Folks, we were misinformed. I don’t
know where the fault lies, but as we are in the forgiving business…we forgive.
Hermana W’s p-day is WEDNESDAY, not Tuesday. If you are like me…you spent many
hours waiting for her email yesterday. Every reminder that pinged on my
computer sent my heart rushing only to be dashed by another ThinkGeek catalog
or facebook notification. And then when
I was working on a project this morning…The Email unobtrusively popped up. You
know, I think if Tee could have orchestrated it, she would have opted for the
latter.
Here is what she has to share this
week:
Hi All!
So here´s how the letter thing is
going to work. I love hearing from you about your week, but I don´t have time
to read it all and respond in an hour, so we´re going to utilize this amazing
thing called Dear Elder. Then I can read about your lives and whatnot. So if
you don´t mind, please copy your emails into a Dear Elder. That way I can read
over them, rather than having to skim (sorry sorry sorry!). [Details and link
below. She also said:] I can write hand written letters later in the day, so
please mail me those!!
Things in the CCM are great. Pretty
much all of the staff speaks Spanish with a little bit of English, so I have to
practice a lot, but it´s good :) The food is amazing and the people are great
as well! My companion is Hermana Martineau from Idaho. Her Spanish is AWFUL.
But I get to help teach her and translate for her, which has helped me a little
in the whole process. She was sick for awhile and we had to deal with that. We
had some problems getting along part of the week, but we talked it out and now
we´re doing just fine!
Today we´re going to the temple,
which is like 2 blocks away from the CCM [the training center: Centro de
Capacitación Misional] The CCM is tiiiiiiny. There´s like 200 people max here.
Latinos and Nortes. Soy una norte. It´s been really fun to talk to the Latinos
in Spanish. They tell me that my Spanish is good, which I really don´t agree
with, but I´ve heard it a few times now, so I guess it must be true! ;)
The way that Sundays work is that
every meeting except sacrament is in English. But for sacrament, everyone gets
a topic and preps a talk. In Spanish. Then they call people out of the
congregation with no warning to give a talk. On the first week it´s usually
someone who the DL [District Leader] thinks is good at Spanish. This week it
was me. I was freaking out! It was like a 3 minutes long talk and most of it
was scripture or PMG [Preach My Gospel], but hey, I gave a talk.
The CCM is under construction, so
the water is off every other day it seems. The first night that we were here
(longest. day. of. my. life.) just as we were settling in bed, a pipe burst and
spilled water all over the floor. There was at least .5 of an inch on every bit
of my bedroom floor. We spent another hour cleaning it up. Ugh.
Hardest thing about the CCM and missionary
life: having a companion. She´s really lovey dovey and touchy and excited about
everything and energetic and sometimes doesn´t focus and doesn´t know any Spanish
and holy cats it´s hard. But the Lord is trying to teach me patience and
compassion, and by flipping darned, I´m gonna learn it.
The building of the CCM is gated all
around and we only get to go out to come here, the distribution center or the
temple. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, members line up stuff outside of the gate
and you can buy things through the fence. It´s kinda cool actually! I bought
scripture cases for my new Spanish scrips. They´re purple and I only paid 15 American
dollars for three cases (BoM, bible and hymn book) and they´re going to engrave
my name and mission onto leather patches and sew them on. It´s awesome how
cheap stuff is here!
Next p-day I will be taking a trip
to the mercado for a field trip! I´m really excited. I will get my camera for
that, but won´t be able to send any pictures to you until I’m out of the CCM.
(so madre, will you pick out a picture for my missionary plaque thing?) The
scripture that I want for my plaque is 1 Nephi 3:7 in Spanish por favor! I
looooove the phrase iré y haré. i want to write it on everything. It´s gonna be
my missionary motto! Haha
Y sucedió que yo, Nefi, dije a mi
padre: Iré y haré lo que el Señor ha
mandado, porque sé que él nunca da mandamientos a los hijos de los
hombres sin prepararles la vía para que cumplan
lo que les ha mandado.
Love,
Hermana Weatherford
And now business: at the request of our sweet missionary, I am retracting some information. Her email address will no longer be available on this blog. If you already have it, please remember that she probably won't be able to spend much time read your emails every week. Use it sparingly.
I have looked into the Dear Elder option. I even set up my account and put in the names and addresses of my current missionaries. Here's how it works:
2. Make an account or log in to the account you already have
3. Select Write a Missionary
4. Pick the correct mission...Guatemala Guatemala City Central
5. Type away!
The emails will be turned into physical letters which will then be put in a pouch and delievered to that mission field. From there...they get distributed to the missionaries personally. I do understand that in our fast paced/instant gratification society we want to send email and have it received lightening fast. Now we are given 3 unattractive options. A> Email normally and hope she has time to get to our email, knowing full well that we have just added to her pile of Must Do Now stuff. B> Email some random site that will deliever our message to Guatemala the day after Teigen can answer mail thus effectively leaving her one week behind in our daily lives. or C> Put the letter in the mail ourselves and hope that the poor postal system in Guatemala gets it to her sometime this month. As her mother, I'm going to use both B and C...because who doesn't love personal mail? Especially in your mother's handwriting?
Just a polite reminder...Hermana W is serving a mission in a non first world country. She is serving as her savior asked her to. And while she still loves each of us and wants to be a part of our world...she cannot do that. Please remember to keep messages encouraging and free from "worldly" temptations.
Hermana W, always lifting up others, told me this:
I´ve really felt the spirit here.
even when there are people screaming and jumping around me, i can feel it.
which i wasn´t able to feel it like that before i came here! i´ve also seen
that the Lord knows me and knows my flaws and characteristics i need to work
on.
How magnificent is it to know that she's being cared for? I know, I know, the Lord makes us promises and He's definitely not one to go back on His word.
Until next week: Let the Holy Spirit Guide
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