point to the equator and said, "look here's where you're going!" to my comp and she's said "no.. this is where I'm going" and points to Ecuador (which btw is right by the equator) and so THEN as if I haven't been blonde enough already, I make the stupidest comment of my life and say, "Oh so there's two Ecuadors?" My life is over and nobody will stop giving me crap about it.
MONDAY. Our district left! It was actually a really sad day. I know I was not that close with Haden, but it was really nice having a familiar face here! Me and my companion also became pretty good friends with these two Elders, Elder John and Elder Favila, who also left on Monday. They were both obsessed with my strawberry hand sanitizer that Kelsey East gave me. So on monday we played a ping pong game and if they won then they got to keep my hand sanitizer. and they won, so I had to give them my strawberry hand sanitizer AND my fruit punch hand sanitizer which was my favorite of all time. So i'm pretty upset right now I guess you could say. But.. Yeah, it's weird being the oldest district in our zone now! And confession: Not gonna lie, I did almost start crying when I said bye to Haden. I thought the day would never come haha. But he was crying and wow it was just really sad.
Tuesday was a great day because, YAY!! American Tuesday. and Pizza! The food this week was really lame so it was such a relief to have pizza. I don't think i have ever appreciated pizza so much in my life! Tuesday night our devotional was by Elder Christofferson, also good. He talked a lot about trust. We need to trust in the Lord and his will, which is hard sometimes. But he also asked the question, Are you someone the Lord can trust? and that question hit me so hard. Can the Lord really trust me to be out here on a mission and be representing him? So i am going to try as hard as I can to be a good representative of him and be someone he can trust always.
We also taught two of our investigators Adrian, and Eduardo. That went good as well. We Adrian asked to be baptized and he said he would pray about it to know for sure that the priesthood was on the earth. so that's good! Also, in that lesson when he agreed to baptism I wan't to just yell, YES! that is so great! or excellent! or something more than just muy bien! so I said, "oh thats awesome-o!" Yep, i definitely said that, and no one said anything after, my companion was trying not to laugh. It was awful. So yeah, I need to learn some more vocab words in that area.
Also, funny story. Hermana Voyles told us that pueblo meant people, literally the first week we were her. So since then, we all have been using it. I just found out that pueblo does not mean people, it is a place in Mexico. AWESOME, thank you Hermana Voyles.
With Eduardo, we planned on teaching lesson 3, but then he kept asking questions about if his family can be together forever. So we had to teach lesson 2. It was really hard because neither of us were prepared to teach that lesson, but I think it went okay, at least for not having prepared at all for it! And later that day Hermano Sanchez (language teacher who is also Eduardo) told me that my Spanish was doing really well. He said he could tell that I was able to understand him on the lesson, and i could talk back to him. He was VERY impressed. So good day, good day.
Tuesday night me and Hermana Dodge decided that we were going to fast Wednesday to have the spirit with us more because we felt like we were lacking in that part. So Wednesday we fasted in the morning and it was kind of hard at first, but we taught Eduardo again. It was seriously the best lesson I have taught so far! He had already agreed to baptism but in the lesson before he said he wasn't really sure what baptism was, so we taught him lesson 3 and focused a lot on baptism. We took our notes in there with us, but I neither of us used our books or our notes! I did maybe once, but still! It was awesome. I can't even describe to you guys how cool it is to teach by the spirit and to be able to speak a different language! I have only been here for three weeks and I taught the whole lesson in Spanish. While I was bearing my testimony on baptism and the holy ghost, our teacher started getting teary eyed! It was awesome and now he said he can't wait to get baptized. There was one oops, in that same lesson I gave him a scripture to read and I gave him the wrong one! I couldn't really tell because I had my Spanish scriptures with me, but then I realized and had him read the right one. It was really funny.
