La Semana Santa

 hope you all had a wonderful Semana Santa!  Over here semana Santa was a little rough because it´s another one of those excuses to party hard AND everyone in San Juan has these giant blow up pools infront of their houses and they are so tempting and hermana Smith and I just have to talk eachother out of not accidentally tripping into them everytime we pass one.  It´s definately a hard trial we are facing here in San Juan.  The good news is nobody in Helato has them because they are a little on the expensive side.  So we just walk out to Helato and all is well!  The people love us there now and give us their mangos and golden apples and these fried yuca things for free. 

Just informed us that she cut all her hair off due to sweaty, hot, sticky necks!
Did she really do it????? Dang cute if she did, but OH all that gorgeous hair. I sure hope they have
"Locks for Love" in the  DR!!

First of all I need to make a corrction.... Helato is actually El Hato.  hahaha stupid gringo mistake.  When hermana Smith and I found out we were super embarassed.  But Helato I like so much better.  El Hato is a group of pigs.... helato is like really similar to helado which is ice cream.  So i think you´d agree with me that our version of the name is way cuter.  but whatever.   Soon it will be named the land of hermana smith and huish so there won´t be any confusions. 

So if you guys are wondering how things are going out there.... ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.  seriously.  i´m giddy just thinking about it all.  So, hermana smith and I went out there tuesday and friday.  Tuesday we taught Lucy and Erika about the book of Mormon.  We used the introduction to explain things and I really like going through the pictures and explaining a little bit about the book to get them interested and excited about it.  It´s something Elder Quiroga taught hna. Rush and I in sabana Yegua way back and I have loved it ever since.  Well anyways, Lucy and Erika were practically begging us for books of their own by the end.  We taught them the special promise that this book has and talked about prayer and invited them to pray and they were really super excited about it all.  These girls.  I love them so much.   We also had this lesson in their giant field by the side of a river. like how awesome is my life right now?!   We did the exact same lesson and everything with Rosanna.  She has equally as excited and in her prayer asked that she could have a book of her own too. 

So on friday when we returned we taught all three of them lesson 3, about the gospel of chirst.  Faith, repentence, baptism, yadayada.... Rosanna straight up told us baptism is what she wants.  We were so excited and then we gave her her bom at the end and she was almost in tears.  AHHH.  so with Lucy and Erika they were super receptive and told us that they want more time to know if it´s right, but if they do end up feeling like it is true they will be baptised.  when we gave them their bom´s Lucy like flipped and grabbed it and said ¨i can´t wait to find out everything that is inside!¨ 

So on Sunday we begged hermano Domingo to take his guagua and go pick up the El Hato crew with us.  He agreed when we promised cookies and we prayed really hard that atleast one of them would be ready or remember about church. 

Well we got there and knocked on the three doors.  When Rosanna didn´t answer her door we went to get Lucy and Erika.  The two of them were totally ready with their book of mormon´s in hand and three other kids from the neighborhood!  One girl is 8 which rocks and two were 7.  Not complaining though!  Then when we came out to get them all in the guagua Rosanna was there! and dressed SO nice and was with her 20 year old daughter from the capital and her son!!!  HOLY COW!  so we brought 8 people from El Hato to church and when we pulled up president was so impressed and we were like so so happy. 

and church was great.  people were so nice and friendly and open to them and we were so relieved.  Us hermana´s gave talks too so we didn´t even have to worry about crazy people going on and on about the time they made sancocho or something.  good good day. 

Well for the second week in a row i have spent all my time talking about El hato... but other great things that hapened this week.... we found a young womens medallion journal on the side of the road on the way to El Hato in the middle of NOWHWHERE.  crazy.  it had a million scribbles in it in unreadable dominican handwriting but it´s way cool. We picked up about 13 green mangos that had fallen from the trees on the way home from El Hato and were given like another 7 from people and made a ginormous mango salad on sunday and it was so yummy.  We downloaded 17 miracles from president´s computer onto my flashdrive and watched it and all cried toegther last night.  I forgot how amazing that movie is... and how unamazing I am because i could have NEVER done what they did.  We were hitch hiking to El Hato on friday because we were so tired and didn´t want to walk and this SUPER FANCY honda pulled over and we jumped in and wow i felt so weird. 

 

love you so much!

CON MUCHO CARIÑO

 

hermana huish

Great Week in Helato

This country is so beautiful right??!?!  it blows my mind.  you will read about Helato and i´ll send a few pictures
but holy cow i love it!!  gorgeous! 

i´m LOVING the mission.  helato is crazy cool and makes the work so fun and adventurous and every day we are
like skipping to the lessons and just so giddy to get out and work.  usually we work for an hour in the morning and
we leave at 2 until 8.  But we have been leaving around 1 to get more work in and not waste any time traveling to helato or anything.
it´s just super great!  yeah, there are still hard days, but there are always blessings and miracles from every day!

one thing i did is make journals for brenda, ada, and chantal so they can write about church stuff and gratitude.
ever since uchtdorfs talk i have been thinking a lot about gratitude.  it´s so important.  also there were a ton of talks on obedience
and i really like what you wrote about in your email!  it´s always better to be strictly obedient and i can always be better at that
so thanks for that!

well... tell me how everyone is at home?  all of my newly wed friends?  or almost?  have you seen mel lately??
how is karen gulbrandsen? 

well, i love you so much!  my friend, elder garner has family friends in your spanish branch at home!  he is from Mesa too
and was in my zone in san Juan but he just left!  crazy small mormon world huh?!

love you
livi


BUENO...
querido familia y amigos mios...

