Week Eleven: I love meeting people!

This was a bad week for pictures. This is about the best that I have. I'll do better next week.

Area: Littlerock Spanish Branch

Companion: Hermana White

This week, we have been having a lot of really cool experiences and have been meeting a lot of really cool people. The work is really coming along here!

It is super strange serving in the Spanish Branch. I think that one of the strangest things about serving Spanish speaking in the United States is that we speak Spanish to the adults and English to the youth. The youth groups and classes for the Spanish Branch and the English Ward are combined. Sometimes, it gets a little confusing, but I think that it is super cool. I wish that I was able to speak two different languages from such a young age.

About piano playing, I sure do get lots of opportunities to play. There isn't anyone in the ward who knows how to play the piano, so I play in every meeting that we are at. It is super cool. I love listening to all of the members sing here. They sure do sing with all of their heart and soul.

Recently, Hermana White and I have been trying to work with our members more. For the past couple of weeks we have been finding like crazy, but most of the people that we have been finding are not really all that interested in the message. This week, we decided to change up our approach. Instead of doing pure street and door to door contacting, we have started working more with our less active and part member families. This has the double impact of helping us to strengthen the ward and letting us find more solid investigators.

One of the part member families that we have really been working with is the Salgados. Our two investigators, Jenny and Kate, are in their teens. Their brother, Chris, is older and has recently moved back into the house. While he was living away from home, he met with the missionaries and was baptized and now that he is living at home again, he has asked us to meet with his sisters. They are super cool and really friendly. For the past couple of weeks, we have been trying really hard to get them to come to church. Last week, we even went to their house before church started, but they would not wake up. This week, a miracle happened. Jenny came to church with Chris! We were so happy because she had been feeling nervous about attending. After the sacrament, she said that she really liked it and that she would like to come back. Hopefully, she really will. 

Just because we are doing less street contacting doesn't mean that we have stopped meeting our share of interesting and strange people. For example, we met a lady yesterday who was super friendly. She was open to the message of the gospel and the Restoration and she asked lots of questions. She was one of those "student-of-the-universe" kind of people, but she was really kind. We were making small talk and she started talking about how she loved going to music festivals and raves. Then she invited us to go to one. We told her that we would love to go, but that we couldn't right now. After that, she told us that we needed to watch some movie on Netflix. We told her that we didn't have Netflix right now and she told us that she would give us her account information. She invited us into her house while she wrote it down, but as we entered, she said, "Don't mind the smell, I was just smoking weed. Next time you come, I will clean up first". She gave us her Netflix (the paper with her information is currently residing in my journal). In the closing prayer that she offered, she called us her "new friends". I hope that she really wants us to meet with her!

Last night, we went to visit one of our investigators who lives in a trailer park in Littlerock (actually that same trailer park where we were visiting when someone threw Barbecue sauce at our car). He lives in the very last trailer, so when we go in we always talk to everyone on our way to see him. Last night, we met this old man who was sitting outside his trailer. He was very hard of hearing, but he kept trying to trip us up by asking questions and not understanding our responses. For example, he asked us "Who is Jesus?" and we replied, "The Son of God". Then he said, really loud, "Huh?!". We had to repeat our response about 7 times before he finally understood us. Then he asked us how many scriptures were in the Old Testament. We were kind of confused. Then he said, "There are [how ever many books are in the Old Testament] books in the Old Testament. Go back to school, baby." We gave him a confused look and finished sharing our message. As we were walking away, the man started making this witch cackle. I always know that when we start walking into that trailer park, we are going to come out with an interesting story.

On Tuesday night, all of the appointments that we had set up cancelled. There is nothing stranger than walking around the streets at night looking for people to teach. That night, we found this man walking the biggest German Shepard I have ever seen in my life. When we stopped him to share the message of the Restoration, we asked him if he believed in God. He said, "I believe in aliens. So I guess that I believe that God is the alien that put us here." We asked him if he prayed, and he said, "I pray that they stop abducting me." When we started talking about Joseph Smith, he said, "Oh, I know about him. He is the one who was given the Book of Mormon by an alien." This entire time, he was straight faced and didn't even smile. I love meeting people!

This week has been a good one. I feel like the work is really moving forward. When we work with the members, I have noticed a special spirit enter into the work. We work with their friends and family, so it makes sense that the only way that we can really be successful is through helping them. I love the members in our area. They are so kind and they always willing to help. I am so happy to be serving a mission and to be in this area. I know that I am supposed to be here at this time. The Lord directs his work!

Thank you so much for all that you do and for all of the time you spend thinking about me and the prayers that you send my way. I am so happy for you guys and I hope that everything goes well for you!

Hermana Blau

Week Three: Halfway Through ... the MTC!

