Companion: Hermana Perry
This week was my first week in Bakersfield and everything is going great! It is super hot, but the people here are super cool and I love being companions with Hermana Perry. She is the greatest. We came out at the exact same time, so we already knew each other a little bit from the first day things. We are the youngest Spanish speaking Hermanas in the mission, so we have been having a great time and working a lot.
This
week has been a scorcher! As soon as I got down here, the air
conditioning in our apartment broke. It was so bad. The first night, I
woke up completely drenched because it was so hot during the night.
Weekly planning was almost unbearable because we were inside the
apartment for a couple of hours. Luckily, we were able to contact the
apartment management and they came by to fix it. I never appreciated the
magic of modern technology until I felt that sweet air conditioning
again.
This is a great area and we have been
working really hard. We are in the La Cresta Spanish ward in East
Bakersfield. There are a ton of Spanish speakers here. It is really nice
and I have had lots of opportunities to work on the language. It is a
little funny because Hermana Perry and I have about the same amount of
experience in speaking Spanish, so living with the language barrier has
been really fun. One day this week, we were calling one of our
investigators to confirm our appointment with her. Towards the end, she
said something that neither of us could understand. I thought that she
had said, "I love you" which seemed a little weird, but I told Hermana
Perry. She responded to Rocio (our investigator) "I love you, too!" She
sounded really surprised. That was when we realized that she hadn't
actually said I love you. Awkward! Despite that, we have been able to do
pretty well with the language together.
We
have been working really hard to follow the promptings of the spirit
this week. When we get to any area, we pray to see what we should be
doing and who we should talk to. We have had a lot of adventures and
some really cool experiences.
One day, we were
going to go and see one of our potential investigators. When we pulled
over to the side of the road to pray, a lady walked out of her house and
started looking at us really strangely. We finished praying and she
started to walk towards our car, so I rolled down the window. She
introduced herself and started talking to us. After a second, she told
us that she was going to get into our back seat so that she could talk
to us better. Then, before we could say anything, she opened the back
door of the car and hopped right in. We were sitting there in shock, but
she just kept asking us questions. It was really strange! She told us
that she was schizophrenic and bipolar, which explained a little bit
about why she would do that. While we were talking, her mom came out,
saw that she was in our car, gave us a strange look, and walked back
into the house. I wanted to talk to the mom, so I asked the lady in our
car if she would go into her house to get us some water. When she got
out, I turned to Hermana Perry and told her to grab her stuff, then we
just followed the lady into her house. We didn't end up talking to her
mom, but we were able to talk to her sister-in-law and we did a little
bit of service and helped them to pack up for their move later this
week. It was a little strange of an experience, but I think that we were
able to meet some people who were prepared.
Another
experience where we had an adventure because we followed the spirit. We
were walking down a street where we have been a lot this week. One of
the houses on the street had a couple of really big and scary looking
dogs that were kept on chains. They had looked so scary that we decided
that we probably shouldn't try talking to the people in the house. As we
were about to get in our car to leave the street, we decided to knock
one more house. They weren't home, but from the porch, we could see that
one of the scary dogs had gotten loose and that all of the family from
that house were outside in the streets. We both felt prompted to go and
talk to them. Right before we got up to the house, the dog that had
gotten loose started running up towards me. I saw my life flash before
my eyes. It sort of jumped on me, and then it ran away. Nothing happened
(but I did have some dog slobber on my watch). The dog's owner came out
swearing up a storm and apologized so much. We gave her our card and
were able to talk to her about our message. Her mother came out and
started talking to us to. It turns out that she is actually an extremely
less active member. We were able to talk to her a bit and she said that
she wants to start coming back to church. We probably wouldn't have
been able to find her if we weren't listening to the spirit (even though
the prompting didn't make much sense!).
I am
super excited for this transfer. It is going to be seven weeks long, but
I am sure that we are going to be able to do a lot of good work during
this time. I have already seen a lot of miracles during my first week
here. I am positive that they are going to just keep on going!
I
love being a missionary and seeing the difference that I am able to
make in people's lives. I am sure that I am where the Lord wants me to
be and I am trying more and more each day to be doing what he wants me
to be doing. I love you all and I hope that you have a good week back at
home. Keep cool and have fun!
Hermana Blau
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