I don´t have much to talk about this week other than Helato our campo. Hna. Smith and I call it our land because we feel like it´s ours and we love it and it´s like some beautiful place in a movie that never really exists but it does.  Also, we are the first missionaries to EVER go there ever.  So we feel like we have the right to call it ours.  Only a few people who live there have heard of the church and that´s because they used to live in San Juan or the capital or something.  But we LOVE it because it´s filled with people who are willing and excited to hear the gospel. 

So we have three solid people there so far and a BUNCH of others who we are starting with. 
first is Erika and Lucy.  Erika has 20 years and Lucy 14.  They are neighbors and the cutest girls EVER.  They read the restoration folleto (pamphlet) and when we came back they had all these great questions and we explained more and talked about it all and they were super stoked aboutit and when we asked them to pray about it they were like of course we will! 
We came back thursday and Erika was at the University so we talked with Lucy who told us she has always been looking for her church.  Her mom is super catolica and a lot of her firends are evangelicas but she doesn´t feel like they are right for her.  So we talked more about prayer and the Holy Ghost and how to receive answers to prayers and she was so sincere about it and told us she has been praying but not listening and she told us she´s excited to find out the truth for herself!  yeah super cool.  God has definitely been preparing her. 
to make it better she took us on a 10 minute tour around the HUGE land in her backyard where her dad and the neighbors work.  IT´s gorgeous.  we walked through the rice fields.  We through rocks at mango trees to make the green mangos fall and catch them.  We walked through a river to clean the mangos and climed a tree to get guayabas.   jealous?
So Lucy sent us home with 8 mangos and 10 guyabas and we started walking home to hurry and teach eduardo and we hitch hiked and jumped in the back of a gua gua and it was FILLED with dirt... haha so we looked like orphans by the time we got back to San Juan..  Luckily Eduardo lives right by our house so we rinced ourselves off with a hose and taught him.  (p.s. mom we hitch hike every day... it´s just how we get around. so don´t stress out about it!)

Well, the other solid gal out in Helato is Rosanna.  We taught the restoration as well and we could just see her eyes light up and her sit up in her seat.  When we came back she asked if she could have a book of mormon.  She also told her friends how we pray and why we pray like that. (she found out because she actually read the folleto)  we were so happy and explained the book of mormon more.  She told us she wants to come to church and if she can she will walk the 45 minutes to church if she can get her boys to stay with someone else!  Her grandma got hit by a motercycle sunday morning so she couldn´t come but we are very very hopefully with her! 

Helato is GREAT BUT it´s so far away from church.  So we are working with president to get a guaguita out there sunday mornings to pick her and the others up.. Maybe one day they can build a church out there... who knows!  but there are so many people to find and teach and we are contacting and searching out there like crazy. 

Well, other than that we have run around san juan working with members, we got flashed by an 80 year old lady who pulled down her pants to show us a giant bruise on her upper thigh, we have stood in a circle with a group of 7 evangelicas held hands and prayed with them, and found out the best way to crack open a coconut is by droping it from our balcony, and i got to talk to hernama rush on the phone on her bday!

pero, love you all!  hope your weeks have been wonderful! 

les amo,
hermana huish

La Conferencia

Querida Familia y amigos mios,

General Conference was super awesome.  Its so fun as a missionary because every talk I just have running through my head ¨oh man this is perfect for so and so¨ and ¨holy cow I can´t wait to share this with her¨ and ¨this guy totally could use this talk¨  My notebook is FILLED but i really just can´t wait for the actualy General Conference ensign to come out because that thing is golden.

What's a girl to do when she forgets to bring a hair tie??

Anyways, back track a couple of days... we had an awesome week!

We have been going out to this campo named Helato.  So... San Juan is considered ¨campo¨ in the mission because it´s Sur and way far away from the Capital.  Every area non-capital is campo.  BUT real campo is like little tiny houses in the middle of nowhere and all around them is land and crops and GREEN.  Campo is beautiful.  And hna. Smith and I have hit the campo JACKPOT because our area in San Juan is one of the only areas with legit campos.  We walk about 30 minutes or hop in the back of a gua guita to get there.  we love it, obviously.  And the people out there are so awesome!  the only problem is getting them to church will be a bit of an adventure...

so... we have two AMAZING girls out there names Erika and Lucy.  They are adorable and when we came to visit them again they had read their folletos and we´re waiting for us with chairs.  so great.  We talked about the restoration and they had so many awesome questions.  We´re praying really hard for these two and also praying that we find other solid people out there so we can get some kind of thing going for them to come to church. 

