Hola
hola hola!
On Monday night we got
to meet with Manuel B, the recent convert, again! He is pretty old and still
giving us weird old people foods. Sometimes it's good, most times it's not. We
also met with a family that's less active in the church on Monday night. We had
a really good lesson with them about the true meaning of Christmas and what
gifts they could give to Jesus this year, like improving on one thing in their
life - - being a little more patient, or reading the scriptures, or (hint hint)
coming to church.
On Friday or Saturday
of last week (like the 9th), our butano ran out - - so we didn't have hot
water. But good news, the butano guy came on Tuesday and we now have hot water.
Woohoo!
We also had district
meeting on Tuesday, which is always super great. We ate candy canes (courtesy
of the Americans) and cola cao (the spanish version of hot chocolate)
afterwards. Hermana Bockova had never had a candy cane before. She didn't
understand why they're red since minty things are normally green. She has
a point. But the candy cane still got her approval.
On Wednesday, I hit
six months in the mission, which is super bizarre. I was hitting two months,
like, two minutes ago. But it's fine.
On Wednesday we also
met with Andrés again! But it was a really quick cita, because we had to catch
the bus to go to Rota again. We met a really nice man named Gabriel in Rota. He
had gotten our card previously and tried to find the street it says our church
is on--but he didn't realize that the church was in Puerto, not Rota! And then
he was kind of bummed, since it's far. But we're hoping he'll be able to come!
We'll try to visit him again next week.
We also went to visit
this woman in Rota who had met with missionaries before, but a long time ago.
She was super friendly and gave us besos and then as soon as we sat down on her
couch she started coughing up a storm. "oh yeah, I have bronchitis."
What?!?! That was the fastest lesson ever, and when we left we doused our hands
in hand sanitizer (shoutout to Hermana Matsu, always prepared). But today I
woke up with a cold, so here's to hoping it's not bronchitis.
Wednesday night we
came back to Puerto and met with a family in our ward. They have a 19-year old
daughter and 11-year-old son who both got baptized in January. Neither of us
had ever visited them, and it went really well. They're from Bolivia and gave
us some drink that kind of felt like I was drinking hot jam, but then turns out
it's actually made from some crazy purple corn (??). It was good. I just don't
know how I feel about purple corn existing.
On Thursday we went to
help set up for the Spanish ward Christmas dinner. Tables, tablecloths, all
that fun stuff. Then the 3 JAS (jóvenes adultos solteros, young single adults)
in the ward were in charge of setting up a cute wall to take photos in front
of. I love Spain and I love Spaniards, but sometimes it seems like the people
here just do not know how to decorate, at all. The wall was literally the
ugliest thing we had ever seen. But at the dinner people didn't seem to have a
problem taking pictures in front of it, so maybe me and hermana Matsu are just
picky haha.
Marisa, the woman we
had the lesson with last week, has dropped off the face of the earth. We wanted
to invite her to the dinner, but we couldn't find her!
On Friday we were
walking on the street, like we do, when de repente it started to POUR. We
started booking it to get to our next plan, but then after like 2 minutes the
rain de repente stopped. So we really should have just gone under cover to wait
it out. Hermana Matsu got soaked. I didn't though, because I was wearing my
coat! I love my coat.
On Friday was also the
dinner. It went really well! We had three investigators there and so did the
other hermanas! The mayor came and spoke. Not sure exactly what he spoke about,
but he was coincidentally wearing the same outfit as bishop so that was funny.
After we ate, people started dancing. Somehow every Spanish church activity
ends up in dancing.
On Saturday we had to
go to San Fernando for a final choir practice. It went well and everything, but
it didn't leave us much time to work that morning which is always a little
frustrating. On Saturday night was the American branch Christmas party. They
had marshmallows! Those don't exist here. Very exciting.
Sunday was normal--the
American branch, then the Spanish ward. The teacher for 2nd hour wasn't there
but the other hermanas had two investigators at church, so hermana Matsu and I
kind of made up a lesson about Christmas. But it actually turned out pretty
cool. We talked about the Christmas story in Luke 2, and then what happened in
the America's (in the book of Mormon) when Christ was born. They didn't see the
birth, BUT they did see some super cool signs that let them know that Christ
had been born on the other side of the world! It's another example of how the
Book of Mormon and the Bible work together, both with different parts of the
story which work together to share the same message.
Sunday night was the
long-awaited Christmas concert! The program was so funny because Hermana
Matsu's name was there for like 2/3 of the acts. Basically, she was carrying
the show. But she did awesome! I also did very well at turning pages. There is
also one chord at the end of joy to the world that she couldn't reach, so it
was my job to play the D at the end of that song. I really put a lot of emotion
into that note--you know, a half-cup of joy (claro), a dash of heartbreak
(every song needs a little), and a whole lot of Christmas spirit. It was pretty
much awesome.
At the end of the
concert everyone sang Feliz Navidad. I hadn't realized that was a real song
that Spanish speakers actually sang haha.
I think that's it for
this week...
Entonces,
Hasta luego!
Love, Hermana Walker
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