Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Mission log: Stardate 30/07/2013 (out of order so sorry)

Emily Pickett Jul 30 Hello family! I brought my journal to write my email today so hopefully I'll have less moments of "um..." So we finished our Pday strong last week with a devotional from Elder Russell M. Nelson (via DVD) which was great. Lots of interesting food lately, mostly delicious but possibly with a dark side. Apparently some people are getting paracites (that's the rumour, anyway). Our elders are running scared. Yesterday it was this 30 minute conversation about "Don´t eat the fruit, don't drink the water! We can't even trust the water in the water coolers!" And Sister Porter and I sat there and said "Look. The Lord protects His missionaries, and there are a lot of people praying for us to be healthy and safe, so if we get sick, it's either because the Lord wanted to teach us something or because we're not being obedient." So we're not scared. Things are going really well with our two current investigators. Both are reading and praying on their own and have committed to be baptized, but we need to get the first to stop smoking and drinking. But the second said he would ask his "wife" to come to our next lesson, so we're pretty excited to see if he'll bring someone with him. I wouldn't put it past him. We also are doing a new teaching exercise on Wednesdays called TRC (it's CRE in Spanish) where we go in with teachers or actual members and get to know them and then teach them a piece of the gospel that can help invite them to come unto Christ. We liked the one last week, except our Spanish really took a turn for the worse that day. It was probably because we skipped nap time. Whoops. We had a really fun experience last week that we have since dubbed a "preach-off". Like unto a walk off, someone from the first team would teach a principle from the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, like The Gospel Blesses Families, and then someone from the other team would try to teach it better. I kind of destroyed the elder I was facing off against, but my team lost in the end. We'll do better next time. We're still struggling with our district. There are three of them who are great and focused and spiritual all the time, and then another three who are pretty good, but the two remaining are always struggling, and one of them is the district leader, so that's just super. So Hermana Porter and I spend a lot of time steering away from totally innapropriate discussions or just leaving the room (that happened last night and then we extended our walk several times--we didn't want to go back). It just blows my mind that there are people who "wanted" to serve missions and they get here and say "Just another day at the CCM" and "I can't stand one more day in prison!" (and yes, both of those were our district leader. Great example, right?) But I was officially called as the Sister Leader Trainer for our district (and in the field that's actually on level with the Zone leader) so I'm trying to be a good influence and bring people back in. There's a pretty constant desire for some harsh rebuking, but that's when sister Porter looks at me and shakes her head. She's a pretty big blessing. We went to a testimony meeting with our zone, so our district and another that been here for the same amount of time we have, but then the "Generation 1" missonaries as well, so they're a little more experienced than we are. And they gave us this super great advise about how they struggled with the same things that we struggled with and told us they had overcome that by being exactly obedient, and they clarified some things we had heard might be rules but we weren't sure. And sister Porter and I loved it. But then the next day all the Elders complained about people judging them. Problems, so many problems. We did a teaching demonstration and our teachers asked me to be the investigator, so I was my friend Meredith from high school, who was the perfect example that some people don't want the gospel. That was pretty sad. It made me miss her and Ashley and Juice and my other PA people a lot. We finally took a picture of the whole district on Sunday, and I'll send that out soon, just not in this particular email. We also took a picture with the most adorable little sisters who always end up matching by accident. And one of them is a Doctor Who fan. We love them. And I played football yesterday and enjoyed it! Haven't played fútbol yet, but I'm sure I'll get around to it. Despite the district strugglings and the constant state of tiredness, I really love it here. I really love this work and I even like waking up at 6:15. I can't wait to get to the field but I'm grateful for every second I have here to prepare. And (y'all ready for this?) yo sé que este obra es la obra de Dios, y soy Su misionaria. Estoy tan agradecio por la oportunidad a servir los hijos del Señor. Yo sé que este iglesia es la iglesia verdadera de Dios, y este evangelio es el evangelio de Jesucristo. Yo amo este evangelio, y amo mi Salvador. I love all of you! And hey, listen up: I'd really love some more mail. I've got a lot of family, so it'd be sweet to hear from you guys. And that address on my facebook totally works, so if you'd like to send things in the traditional way, that'd be great! My companion has this constant influx of mail, so a little something now and then would be nice! And packages go faster through DHL and don't get stolen if they have a picture of the Savior on them, so that's just a tip. Also, if someone could go on my facebook and 1. Remind my friends that I'd like to hear from them and 2. Find my Elder Alex Harper's mailing address, that'd be great. Also, Mom, Sister Porter would appreciate more HiChews. She sort of ate all of mine...two weeks ago. Love you guys! The last couple of weeks have flown by, so I'm sure I'll be home in what feels like no time! Love Hermana Pickett

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