Well, the second time we walked out there this week we left Helato and started the walk back and it instantly started POURING rain out of nowhere.  we were like drenched within seconds.  We had nowhere to go because we were just walking on this long windy road and all around us was land and crops and nothing else. So we stood under this tree and were like deciding what to do when Domingo pulls up on his gua gua and yells for us to get in.   Like seriously?!  God is so GREAT at timing i don´t understand how he does it.  Domingo and hna. Ana were in the front so we hoped in the back and they drove to their land where they have this giant shed for rice and we all got in and helped them sweep the water out of the shed and read together and then Domingo showed us his rice sifter machine.  pretty legit stuff.

They drove us home and we ran to our next citas.  EVERYONE yelled at us all day ¨NO SE MOJAN¨ and we just laughed because people think rain is like some disease and they shut themselves inside and if they have to walk outside they put bags on their heads and run like it´s nobodys business.  But the two americans are just like ¨YEAH THIS ROCKS¨ and I just kept praying that it would still be raining when we got home so we could shampoo our hair in the rain. 

Hermana Ana watching the rain

Pero, General Conference was in the capilla in Mesopotamia which is a 25 minute walk mas o menos.  So it was hard getting a ton of people to show up from our area because they all complain about walking in the heat for that long.  On Saturday it was really just missionaries there and a few leaders.  The Elders brought my package (thanks mom.. i feel like i say this EVERY week.  hahaha i am very envied in San Juan) and inbetween sessions hna. smith and i sat up real close to the monitor, ate tres leches and watched all the great commercials and stuff.  We saw the awesome Gilbert Arizona temple dedication and presentation and i felt so proud.  and hna. Smith thought it was really weird that we have palm trees in Arizona.  She was super mind blown and couldn´t stop talking about it for like 10 minutes.  She thought they were only a tropical thing but i had to explain that it´s also a desert thing but our palm trees don´t have coconut.  Which made her even more mind blown ¨like, why do you even have them if you don´t have coconut??¨  But really though, why don´t our palm trees have coconut? it´s such a bummer.  Hna. Smith has taught me to LOVE coconut.  It´s like our favorite snack (and sometimes meal) we each buy a coconut at Mercado at the beginning of each week and then smash them open and then drink the water and eat the coconut like it´s candy.  it´s SO good.  idk why the US thinks shredded coconut with a gallon of sugar is any good because it´s so nothing compared to the real deal. 

ok anyways, back to conference.  After the second session we went out to this new mexican cafe with our district and ate GINORMOUS burritos and that was fun. 

on Sunday Daisy and the whole slew (karina, ada, brenda and chantal) came to conference and Eduardo and Kelvin.  Inbetween we went to Daisy´s house and watched her kill and de-feather a chicken.  It was actually very disgusting and i wanted to throw up. 

But conference was amazing.  I loved how a lot of the talks were focused on the youth of the church. I really liked Linda S. Reeves and Niel A. Anderson.  His whole tree and root thing and the little clip on that was pretty cool.  Ialso really LOVED Uchtdorf´s talk on gratitude.  I also really liked that I could understand A TON better than the first general conference out here.  man that was rough.  Also, Richard G. Scott´s talk in spanish was his realy voice i´m pretty sure.  does he know spanish?  because it was like HIS actualy voice.  cool.  He also never fails to talk about Ginene which is way adorable.  So, yeah, conference in spanish was good!  But let´s be real, it´s WAY better in english when you can here their actual voices and stuff. 

So.. I LOVEmy companion and we got transfer calls last night and we are staying together for at least another 6 weeks.  yeah we´re stoked.  Hermana Ortiz is leaving thoug, and we´re so sad!!! 

well, i love you all and hope the conference was good over there!

con mucho cariño,

hermana huish

Helato

Querido Family,

i´m going to start off by apolagizing for my english and spelling because every day it gets worse and worse.  i´m at this point where i want to say something but I can´t even think of the english OR the spanish word. it´s a real bummer.  or other times i know the word in spanish but cannot think of what it is in english for the life of me.  sorry english.  

ok but....  the Flia ZIDA.  ok, so Zida is the mom.  she´s married but her husband works at the haitian border all week and only comes home sunday afternoon hasta monday afternoon.  yeah. But the boys are great!  Jesus has 11 years, Adrian 10, roister 8 and the two little ones and a whole slew of their friends are always listening too. BUT, you know how we gave them a book of mormon last week??  well, the mom and her kids read up to 1 Nefi chapter 2 two days later when we went to visit!!!  we were like SO astonished because this kind of thing NEVER happens. never ever....  so we read chapter 3 with them and explained about Nefi and his brothers trying to get the plates and they were so excited aboutit all and were like begging us to read chapter four with them but we had to go!  amazing.  

