Today we went up to the Minneapolis sculpture garden and took pictures and rode around on our bikes. Then we went to the Nicollet mall and wandered for a bit. I love the city but it's definitely a once in a while thing. I'm getting good at locking up my bike though. It was fun. Shopping with Herman Scholl is funny though because she likes to look at how the clothes are made.... Now we're sitting in Curran's eating pie and sweet potato fries while we email. I will send pictures next week.
Funny story from this week, we went to a members house for dinner, she made sopes, which is basically a tortilla with a cream and meat. She also brought out some salsa. Homemade Mexican salsa is the BEST. But, like an iiiiiiiiiiidiot, I didn't test the salsa before I slathered it all over my sopes. I was dying. Eyes watering, nose running, mouth on fire, Hna Argueta and Hna Scholl thought it was pretty funny. Moral of the story, always always always test the salsa before you put it on everything.
Hna Scholl and I got a long better this week than we have. At mission conference they talked a lot about charity, and I have been studying a lot about it. I feel like it's the number one thing I need right now in my work. It's hard for me to let myself just love people. It takes more humility than I have. I am works really hard on charity, and it
really has made missionary work easier. At mission conference, Elder Martino talked to us about finding. Basically, knocking doors is ineffective, and what we need to do is focus on the part members, children of record, and prospective elders, teach them and their families and baptize the world. Simple enough right? We are excited
about the goals we set. Elder Martino challenged us to baptize three people per companionship by the end of the year. We think we can do it. We have a lot of potential people, but it will be interesting to see what happens. Also our musical number went well, it was pretty simple, but it turned out.
We found a family this week looking for Delfino, who I talked about last week. We went to find Delfino for a lesson, but he wasn't there. Instead, Carlos met us on the porch, saw Jesucristo on our name tags and said something like, "Jesucristo? Praise the Lord!" Literally just like that. The next thing he did was read us a psalm in Spanish, and then asked if we had an invitation for him. At this point we were so shell shocked we didn't know what to say. First, he was talking to us in English, second, he asked if we had an invitation, which obviously, we do. We were so confused. Luckily he was fine so he invited us in to meet his wife and one of his kids. Turns out he's an aerospace engineer for Boeing, basically worked his way up from nothing, and is really religious, he attends different churches every week with his family. And he invited himself to church. Coolest dude ever. He didn't
come to church, but it's ok, we have a lot of hope for them. The thing with Spanish work, is that they will just tell you what they think you want to hear, and then never ever commit. But we work through it. It just always takes way longer than you would think. Jose from last week is reading the Book of Mormon regularly, so that's awesome too. We also finally got back in contact with two other families that we lost contact with for a while, we're excited about them.
My Spanish is getting better. I am feeling more confident in talking to people and in lessons. It's far from where I want to be, but it's a good start. Hno Benjamin tells me all the time that I can't be afraid to speak. I have this problem where I just really don't like it when I feel like I am obligated to speak Spanish when it's just sister Scholl
and I, so we don't practice very much. I don't know how to fix that really, except to just do it.
It sounds like everybody is doing good. I got my winter clothes, I love my sweaters:) I will probably be sending a big box home of all the stuff I haven't used/don't use. It will be interesting when I have to pack my suitcases again.... My bet though is that this next transfer, I will be taking over the area, and Sis Scholl will be leaving. She's been in this area for nine months! We talked about the iPads this week a lot because I have to finish the training on them, but basically technology is a tool for us, nothing more. It is a means by which we move Gods work forward. They should never be a distraction for us. It's easy to fall back into old patterns on technology especially when we're bored or tired or something. But I think part of why they give us technology is so that we'll learn to use it as a tool, to act instead of be acted upon, and learn the skills to do so, for the future. Not for now, even though it's helpful, but so when we go home, we will be more productive than we were before. Interesting thought.
I love you all! Keep on keeping on.
And if you're looking for birthday ideas, anything winter. Especially
tights, hats, gloves. But for real, not too much, because I keep
thinking of how I'll have to pack it at some point:)
Besos,
Hna Andrus
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