Dime Mi Amor

what a week!

 

so, last monday for noche de hogar we taught Brenda la palabra de sabiduria.... ha  so daisy her aunt and her mom karina had different ideas about what i actually meant and went off for about 20 minutes explaining stuff about having wisdom and learning and finally when hermana caguimbal and I got to speak we explained that it´s actually about what we should not put into our bodies.  and THEN diasy says ¨oh yeah, like no wine, and drugs, and no green fruits¨  great.  we laughed and thought it was a joke because some dominicans love green fruits and some hate them (there´s no inbetween here) and then she was like serious!  So we had to explain that green fruits are OK.

 

us 4 hermanas watched doctrine and covenants videos and ate popcorn and happy hippos! thanks mom.

 

at 10:30, as i was getting in bed, elder manubay called to give me the honor of giving the message for our zone meeting the next morning.  yay   so I stayed up a little late preparing for that.  I make the zone leaders cookies and this is how they repay me?! 

 

So yeah, tuesday morning we had zone meeting in messopotamia.  I gave the message on power and authority and we talked about goals and health and working with members and all the usual zone meeting stuff.  then elder chinchilla bore his last zone leader testimony and cried and everyone was so quiet because chinchilla is like a legend in this mission. (he was an assistent for over a year and the zone leader in san juan for 3 transfers i think?)

 

On wednesday we went to teach brenda the last lesson on the sabath day and chastity and thankfully her mom was showering and her little sister was playing on the street so we were able to really teach her and not have a million voices and distractions!  Brenda is really super smart and so sweet and told us about her older sister playing bad music and her having a really bad feeling and telling her to turn it off.  aww.

 

We taught hna. mary and llafreisi her neice who are so cute.  Hna. Mary is like my favorite in the rama.  she´s so humble and tranquilo.  She is always asking us questions to know more and just got called to be the young womens president and she´s so freaking out because she has no idea what to do.  we´re repasing all the lessons with her neice llafreisi and with her too and we are helping her with her lesson plans and calling a lot.

 

thursday got woken up to the incredibly annoying colmado on wheels.  these little trucks stuffed with fruits and veggies with giant speakers on the top.  ¨HAY YUCA HAY YUCA HAY PLATANO HAY GUANDULE HAY YUCA HAY PIÑA

!CRISTO VINE! HAY CEBOLLA HAY YUCA !ARREPENTIRSE!¨  and it´s so dang loud and never seems to stop.  especially when we´re trying to teach and one of these trucks drives by REALLY slowly.  it´s funny though because they throw in preachy words like REPENT and it´s super great.  we always want to contact on one of those and get like 700 people in a 10 minute span.

 

We taught Marilyn who is reading her book of mormon and is starting her marraige papers!!!!!!  we´re so so stoked!!!!!!!

 

Brenda´s introvista was thursday and she was so happy when she walked out of the office and elder moreno gave a big thumbs up.  she danced all over the church and told her mom that she can officially wear her new dress for the baptism. 

 

Friday morning I made strawberry pancakes (with jello mix... strawberries are a very rare and EXPENSIVE thing here) in the shape of hearts and we ate and then went to the capilla to clean.  Brenda and chantel, her younger, hilarious sister, came and helped us too.  Both of them act like 40 year old typical dominican women, instead of 7 and 9.  I was cleaning the font and yelled for brenda to bring soap and she responds ¨DIME MI AMOR¨  hahahaha oh brenda.

 

hermano manolo went out with us all day to find menos activos.  it was SO nice of him and we found a ton of people on the rama list that no one even knew about. 

 

Saturday was the baptism!!  the other hermanas had a baptism too, and an 8 year old boy in the rama.  So many people showed up and the service was really great!  Marilyn even came with her two kids!  and afterward and asked if we could come to her house so she could show us how to make habituelas dulce! 

 

Sunday wasn´t quite as stressfull as last, except I had no time to practice the hymns so i just winged it and hoped for the best....  dad why didn´t i practice more?!?! WHY?

 

This area is super great... but the rama doesn´t want to do a whole lot.  Us hermana´s have to do so much here, and it´s super hard sometimes.  We talked as a house about how we can work on strengthening this area, and especially these members.  This are is really prideful and a lot of people don´t want to do anything if they don´t have a high position calling.  Also, they NEVER want to have activities to strengthen the rama because there is ¨no money¨¨and we´re trying to think of creative ways to have good activities with no money to show them that we don´t need money and nice callings so be firm and happy and work together.  it´s difficult.  But it´s a learning experience! 

 

Today we woke up and cleaned and cleaned and then walked to the zone leader´s capilla and had a zone activity and played games and soccer.  It was so fun today because the whole zone was here so we had legit teams and it got so intense and we played for a good two hours.  Sometimes it´s scary playing with a million aggressive elders but it was so worth it, just running around for forever. 

 

but yeah, that was the week! 

 

thanks for everything!!

 

les amo!

 

hermana huish

SO Much To Do!!!!

Typical Neighborhood - they love blue! 

hey!  happy valentines day almost!  AND anniversary annika and michael!  a year?!