Well it gets better.... the boys came to the  rama activity we had on saturday!  and when we had a little spiritual message by hna. santana she asked about the four parts of the church and Jesus raised his hand and answered the four parts that we had taught him and hna smith and i were like YEAH.  proud moment.  

even better... when we came and taught them on sunday after church they had read up to 1 Nefi chapter 13 as a family!!!!!!!!  WOWOWOWOWOW.  this really never EVER happens.  EVER.  Justin bieber was right when he said Never Say Never, because these boys read 13 whole chapters in 6 days!  one point for justin.  

We talked about the tree of life and gave them a baptism fecha for dia 3 of May.  We´re still working on the mom because she always has a ¨diligencia¨ on sundays when we try to get her to church with her boys... 

Bueno, apart from this family we have contacted a TON in this campo called Helato.  It´s a 30 minute walk outside of main san juan into the fields and it´s a small town with about 200 people.  we contacted like crazy and have found some great hopefulls.  And God is watching out for us BIG time because we walked out to Helato two times this week and the first day Domingo and hna. Ana just happened to pass by RIGHT when we walked out of the field and they drove us back into San Juan!  the second day a gua gua passed by RIGHT when we walked out and we hopped in the back of the truck and were driven home for free!  so nice, right!  coincidence, i think not. 

So, another proud moment is when Brenda, Ada and Chantal told hna. Smith and I that we had to be at their house at 6 and punto on friday night.  so we came and they had set up this little table with popcorn and juice for us and they sang us these christian songs they had practiced and they had this whole little night planned for us!!  it was absolutely adorable and it´s a big bummer i can´t send videos.  but in 10 months you guys will see their performances and probably shed tears like i did Friday night.  the best part was they told us we couldn´t start until we open with a hymn and a prayer!!  like oh my gosh i just kept thinking how proud i was and i felt like such a proud mother.  then we asked why they planned this special thing for us and they said we have done so much for them and they wanted to have a night for us to thank us!!!  oh man.  my heart melted BIG TIME.  i love those girls so much. 

Well.... saturday night we had the rama activity and like a million kids showed up.  we had sack races and played bitilla (like baseball but with water jug caps and long sticks) and ran around inthe grass.  hna smith and i were so dirty and pooped after it all.  

that night i put coconut oil in my hair which was a BAD IDEA because i have shampooed it three times since and my hair still looks like an oily gross mess.   WOOPS!

well i hope all is well!!  happy april fools day tomorrow! and 8 months to me!  SO DANG WEIRD!

CON AMOR

hermana huish 

Campo vs Capital

querido familia!

hola hola!

this week was crazy long, but crazy amazing.  here it goes..

tuesday morning we woke up at 3:30 to go to the capital to go to the temple!  We had to get up that early because over here in San Juan is the very very farthest away you can get from the capital.  It´s a 5 hour gua gua ride.  ahhh the campo life. 

anyways... we all sprawled out and slept until we picked up the zone of azue at 6 and then my comp and i sat next to eachother and tried to sit in a million different positions so our bums wouldn´t hurt so bad.  

at 8:30 we got to the capital!!  holy cow it is SO DIFFERENT.  sky risers everywhere.  cars everywhere.  legit stores everywhere.  burger king, mcDonalds, Taco Bell, a lot of great fast food places that I never imagined would think were so great until i got stuck out in the campo for 8 months! (but the campo is legit and i wouldn´t trade it for the capital for anything!)

So we got out of the gua gua and all were given conference bread and juice boxes from the assistents and then we went and did a temple sesh.  IT WAS SO AWESOME.  I forgot how much i love the temple.  after 6 ish months of not going through it was really the best feeling ever.  

the temple is the house of the lord you guys. it really is.

After the session, we all chilled in the temple grounds and took pictures and then all wanted to sleep and eat some food.  so we walked to WENDY´S and ate some good old american food.  holy cow it was GREAT.  I was so stoked that i wasn´t really paying attention when I ordered and I was served a GIANT grape soda and french fries with my nuggets and frosty.  hna. ortiz told me that the lady had asked if i wanted to make it a meal and apparently i said ¨si¨ and then she asked if I wanted a large coke and fries and apparently i said ¨si¨  haha wooops!  so i gave my soda and fries to the elders who were eating like animals.  

after wendy´s we were all so full but all so happy about it.  

and that was my great day in LA CAPITAL.

then we took a five hour gua gua ride BACK to the good old campo.  

on the ride home I was talking to elder Manubay about my hair falling out catastrophy.  It was super great because like elder manubay talks really loud and after 5 seconds 10 other elders were in the conversation about me going bald.  they were all asking me questions like if i have bald spots or major stress or other weird things happening to my body.  yeah, so much fun.  then I told elder manubay that i had just recieved a package with nice vitamins in it to hopefully help my hair.  he asked to see it.... then all of the 10 elders asked to see it.  they were all talking about how maybe it´s bad to take vitamins with 500% of stuff in them and then elder Perez blurts out ¨these are for pregnant women¨  hahahaha GREAT.  yeah so I had to explain to all of them that i´m taking prenatals because well... i´m pregnant.  haha but no i just told them that they´re like the best multi vitamin and then i took my pills back so noone else could read the label and pretended to fall asleep. and that was my amazing gua gua ride home! 

