HOLA from SAN JUAN!!!
I´m still in the campo which is such a blessing! but first things first....
monday hna. rush and I finished and laminated our new fancy shmancy book for president. It´s like our baby... it´s gorgeous.
I said goodbye to the flia Feliz and Evani and Greydi and Oly. It was sad. Then we finished packing and whatnot and tuesday morning we showered and hurried and said bye to Gabriel. We made him cookies (which he ALWAYS asks us for) and gave him a tie and I said goodbye. I obviously cired so hard because I love him like my little brother. And we was tearing up so he waved us off so we wouldn´t see him cry.. haha he likes to think he´s tough.
Anyways.... got on a gua gua and waited with all the missionaries... said bye to hna. rush and cried again.
then got on a giant airplane bus with my new comp hna. Caguimbal from the Phillipines!
She´s the cutest little thing and she speaks english almost perfectly, so she´s pretty much a North American. And she was in the CCM with me so we are both BABIES!! crazy! So we´re having to learn spanish together. The other hermana´s in the house are hna. Ortiz from Mexico and Hna. Santana from Spain! So we always speak spanish in the house with them which is helping a lot too.
I have felt my spanish grow like crazy in just the past week though. Since Hna. Caguimbal is fairly new she doesn´t know the area too well and we only have 5 investogators who aren´t super solid so I kinda feel like i´m white washing again. Asking for referencias like crazy, really trying to work with the rama and presidente. It´s been a hard but great week!
I realize more and more each day how incredible of a trainer hna. Rush was. Like really, I feel like I know so much more and understand so much more and really can comunicate decently and I get how the mission life goes and all that and it´s just a huge blessing. I miss her a lot but I love my new companion too!
BIG NEWS.... San Juan has Luz and water ALL THE TIME. yes, i now don´t take a shower using outside bucket water and a blender.... I take a legit shower and can turn on my fan at my pleasure. I´m living like a queen. for reals. The shower water is ice cold but i don´t even care because water is coming out of the wall and not a bucket!
Also, San Juan is like a smaller city. We actually have a mini super market and a clinic and a few restaurants!! Also, the people here have a little more money for the most part. San Juan doesn´t have gua gua´s really because most people have motors and a few have actual cars. so fancy.
We are also closer to other missionaries. There are only us four hermana´s in the entire zone because they don´t really like hna´s far out near the border. So this morning we walked to a playa and played soccer with the eldersw who only like like 20 minutes walk away. It was super fun!
Anyways, there is a recent convert in our area and the night we got there his mom died. So we rushed over there and tried our best to comfort him but. It was so sad. He´s about 50 years old and lived with his mom so now he´s alone. But he´s a real solid convert and he´s going to be ok... he´s just super shocked because she was getting better. His name in Hermano Marco.. so maybe pray for him.
We also have a menos activo family here whose dad is in the hospital basically on his death bed. He can´t move or talk or eat and we have visited a couple times and sang and rubbed his hands and feet.
alos... on thursday we were walking through this small streem of houses trying to contact and this guy came out of his house and called after us. He asked us for a book so we handed him a folleto and he seemed really interested and asked when we could come back so we were trying to set up a return appointment and he leaned in and tried to kiss me! Thankfully I quickly held my hand over my mouth, so he kissed my hand! BUT GEEZ! haha apparently he wasn´t really interested in the folleto so we ran outta there!
Also, we had a lesson with this lady we contacted and in the middle of our lesson she started shaking and mumbling all these words in creole and was going crazy and hna. Caguimbal and I just looked at eachother wide eyed like WHAT IN THE WORLD. she did that 5 times during our 15 minute cita... and at the end she told us that she had put our spirits inside of her and felt our message... errrrr. so needless to say we aren´t going back. Í´m seriously praying for good references from the rama because contacts are sometimes super iffy....
Yesterday was hna. Caguibal´s birthday! So we all pretended like we forgot and didn´t do anything and when hna. Caguimbal got home at 8 we walked into the house and the other hna´s made a cake and got balloons and put the little gifts we got her (colmado snacks..) on her bed. She was so happy it was the cutest thing. We also smashed her face in the cake because it´s dominican tradition to ¨bake a cake on your head¨ if its your birthday (meaning throw eggs and flour on your head) but we were a bit nicer.
Well.... that´s about it! Thanks for the thanksgiving poster and love! Love and miss you guys!
hermana huish (wis)