 

So... Brenda´s baptism is this Saturday!  We´re really excited and working with her a lot, reviewing and all that stuff.  She´s great though and really excited.

 

On Wednesday we walked forever to Christofer and His mom´s house and talked about the plan of salvation.  His mom REALLY wants to get married and told us she wants to get baptized and sealed... but her husband doesn´t.  it´s really sad.  she was almost in tears and we just didn´t know how to help her.  We´ve tried talking to her husband but he just doesn´t care and uh it´s the worst. 

 

We also cleaned Anna´s house.  We do that at least every week for her in the morning.  She´s so sweet and just beams when we show up to chat and clean.

 

On thursday we had nothing planned for lunch so hermana santana and I used empanada sheets and made pizza empanadas in the oven...  and hermana Ortiz kept saying ¨extraño... pero rico..¨ (translation - strange but rich, which means great!!) so hermana Santana and I have decided to open up a restaurant when the mission´s over called ¨EXTRAÑO PERO RICO¨ we´ll have pizza empanadas, and every dulce served with syrup (because hermana santana eats EVERYTHING with syrup... apparently they don´t have it in spain and she´s obsessed and eats it with bread, on cake, cookies, and would probably drink it if we had a bigger supply.) 

 

We worked with Wilson (recent convert) on friday.  Like no one was home and it was so frustrating so we went to his house and talked about his new calling as ward mission leader and read through PMG and chapter 5 of the red church calling manual.  He´s super stoked about his calling and is always so willing to work with us it´s great.

 

We taught Eduardo the word of wisdom.  He didn´t have a problem with it and was super tranquil (peaceful) and just sat there and we asked if he was ok and he just sat there still.  He´s just super bummed that his wife won´t let him get baptized.  We´ve tried teaching her but she always leaves... so yeah we´re kind of stuck with him!

 

On Saturday I made corn bread and chili for the hermanas.  The corn bread is another ¨extraño pero rico¨ thing for the other hermanas.  But for me it was so normal and so fall and I was in heaven.  mom, i miss your cooking p.s.

 

We cleaned the capilla after lunch and then went on splits with the relief society!  It was super great!  They showed us where like everyone lives in the ward and we visited menos activos and it was really awesome.  We also went into this area really far that we never visit and it was super dark and everyone´s houses were lit by candles and the colmados were actually playing loud music like they´re supposed to and i felt like I was back in Sabana Yegua. 

 

The Zone leaders came to our capilla that night for a meeting and brought my package!  thanks family!  Then I practiced the hymns for sacrament meeting and we went home. 

 

The other hermanas told me at 8:30 saturday night that we had to teach the relief society lesson because they had to help with another class and the teacher would be out of town... my companion was a little ticked and told me to plan it so i stayed up like until 12 planning a lesson about the plan of salvation.  Thankfully it was an easy topic, but I felt a lot of pressure because the usual relief society routine is to read straight from the prophet book manual for an hour and so I felt the need to give a real lesson to help them understand what a lesson should be.  So I planned my best, but I just kept wishing that my mom could be here to give the lesson because she´s really great at those and I´m not. 

 

WELL... sunday morning.  ate really fast, showered, got ready, and just as we were about to leave president drove by on his motor and gave us the sacrament white sheets to iron....  so we quickly ironed those and ran to church so I could teach on time.  We talked about the plan of salvation and focused a lot on the importance of this life and what we need to do now.  I took the opportunity to say that we have so much paz and comfort from the plan of salvation and we need to share this peace and knowledge with others :)  a missionary has got to do what a missionary has got to do..

 

Then hermana caguimbal and I taught the family history lesson.  A lot of the leaders were sent to our class so it was nerve wracking, but the instructors manual is super great and we just relied a lot on that to help us plan so it wasn´t so bad!

 

Then I played the piano in sacrament meeting and the C note doesn´t work and i swear every hymn I played used the C note at least 80 times.... haha but we have a piano now so it´s pretty great!! 

 

After church I zonked for a good hour while hna. ortiz and caguimbal made lunch.  Then we left and had a super packed day which was awesome! Sunday´s are never this successfull so it was a huge blessing.  We went to a contact family and they were super receptive and the mom doesn´t work and doesn´t have commitements on sundays!  hallelujah.  (OH MY GOSH speaking of hallelujah, hermana santana has an IL DIVO CD and they sing that song in spanish and they also sing the song with celiene dion and it´s so great.)

anyways, we visited jesucita and talked about family.  We contacted a BUNCH more and then went and had a meeting with president.  Our goal is the really strengthen the rama here, because it super needs it.  We´re trying to work a TON with members this week to find more people and strenghten their families and callings at the same time. 

sheesh though it´s been a lot of work this week.  over here the rama´s arent super strong so as missionaries we have SO MUCH TO DO.  it´s super stressfull, but it´s also a super great learning experience... but holy cow i´m tired.

Well... that´s about it!  It´s been a good week!  love you all and thanks for the support and prayers!