When we finally got home we were all so pooped and we slept REALLY good that night.

Ok on Wednesday we had a lot of great lessons... but the greatest by far was with Zida and her boys.  her boys are really awesome and come to church a lot.  We had talked about the restoration the time before and were explaining the book of mormon.  I explained it with all the pictures in the BOM and all the boys were like SO into it and so captivated and it was really the coolest thing ever.  After my companion and i spoke and testified we asked if they had questions and Jesus (my favorite of the three) raised his hand and asked with such sincerity ¨ so, where can I find one of those books to read?¨  i almost burst into tears it was the most amazing, most adorable thing i have seen.  Hna. Smith and I just grinned ear to ear and told them that we would come back tomorrow and bring them a copy of their own.  he was SO STOKED.  

Well the next day we came and brought him his book and he said thank you probably 17 times and sat down and stared at his book like it was the christmas present he had always wanted.  

I thought a lot about that after.  Like, i should be that excited and grateful about the book of mormon everytime i see it and read it.  it´s such an incredible book and gift I have and do I even realize it??  

We had two giant service projects this week of picking up trash in the more central part of San Juan.  It was great because a lot of our members actually came to help and a TON of people saw us and were asking us questions and stuff.  And because we were in the heat for a good three hours each day I got a nice tan on my neck.  

Flia Mesa took hna smith and I to their campo today!!  holy cow is it beautiful!!!  we were both in heaven and walked for an hour around their huge tierra.  they have a GINORMOUS rice field and so many coconut trees and mango trees and corn fields and it was so beautiful and so fun because we were like walking through their fields and in deep water and stuff.  i´ll send lots of pictures because i have literally a million.  

anyways... that was the week!   

it was super fun going to the capital... but i´m seriously so happy i have served all of my mission so far in the campo. much better.  much much better.  

les quiero mucho

hermana huish 

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Querido familia,

first off.... FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS MAMASITA!!!!  what are you like 30 something? 

I have this family picture in my Libro De Mormon that I carry in my hand 24-7  and everyone points to Mom and asks if that´s my older sister.  NOPE that´s my hot mom you guys.  no one believes me. 

what´s next?  I AM SO HOT RIGHT NOW.  like literally burning.  We just had a zone activity because our whole zone is here to sleep over at the elder´s san juan house because we are going to the temple tomorrow!!  YAY!  BUT since san juan is like the very farthest away from the capital we have to wake up at 4 to get picked up at five and trip it up to the capital in a nice gua gua!  woot woot.  I´m actually going to push it and wake up at 4:40 because i like my sleep.

 

ok but wait I got off topic... the reason i´m sweating like no other.... zone activity... ok so we had a barbeque and played soccer and basketball and other things in the blazing HEAT.  This morning was awesome and cloudy, like perfect weather, but then it just got HOT. i´m kinda really sad it is starting to get so hot again.  i guess it means i will finally get more tan, but still... i´m dreading getting sent up to the capital this next transfer where it´s even more hot. pray for me you guys.

We are still working hard with the members.  it´s hard because we don´t have a ton of investogators right now.. but we are working hard with members and hopefully it will bring us a lot of references!! We have two families we have reactivated in the past month which is super exciting!  Hopefully san juan just keeps getting stronger and stronger! 

On Tuesday we had a tri zone meeting in AZUA!!  pero, we got on the gua gua at 7 and they took us up to the great city of Azua.  When we passed Sabana Yegua elder Quiroga and I looked at eachother and I almost cried.  I also almost jumped out the window to find Gabriel.  Hermana Rodriguez talked for a LONG time about health and drinking water and not falling inlove on the mission and great stuff like that.  then president talked a bit and then he chose two people from the audience to talk on fe. (faith)  we were told the night before that we all had to prepare a short talk beforehand. ¨hermana huish y elder sanchez¨ GREAT. So i had three seconds to grab my scriptures and get myself up there.  I was nervous, but somehow when I start talking in spanish the nerves go away.  It´s scarier talking infront of a lot of people in english now.  So i´m warning everyone now to not be home for my homecoming talk.  you have a year to plan your schedules and NOT be in town.  

 

Then we watched this cool movie about John Roe Moyle, or john moe royle?  i don´t know, but it was good.  because he put it into a missionary perspective and talked about working your hardest every day.  This guy had to walk like 20 kilometers to his church calling every week to work on the SLC temple for 20 years of his life.  he even did half of it with a wooden leg.  pretty crazy stuff.

 

It was a really great conference and president Rodriguez is SO great and I´m so sad that they're leaving in 5 months ish.  BUT the new mission presidents are american from California and seem so dang sweet.

