Thursday, March 22, 2018

Week 40: The busiest week

Hola hola hola!

This week has been so crazy busy but that's so good! It is crazy combining the two areas and making time for everyone (it makes daily planning take a while) but it is so good and we almost always have places to be and people to visit.

Also, being in a trio is pretty much just a party all the time. I think we're all a little sleep-deprived (it's easy to get talking once you're lying in bed at night, sabe?) but it's so so fun. Hermana Malcolm is awesome!

It kept raining this week (what's new?) so we've been carrying our paraguas all over town.

On Tuesday we had district meeting and afterwards we ate FRUIT PIZZA which I'd been craving for like 6 months I think. It was a combined hermana Malcolm hermana Moncayo fruit pizza birthday cake. On Tuesday night we got to visit a member couple, Bertha and Manolo, who are just so awesome.
On Wednesday we ate with Andres, it was this stew thing that was pretty good and actually wasn't drowning in grease--he's stepping up his game! Then we visited Isabel. Her family is still going through a lot of health challenges but she is staying strong and keeping her faith in God which is really awesome. Then we visited with an investigator named Juan Manuel. He had been having struggles with the word of wisdom but finally has overcome them so we are excited to see him keep progressing! After Juan Manuel we walked wayyyy across town to visit an older member named Luisa who's health isn't too good. She is so sweet and was so grateful to have us visit her since she hasn't been able to come to church for a few weeks. After Luisa we met with a new investigator named Manuel (yes, everyone in Puerto is named Manuel), who is a MAQUINA. He was a self-reference from the mormon.org website and had talked with missionaries there and then had met with the other hermanas once before the areas combined. He basically taught US the lesson! Then we walked way BACK across town to visit the Peña family. We had a good conversation with the parents about the Sabbath day, the kids weren't there.

On Tuesday we had a crazy long weekly planning because we had to get to know all the people on the other side of the area and hermana Malcolm had to get to know all the people on this side. We also got to eat with a member, Belli, who is so cute. We stopped by Francisco, the less-active member we met a few weeks ago, to read with him and his wife in the Book of Mormon before going to English class. There were so many people in English class and so many of them were named Manuel! I'm talking Manuel Mayo, Manuel Ballesteros, Manuel the new investigator, Juan Manuel... the only one missing was José Manuel. We decided some of them need to change their names because it makes class really difficult haha. "Manuel, you had a question?" *the entire class turns to look at us* "Okay, not YOU Manuel... no, not YOU Manuel either... you either... yes, THAT Manuel." Also, Manuel the investigator had read first Nefi 1 and had come with lots of questions to ask us! During the noche de hogar we wrote "letters to God," and talked about how in prayer we really are communicating with God--it's as real as writing a letter. But writing my "letter to God" really made me think that I need to improve my personal prayers! I would recommend writing a letter to God if you feel like your prayers are lacking something, it's really cool!

On Friday was Hermana Malcolm's birthday--she turned 20! Two birthdays in one week, Hermana Moncayo's last Sunday and then Hermana Malcolm's on Friday! We ate pancakes for breakfast and then visited Carolina... she has a really scary house with these slightly terrifying homemade statues of the virgin Mary that look... yes, very scary. And they're like 8 feet tall. I don't know, it was weird. And creepy. Then we went with Sister Fry to pick up pizza (a GIANT pizza--they had to open both doors of the pizza place to let her out with it!) and we ate it with Sister Fry and Abi at Sister Fry's house in honor of Hermana Malcolm's birthday. Abi was the investigator of the other hermanas who got baptized a month or two ago and she is THE BEST. She's from England so she goes to the American branch and she is so funny. I am so excited to get to work with her now that she's in our area! On the way back to our piso after lunch, Sister Fry stopped by the other piso so that we could transport some things from that piso to our piso in her car, which was so nice of her. Then we taught a lesson to Jorge, a new investigator! He has a really powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and even came to church on Sunday for all three hours! Spanish isn't his first language so we need to find the folletos in his language so we can be sure that he understands us. After finishing the day we decided to make a chocolate cake (box mix and frosting in a can courtesy of the Americans, and hermana Moncayo was just as impressed the second time haha) for Hermana Malcolm because she needed to blow out candles! Only after making the cake and putting the candles on top did we realize we had no fire, but it's okay, she just pretended to blow out the candles.

On Saturday it was Saint Patrick's day, which no is not a thing here, but yes we did all wear green anyways. We went to visit a member, Conchi, in the morning, and Petri (a less-active member who we're working with) was there too! That was an awesome surprise because we had been trying to meet with Petri all week but hadn't been able to find a time that worked. In the afternoon the Miles family took us to this Italian restaurant to dinner, which was so fun. They are an awesome family and Sister Miles is going to help us teach Abi about family history. Afterwards we had to do a few things in the church, and then when we were walking back to piso we were attacked by this crazy wind and rain storm! I'm talking Hermana Moncayo's umbrella attacked her (she has a wound on her lip, no kidding), then blew like 50 feet down the street, and the pizza box we were carrying with leftovers from dinner blew open and then the pizza blew out onto the sidewalk, and I'm still a little sick so I was just there not even able to breathe because of the wind and hermana Moncayo couldn't see because her glasses were covered in rain and it was just crazy. No worries though, we all survived.
Sunday was pretty much just a day of meetings. We went to two hours of the American branch since Abi is in a different Sunday school class and we need to be there with her, then we went to three hours of Spanish ward immediately afterwards, and then had a meeting with obispo for a couple of hours. Then we had about an hour to eat some lunch, and then went with sister fry and Abi to a stake women's meeting. There were actually a lot of really good talks there and I think Abi really liked it. But by the time we got back to our piso, we only had time for personal study and then had to go to bed! So it was a good day, but a long day.

Overall, a really busy week but a really fun week. I love Hermana Malcolm and I love Hermana Moncayo and I love Puerto and I hope I stay here forever! Also, it is finally going to stop raining this week and I have never had so much ánimo.

Love, Hermana Walker


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