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Monday, August 31, 2015

State Fair!


Good morning!

We are going to the state fair this morning, so I don't have a ton of time to write but I have some stories this week. This week was the first week that I really felt like a missionary, because I finally have crazy door-knocking stories. 

The beginning of the week started out pretty average, we had a zone p-day talent show, and then hung out for a bit afterwards. I love my zone, especially the sisters. It's amazing to see how different Hna Scholl and I are in a group, I would just naturally gravitate towards the other sisters, because we could relate. Sis Checketts came out the same day I did, Sis Matagi and Sis Parke are our Sis training leaders, and I love them all so much. Tuesday, average. Elder Aquino, our district leader, gave an excellent training on convincing vs persuading people to hear the message of the Restoration. We need to understand our investigators' desires and abilities to accomplish the things we commit them to. Wednesday, crazy. We had new missionary training, which was really good also. The part that stuck out the most was about how as companions we need to have unity and love each other, because we can't love our investigators if we don't have love for our companion. The crazy part started after dinner. We were at an apartment complex that a number of our investigators and members live at, looking for Janeth, a recent convert who is 14. her mom told us she was at the park, so we went over there. As we were walking two Kenyan guys called us over and asked what we were doing. One of them was asked if the missionaries helped pay for people to come to America and learn about the church, because he still has family in California. It was really hard to understand him because he had a heavy accent and we were by a busy road. The other guy was relatively interested in our message. So Hna Scholl taught him while I "distracted" the other guy, because literally every time I opened my mouth he would start talking. They started to ask us things like "how old are you?" "do you want kids?" "can you marry outside of your tribe?" hahaha the one I was talking to offered to by me a nice ring, so basically we were proposed to by some Kenyans in the park. The night gets better. After that, we went to Hna Yaya's, a sassy Costa Rican lady's, and she feeds us which I love. I think I've talked about her before actually. But she started telling us about her old boyfriends, and one in particular who she would tell that she loves "con todo su higado" which means all her liver, because he broke her heart. And then she told a story about when she worked in a casino and a guy started flirting with her so she poured hot coffee down his shirt. Crazy.

Thursday was normal, but Friday we had service. I love it! i also learned about the difference between Orthodox and Catholic, because apparently they're not the same thing. All of the volunteers we work with are Orthodox. Friday afternoon I went on exchanges with Sis Matagi in the English area. It was absolutely mind blowing to me how comfortable English work was. We had dinner with a member, ate pancakes, knocked on normal houses, not apartment buildings, like it was SO comfortable. Everything about it. Sister Matagi and I are the exact same person. She is awesome. I really loved it... Hopefully I get there with my Spanish.

One more cool experience: we have been working with a semi less active member, Hno Benjamin (ben-ha-meen). He loves the Gospel, but is lazy, and doesn't like to make the effort to come to church. So Saturday we went over and were talking about faith and obedience and when we're obedient we can have the desire to be more obedient. For the first time on my mission, I felt actually inspired. I asked him if he had ever fasted before, and he said no. I invited him to come to church, and think about fasting for fast Sunday next week. Guess what. He came to church. And there were two talks about fasting, and one of them was the third hour fifth Sunday discussion that Bishop Volz led. It was so good. Boom. Spirit. 

Bishop Volz is great, he learned Spanish by studying in college and going on a study abroad in Spain. And now he's a bishop of a Spanish ward. 

Dad, Bishop Volz is guerro (white), our ward mission leader is white, and there are like two or three others. They're usually married to a hispanic. Our area is kind of sketch occasionally. There hasn't been a time where I felt completely unsafe. We usually are in our car after dark. We spend a lot of time in apartment buildings. We don't use our bikes hardly at all, we're using them to get to the fair today! There is a designated driver in each area, and we're not allowed to drive in our first six weeks.

It's been a good week. I am soooooooooo excited for the fair. 
I am also really jealous of your weekend. But really glad you had fun. 

Love you!!
Emily

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