 

OK COOL NEWS... my comp has a bunch of music from the office elders on her flash drive... and for the past couple of days we have listened to some cool piano guys stuff and ENYA!  i´m super stoked!  Mom, the orinoco flow always reminds me of you for some reason. did you even listen to that?  idk but i know it was on my ipod and i jammed to enya in the car sometimes on my way to church activities in LA.  Enya rocks.  LA also rocks.  There is a new elder in my district from LA and we talk about the Grove and Diddy Riece and Fat burger.  Good stuff. 

 

We´ve found some great new families while contacting this week!  But one of them, we found out, only wants us in their house because they want to tell their friends they are friends with two white blonde girls.  bummer. 

 

On Saturday we helped familia Soler in their Panadaria!  it was SO MUCH FUN.  We helped them throw all the bread on this huge table and bag it all.  And it started pouring while we were there which was awesome because their panadaria is really this giant tin shed.  So the rain was like super loud and we had to scream to talk to eachother and we were just making and bagging bread for forever.  My companion and I were like ¨this is so fun!  this is the best job ever!¨ and they all laughed at us. 

 

This girl named Ada showed up to church this week and we didn´t even know who she was.  Brenda came up to us and told us she is her cousin!  Ada then pulled us aside and said she wants to be a mormona like us and be a missionary one day and get baptized and come to church every sunday like Brenda.  ALRIGHT!  so we´re now teaching Ada who is sweet and the first lesson we had with her she had brought Brenda´s book of mormon and flipped it open and asked us ¨ok, where do we start¨ cutest thing ever. 

 

well... everything is going well with the members.  they´re reading their scriptures a lot more and we can see a slow but sure change in them.  it´s great!

 

CON AMOR

 

hermana huish

Querida Familia,

It´s been a great week working with a TON OF MEMBERS.  seriously.  a ton.  It´s super great.  We have been inviting all of them to read their scriptures this week and next week we are going to focus on tithing.  We also give them cookies when they follow up on their reading assignments and stuff, and who doesn´t like galletas de avena?  no one.  So almost everything has been reading their stuff so far.  Maybe the Zone leaders know there is a storm coming and half of this project is to fatten up the members in preparation.  idk. if so, it´s working. 

One member named Freddy danced for us at the end of our visit.  I took a video and will try to send it.  It´s pretty much the funniest thing ever.  Since you guys don´t acyually know Freddy it might not be that funny, but in reality it is funny. 

Also, one morning we were visiting Wilson.  I knocked on his giant blue tin door and it just fell backward on the floor....  I was SO mortified and embarrassed.  Luckily wilson´s house isn´t really a house but dirt floor with wood sticks and tin as a roof... so it wasn´t like a giant deal but still... he laughed and just shoved the door back in place and said it was bound to happen...  he was probably being nice though.   ahhh why?!  it´s all good though because we broguht him cookies.  And then I gave him the mini bananas I had shamelessly shoved in my bag from Flia Mesa.   So we´re even i guess.  And I actually gave him the crackers Brenda gave me during sacrament meeting yesterday too.  So yeah, we are even. 

I have been giving hermana ortiz and Santana english class at nights.  It´s super funny.  We really just read through their english workbooks the mission gave them.  hermana Santana knows enlgish like perfectly but won´t speak it.  but when she does I die because her accent is AMAZING.  Hermana Santana and I then work really hard to help explain english pronunciations to hermana ortiz.  enlgish is THE WORST.  rules aren´t really rules.  english pronunciation is just a big guessing game.  whoever made up english was either drunk or just really mean.  

Anyways.... we were trying to help her say the word REST. but she kept saying it like RETZ.  So we told her to say ¨yo quiero carne reys tambien...¨ over and over. ¨you quiero carne REYS Tambien.¨ REYS Tambien¨ ¨REYS Tam¨ ¨REYS Ta¨ REYS T¨ REYST¨ REST¨  but once she finally got to reyst she started saying retz again.  haha we did that for like ten minutes straight and she finally got it and we all screamed and were so thrilled.  haha the things that make us happy. 

We also have to write things differently to help her out like ¨ay layk to reed¨ 

We went to Mercado this morning and The Mercado is the best thing in San Juan.  Its like this giant market with fruits and veggies and pacas with clothes and shoes and everything.  We bought piña and chinola and lots papas and peppers and then we fished through the giant piles of clothes.  There was a big pile of stuff for 5 pesos each.  FIVE PESOS.  And we actually found a ton on nice stuff there.  I found 5 really pretty blouses, and one awesome shirt with noah´s arc and animals and a skirt AND a jean dress.  And just to explain... five pesos is nothing.  I can buy an egg for 7 pesos.  And I bought a dress for 5.  five pesos is like 9 cents.  yeah. nine baby cents.  you can´t even buy a piece of gum in the states for nine cents. BEAT THAT ANTHROPOLOGIE.

so i´m pretty happy with myself and my Mercado purchases. 