Later last night, we had TRC again, and this time we had an investigator to teach! It was super scary because they are actually people, not just our teachers, and they don't speak ANY English. The lady we taught was already a member, she just needed help getting answers to her prayers. She talked so extremely fast that I was having the hardest time ever understanding her. But my companion rocked it, she understood everything she said! Then she shared a scripture on the holy ghost and I didn't know what else to do so I just bore my testimony that I have on the holy ghost and how it helps my prayers get answered. And she said that that was exactly what was missing, the holy ghost! I of course I did not know this until later, when my companion told me what actually happened during the lesson, haha. But there was this one time towards the end when she was talking about how she felt, and she went on for like 2 minutes straight just talking, I was so completely lost that I was praying that she would not stop talking because when she did I would have no idea what to say back. Learning a foreign language is so crazy!!
And the best part of this whole week, was we got to go to the temple this morning! It was SO cool. We couldn't go in because it is getting remodeled, so we just got to go to the visitors center. It was a really cool experience. We watched this movie about families and it was really sad, everyone cried. It made me really excited to have my own family for eternity some day! I got this super cool ring there too, it's these cool symbols, and it means charity never faileth. I love it. It was really weird being out of the MTC though, the last time we weren't in the MTC we were just getting to Mexico! The driver on our bus drove us around Mexico City a little bit, and it was so crazy! It's weird how different people here live. Also, i thought I was going to die driving through the streets. Cars drive so fast and so close to each other! And I'm pretty sure there are no laws in Mexico, because we were driving in the left lane and then there was a bus in the right lane right next to us and then it just left turned in front of us and flipped a U-y. I'm thinking, "Hey, I'm here on a mission and I would really appreciate not dying today". And cars drive so freaking close to each other. Anyways, super crazy. But yeah, so today has been a good day so far! I'm really happy I get a long with my companion. There has been a little bit of drama in our district the last couple of days, and wow, I don't think I can express how happy I am that me and my companion like each other. Also, the other day we were walking down the street and I was singing because I sing all the time and my companion told me she loved it when I sang! Yes, you read that right, she loves it! So at least someone appreciates my angelic like voice!
This week in gym was really fun. We mostly play basketball the whole time, and this one time Hermana Dodge tried to make a half court shot and she completely missed and hit some guy on a bike ahahahahha it was the funniest thing of my life! I also won in a ping pong game against this kid named Elder Fisiasi or something. I completely spelled that wrong. But yeah, I felt pretty proud of myself. They have these water dispenser things you know with the big jugs and you put a cup under them to fill them up? Well one time we both forgot to bring our water bottles and usually when I forget I just kneel down and stick my mouth under it, so this time Hermana Dodge did it cause she was dying of thirst. And as soon as she did this guy came out and got all mad at her. it was so funny! She was mad at me because I was supposed to watch her back. Hahaha.
So remember how I said Elder Yoni ripped his suit? Well first off his name is Elder Yson.. so yeah oops. And last week the president took him in to town to get a new suit and this week he ripped his new suit again! Like who even rips suits in the first place? Seriously, it is so funny. Also, yesterday our district was playing that signs game, and I got caught so I had to go in the middle. And we were playing where when you get caught you have to say a sentence in spanish. So I said, "I have been praying daily." (in spanish of course) And then they said, "okay close your eyes, so that they could choose someone to start". And I don't know why but I think it was because I just was talking about praying so when they told me to close my eyes, I folded my arms and started praying! It was so funny/embarrassing at the same time!
But yeah, Mexico is going pretty dang good. The air still smells awful sometimes, there are awesome sunrises though. It still pours every single day. EVERY single day. and its always when we are in gym, so we have to walk home in the pouring rain. I guess you could say I've pretty much given up on getting ready anymore. We got 54 more missionaries in these week! And within the next 3 weeks, we are going to have about 400 new missionaries here!
But anyways, this is literally a conversation me and my companion had this week:
Me: "I lOVE it when people tickle my arms and my neck and my face."
Her: "Ew i hate it when people touch me."
Me:"So then can you tickle my back PLEASE?"
Her: "No are you serious why would you ever think that?"
You see how hard my life is?!?
Well anyways, I think that's about all that happened this week. Adios!
Hermana Johnson
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