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

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