Well... we are going to the temple in a week and a half as a zone and i´m stoked!  We also have a zone conference with Azua and Barahona too this week!  I love when we have stuff going on and we can actually see other missionaries.  Except It´s still sad because most of my friends are all serving in the capital and they always have a seperate conference!  So out here in the campo we still see like no one but that´s ok.  one day! 

well my mind is blank and i´m kinda hungry so that´s all I´ve got for this week.  love you all!

CON AMOR

hermana huish

5 Pesos

Querido Familia,

 

It´s been a great week working with a TON OF MEMBERS.  seriously.  a ton.  It´s super great.  We have been inviting all of them to read their scriptures this week and next week we are going to focus on tithing.  We also give them cookies when they follow up on their reading assignments and stuff, and who doesn´t like galletas de avena?  no one.  So almost everything has been reading their stuff so far.  Maybe the Zone leaders know there is a storm coming and half of this project is to fatten up the members in preparation.  idk. if so, it´s working. 

 

One member named Freddy danced for us at the end of our visit.  I took a video and will try to send it.  It´s pretty much the funniest thing ever.  Since you guys don´t acyually know Freddy it might not be that funny, but in reality it is funny. 

 

Also, one morning we were visiting Wilson.  I knocked on his giant blue tin door and it just fell backward on the floor....  I was SO mortified and embarrassed.  Luckily wilson´s house isn´t really a house but dirt floor with wood sticks and tin as a roof... so it wasn´t like a giant deal but still... he laughed and just shoved the door back in place and said it was bound to happen...  he was probably being nice though.   ahhh why?!  it´s all good though because we broguht him cookies.  And then I gave him the mini bananas I had shamelessly shoved in my bag from Flia Mesa.   So we´re even i guess.  And I actually gave him the crackers Brenda gave me during sacrament meeting yesterday too.  So yeah, we are even. 

 

I have been giving hermana ortiz and Santana english class at nights.  It´s super funny.  We really just read through their english workbooks the mission gave them.  hermana Santana knows enlgish like perfectly but won´t speak it.  but when she does I die because her accent is AMAZING.  Hermana Santana and I then work really hard to help explain english pronunciations to hermana ortiz.  enlgish is THE WORST.  rules aren´t really rules.  english pronunciation is just a big guessing game.  whoever made up english was either drunk or just really mean.  

Anyways.... we were trying to help her say the word REST. but she kept saying it like RETZ.  So we told her to say ¨yo quiero carne reys tambien...¨ over and over. ¨you quiero carne REYS Tambien.¨ REYS Tambien¨ ¨REYS Tam¨ ¨REYS Ta¨ REYS T¨ REYST¨ REST¨  but once she finally got to reyst she started saying retz again.  haha we did that for like ten minutes straight and she finally got it and we all screamed and were so thrilled.  haha the things that make us happy. 

We also have to write things differently to help her out like ¨ay layk to reed¨ 

 

We went to Mercado this morning and The Mercado is the best thing in San Juan.  Its like this giant market with fruits and veggies and pacas with clothes and shoes and everything.  We bought piña and chinola and lots papas and peppers and then we fished through the giant piles of clothes.  There was a big pile of stuff for 5 pesos each.  FIVE PESOS.  And we actually found a ton on nice stuff there.  I found 5 really pretty blouses, and one awesome shirt with noah´s arc and animals and a skirt AND a jean dress.  And just to explain... five pesos is nothing.  I can buy an egg for 7 pesos.  And I bought a dress for 5.  five pesos is like 9 cents.  yeah. nine baby cents.  you can´t even buy a piece of gum in the states for nine cents. BEAT THAT ANTHROPOLOGIE.

 

so i´m pretty happy with myself and my Mercado purchases. 

 

Well... we are going to the temple in a week and a half as a zone and i´m stoked!  We also have a zone conference with Azua and Barahona too this week!  I love when we have stuff going on and we can actually see other missionaries.  Except It´s still sad because most of my friends are all serving in the capital and they always have a seperate conference!  So out here in the campo we still see like no one but that´s ok.  one day! 

 

well my mind is blank and i´m kinda hungry so that´s all I´ve got for this week.  love you all!

 

CON AMOR

hermana huish

TRANSFER 5!!!

querido familia,

first off, lo siento for the lack of letter last week.... it was a busy one!

second, my new comp is AMERICAN.  hermana smith. she´s super great!   she´s from a small town in oregon, super sweet. blonde, tall, white (obviously).  She was companions with hermana rush in the CCM.  So she has 11 months (oh my gosh my mom has 11 months in the mission now it blows my mind.... speaking of hermana rush we saw each other on tuesday at Caribe Tours transfer station and she´s as beautiful as ever!  she´s gonna be an hermana leader in the capital.  such a proud daughter. her spanish rocks also.) 

So i´m super excited to be with Hna. S, she´s way fun. we have had an awesome week together.  She really loves working and makes it fun.  We just skip down the dirt roads together and talk to every one and get great comments about people asking for our visas and whatnot.  