My district (and Hermano Gomez) at the temple.

Area: Mexico MTC
Companion: Hermana Katie Neeleman
Hermana Neeleman's Blog Post: Week Three

This week has felt super strange. It feels like it has been forever since I have written home (probably because our p-day was switched from Tuesday to Thursday. More on that later). Anyway, life is good here at the CCM. I'm starting to feel like I am getting the hang of things here. We'll have to see how things turn out when I get to the mission field.

On Wednesday, we watched a big world-wide missionary devotional. Lots of apostles and other general authorities spoke, and I feel like I really learned more about what I should be doing to better teach the people that I have been called to serve. Right before the meeting started, they were going up and down the aisles asking if anyone knew how to play the piano and Hermana Neeleman volunteered me. I got her back by volunteering her to lead the music. Anyhow, they asked us to go up and lead all the missionaries in two songs. We both thought that one would be the opening song and the next would be the closing song, so after we finished the first song we went back to our seats. It turned out that there were two opening songs, so everyone was looking around to tell us to come back up. That was an awkward walk back up the aisle.

After the meeting, our branch president, Presidente Machado, pulled me and Hermana Neeleman aside. He asked us if we wanted to be the new Sister Training Leaders. Now, we have been trying to get to know the other Hermanas in our zone. Hopefully, we will be able to help them make it through the MTC.

I know that I have been talking a lot about how nice the weather is here. There is one downside to this, and I will tell you in the form of a story. Sometimes, during the afternoon, we will go outside to do our group Book of Mormon study. This week, when we were outside, I noticed something on the side of my scriptures. I thought that it was the gooey grass that you get when you mow the lawn, so I wiped it off with my hand and wiped my hand on the grass. It took the gold paint off the sides of my Spanish scriptures. I didn't think about it anymore. . . until I got back in the room. Hermana Leslie looked at me and said, "I am sorry that a bird pooped on your scriptures." I was so grossed out, I thought that I would throw up. Even thinking back on the moment, I start to feel a little sick. I washed my hands so many times that day!

I think that I had the saddest experience of my life this week -- p day was moved back. One of the Elders in my district is staying in Mexico, so he had to go to the consulate today so that he could remain here legally. However, that meant that we all had to have our p day on Thursday instead of on Tuesday. We learned this on Monday. That morning, Hermana Neeleman and I had just been talking about how much we were looking forward to p day and how it would make the entire week go by faster. When we heard the news, we were heartbroken. I felt like it was Christmas Eve and someone came and told me that Christmas had been moved to February. In the end, it turned out fine. 

My gross knuckles. I don't know if you can see it very well in the picture,
but my knuckles have been drying out and cracking like crazy.
Maybe it is payback for all the times that I have talked
about how nice the weather is down here.

I think that I have realized that my experience on my mission has just been one awkward experience after another. For example, we are teaching two "investigators" right now, Mario and Rodrigo (really Hermano Hernandez and Hermano Gomez). We teach one each day, and normally the lessons go fairly well. Both of them have agreed to be baptized! Anyway, the other day, we were teaching Rodrigo. Right before we went in to go to the lesson, Hermana Neeleman asked me to confirm the name of who we were teaching. I laughed at her a little, so I guess what happened next was karma. During the lesson, I said the opening prayer. However, instead of praying for Rodrigo, I started praying for Mario. After the prayer was over, Hermano Gomez looked at me and asked, "Who is Mario?" That would have been embarrassing enough, but later in the lesson, I was trying to be serious and get a point across, so I looked "Rodrigo" right in the eyes and called him Mario again! Hermana Neeleman and Hermano Gomez made fun of me all day long for that.

Later that same day, we were sitting next to some Latina sisters during the devotional. I made some polite conversation with them before the meeting started. During the meeting, I glanced over and saw that the Hermana who was sitting next to me had really nice handwriting. Then she saw me looking at her notebook. I wanted to assure her that I was not trying to peep at what she had written, so I tried to tell her that she had beautiful handwriting. However, I think that what I ended up communicating was that I thought that what she had written was beautiful. She gave me a weird look, and we didn't say anything else after that.

I have been feeling pretty good about my life lately. Yesterday, I realized just how far I have come in Spanish. We were helping the incoming missionaries and one of them asked me how learning the language was coming. I told her that I came in with almost no Spanish and that now I am able to go into my lessons without having to write down a script of things to say. I just take in my Spanish scriptures and a outline in English. I know that my Spanish is not even close to perfect, but I do feel like I have been progressing. I am so happy to be here and I am even more excited to be able to go out soon and to serve the people in California. I am so grateful for the influence that the Gospel has had in my life and I hope that I will be able to spread that influence with others.

I love you all and I hope that you are all doing well.

Hermana Blau