 

hermana huish

No Run!

ok first off..... HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA MY SWEET BABY 13 YR OLD!!!!!  wow. 13.  Might be an unlucky number but I heard you already got a cell phone so yeah I guess you just broke all the odds.  way to be!

 

So... last monday night as a house we planned to get up early and run.  As you can imagine, I was stoked.  Tuesday morning at 545 I got out of bed and was all excited and then hermana ortiz slid into the room and without pause croaked ¨mañana¨ and walked right back into her room.  haha so the run was a no go.  but that´s alright because I was awake to read and jump rope.  haha jump rope.  I remember laughing at Mom when she said she just jump roped her whole mission, but now I see how great it is!

We contacted a bunch and this old lady talked for about 15 minutes and then took my hair in her hands and started praying and called me her saint.  GREAT   haha we tried to tell her that I´m just a person, a missionary.. no saint.  But she didn´t really listen to us.  we thanked her for her time and walked off and she yelled ¨ay MI SANTA¨ and everyone in the streets looked at me all funny.  woops.

We went to Robin´s house and taught Morena.  Robin showed us his fancy guitar his rich uncle gifted him.  He was grinning ear to ear with that thing.  He doesn´t have money for food really, but he has this giant guitar that he treats like the best thing in the whole world.  it´s quite adorable.  Morena was being really timid and wouldn´t really answer our questions, she just looked at the floor.  We noticed this giant bruise on her arm and asked her what happened and then robin told us her ¨esposo¨ beat her... oh my gosh my heart dropped.  Her esposo also ripped and trashed all her clothes and that´s why she said she couldn´t make it to church with us this sunday.  hermana caguimbal and I were heartbroken.

That night we went to Marilyn´s house and her esposo was there!!!  he is NEVER there.  We shared with them and their two kids and talked about the importance of family´s and marraige and he was really awesome about it and told us to come back on saturday to have another lesson with them all!  Well on saturday we came back and he gave us this sweet corn milk stuff and they told us they want to get married!!!!! YES!!!  ah man we are really excited for them.  Then, on sunday Marilyn came to church for the first time ever!  She never can because they go t the campo on sunday mornings, but she arranged her schedule to come!  good, good day!

On wednesday I brought out my inner Mexican-arizonan and made cilantro tortillas and black bean hummus.  It reminded me of home.  and all those days hermana rush tried to mash beans in a pilon in the dark.... good times.

On thursday we ACTUALLY RAN!!!  ahh man it felt so dang good.  although I had to run circles around the other hermanas while they walked, it was so worth it.  i miss my long runs!  the paths! ahh man.  one year! ok no, that´s too soon.

ANYWAYS, on friday morning we had the zone leaders and 4 men at our house to install fans!  yeah we´re living large.  It was a 3 hour operation so I made everyone chocolate pancakes and we chatted with the owner who served in Santiago in 1990.. mom? when were you there again?

We went to familia Mesa and hermana Anna was all alone and half asleep on her chair so we cleaned her SUPER messy kitchen for almost 2 hours.  Like deep cleaned. 

Then we went to Morena and gave her this skirt we bought at a paca.  She screamed and put it on and twirled around in it.  I cried because it was literally the cutest thing i´ve ever seen.

We taught Victor who told us he is excited and preparing for his fecha, dia 15 of march!  yay!  Victor is great!  He is sincere and excited to read and learn, but has trouble coming to church because he works in his uncles campo...

hermana caguimbal was trying to pick a guanabana off a tree with a giant pole with  hook and then she dropped it and it landed on this little haitian baby.  haha.  Hermana caguimbal freaked out and was hysterical and ran to comfort the baby, who took it like a champ and just stood there motionless.  All the haitians just laughed and laughed at hermana caguimbal.  not gonna lie, i was laughing pretty hard too.  ah man. my comp.

We talked with Eduardo who told us his wife told him NO, he can´t get baptized.  we´re super bumbed but we over time his wife will let him.  He still is going to go to church and everything so it´s ok.

On saturday i turned 6 months!!  wow!  and emma turned 13 years!!  we got up super early to walk to the elders capilla to have introvistas with presidente rodriguez! He´s so great.  They fed us conference bread, which is like a dream.  and piña juice.  We chatted with the hermana and I played on their piano, because our rama doesn´t have one!  I also talked to elder garner, a new elder from Mesa, AZ!  lives on Recker and McLellan?  yeah like my neighbor. 

We stopped by familia Mesa and Anna and her daughter were in the car and told us to hop in, they took us on a 10 minute ride to see their finca! $$$$$$$  they´re loaded.  it was ginourmous, and gorgeous

On sunday we went and got Morena in her adorable new skirt and walked to church together.  Kelvin, Brenda, and MArilyn came, and then a few of our menos activos! it was a good day!

We had a legit reunion with the district president and hna. caguimbal and I are now in charge of the family history and temple work class on sundays... errrrr.  wish us luck!

well that´s a wrap!  We played soccer and ate lunch with the elders and during lunch the restaurant was playing despicable me!  ahhh man... THAT¨S WHAT I¨M TALKING BOUT.

 

love you all!

hermana huish