I kept forgeting my little green hymnario for the first couple of days and it got really annoying because all we could sing was ¨Soy un Hijo de Dios¨ or ¨Divina Luz¨ because those are the only two I have for sure memorized.  now I have a giant paper taped on the door that says ¨¨bring the dang hymn book¨ and for the past 4 days it has been doing it´s job.

ok thirdly, saturday was my 7 month mark but more importantly ISABEL HUISH¨S BIRTHDAY!!!!  I turn 7 and she turns 15 on the same day. happy birthday chum.  I love you so and am so proud to be the sister of a track star, fro haired, chill girl like you. 

Saturday morning we did what we always have the pleasure of doing... cleaned the capilla!  YAY.  Brenda came to ¨help¨ and she just dinked on the piano and got her brown footprints all over my freshly mopped relief society room.  YAY.  we kicked her out and she told us she wouldn´t be coming to church tomorrow because she got invited to the beach.  I sat her down and gave her a nice long talk about the sabbath day and that God is more important than the beach.  All she said was ¨well, I was invited TO THE BEACH.¨  she seemed pretty stoked to go so whatever.  she´s nine. and hopefully she´ll get stung by a jelly fish and realize it´s God telling her she should be at church.  Ok, that´s a joke..... :) 

On Saturday the elders called AT 12 telling us we had to be at BON to eat ice cream with them at 12:30 because they had something ¨urgent¨ to talk about.  We thought they were being dumb but we went anyways because Bon is good, and then they actually did tell us some crazy news....

The Zone of San Juan is changing things up a bit.  Here in San Juan the members are really floho.  they´re just not converted and strong and so the foundation here is floho too and so it´s especially difficult to have progressing investigators and menos activos when the actual ACTIVE members aren´t strong.  SO... we are doing member work.  We have to visit every active member twice a week and talk with them about scripture reading, testimonies, priesthood, tithing, and good stuff like that.  So the majority of our time will be spent on members for the next 6 weeks.  teaching, edifying.  We have to bring treats and make it fun and exciting so the members are pumped about working hard and strengthening themselves.  I´m actually really excited about this because san juan REALLY NEEDS THIS right now.  

ALSO, my new Zone leader is ELDER QUIROGA my old district leader in azua.  I respect him so much, he´s an amazing missionary and I was totally praying that he´d come here to be my zone leader.  and God liked my idea!!  woot woot.  So elder Quiroga and Elder Manubay came to our house today to talk a little more about this change.  They said they won´t tell us many details until our zone meeting next saturday but they are trying to start a movement here in San Juan.  They asked me to draw a bunch of logos that say ¨YO LO SE¨ and we´re going to make buttons and posters and stickers and lots of stuff.  I´m excited but SUPER nervous because it´s all in my hands for the designing and stuff... sheesh. so now i´m a little regretful i asked God to make Elder Quiroga my ZL because he´s the one who saw my drawing book for Gabriel and knew I can draw.  WHY!?! 

Church was great because a bunch of old men investigators of hermana becars came to church because my new comp is tall and beautiful like her... haha YES.  I think it´s great because it means lots of sacerdocio baptisms.  haha jk..... ish 

After church I ran around trying to set up visits with the members and schedule everything because my new comp knows no one except Kelvin, the annoying investogator who never wants to get baptized but likes to flirt with the white girls.  

Our missionary coordination mtg with Wilson and president ended at 730 and we had our last cita with flia Mesa at 7... so we  ran there, they fed us fried eggs and batadas, we talked about scripture reading and invited them to read about the wise man who built his house upon a rock, and then booked it home... except it was POURING RAIN.  

AND MY SHOES WERE KILLING ME.  I wore the flat crocs because i heard it was going to rain and let me tell you my feeling about crocs.  The only reason I bought them was for comfort, right? because crocs are ugly and should never be worn in normal circumstances...  BUT, they were killing my feet and givng me giant blisters so now I am just dumbfounded why crocs are still in business.  

So I ran home in the pouring rain on slushy dirt and rocky roads barefoot.... 

If I were to rate crocs on their website I would give them one star out of 5. and the only reason they get one star is they are light and easy to carry when you have to sprint home so you're not late so the elders don´t get mad.

But the good news is when we got home hermana Santana had boiling water ready for us to shower with... so sweet.  it was heavenly!  

Also, last night I accidently drank faucet water after brushing my teeth. I was pretty grossed out with myself.  But I´m sure the water isn´t as bad as the 

hot dogs we sometimes buy on the street by our house... I´m just strengthening my immune system here. 

PS my hair is all falling out.  I don´t know why I thought I´d come to this island and my hair would miraculously grow and get thick and beautiful and golden because everytime I run my hand through my hair at least 30 strands come out.  So now I´m just slowly and slowly growing bald and more and more confused with life.  really though, if i´m bald when you see me at the airport in one year just love me anyways and tell me i´m beautiful.  thanks.

CON AMOR

hermana huish 

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