WOW
I have been a missionary for FOUR months now. How insane. (Just so y'all
know my mind is all over the place, I cannot guarantee an organized
email this week. I apologize in advance)
Let us go in chronological order, yeah?
December 24th: we
had our weekly district meeting and I received two packages from the
ever radical Camilla Starks and Shyla Ahlstrom. Cute stuff, they know me
so well, it is beautiful :) thank you for your love and cuteness, and
for sending them just in time for Christmas. The timing seriously could
not have been better!
We had Christmas dinner at a member's house, they were kind enough
to have dinner early enough for us to come- usually, dinner here is at
10:00 or
11:00 at night, and we were told numerous times that we were to be in the pension AT
10:00, no rule breaking just because its Christmas. So it really was sweet of them to have it at
8:00 so we could be in a nice home for Christmas eve.
Now picture this...really, we are so cute...Hermana Velazquez and I, arms linked, walking down the street, lights on the house,
9:45
at night, music playing from various houses, grinning ear to ear,
singing Christmas songs- she in Spanish, I in English. Yeah, simultaneously, it was obviously beautiful. I was afraid that I wouldn't
FEEL Christmas, but in that moment, I was feeling the part of Christmas
that comes with being completely giddy on Christmas eve, that childlike
excitement that hasn't seemed to wear off yet for me.
The four of us in our pension had a little Christmas eve party
with cookies and EFY music, talking and laughing and plugging in the
lights for the tree to have the real mood. At about
11:15,
we heard horns honking, sirens sounding, and people cheering. So we run
out the door and are standing on the gate to our house to see into the
street, and there's Santa Clause, sitting in the back of a truck bed
decorated with balloons with a megaphone announcing that it is almost
Christmas, merry Christmas, ho ho ho! And here WE are, standing on our
gate to get a better look, cheering along with the other children lining
the street, calling out assurances that we were good...we are such
children.
December 25th: I got lots of good stuff for Christmas, and from
every person who gave me gifts, I got sticky notes. They all know my
nerdy fetish! Its beautiful!
At about
9:30,
a member from the ward of the other Hermanas came with presents of
breakfast for all of us, Chilean Christmas bread and Ginger ale and
stockings filled with sweets, and an article by Jeffery R. Holland about
being away from home for Christmas. So we all sat around our table in
our folding chairs, ate breakfast, and read the Christmas story in Luke
together, and sang Christmas hymns. Read the article together. More
hymns. We made Christmas! In THAT moment, I was feeling CHRISTmas. Y
este es la parte mas importante a todo.
Skyped with my parents in the afternoon. Obviously the best part of the day.
December
28th: I honestly don't know if it is just the four of us crazy Hermanas
or a general missionary thing, but we celebrate when you complete
another month in the missionary. Like, Feliz Cumpleaños. Happy Birthday.
Happy four months to me! They made me breakfast in bed, scrambled eggs
like I have every morning, but they insisted on serving it to me. Served
with orange mate with fresh lemon. Love these girls. Then, when Hermana
Rivera and Hermana Rodriguez returned home in the evening, they had
lemon soda and peaches for me, because they know I love lemon things and
I am always buying peaches from vendors on the street, I'm a touch
addicted to them. They know me so well.
ALSO in this night (ugh my grammar is so bad), we found out
if we have changes or not. Hermana Velazquez and I were so nervous- we
want so badly to keep working together, we are an awesome team, and we
have so many miracles every day. She has gotten a new companion every
change for her whole mission, but we were praying praying praying to
have just one more change together.
So picture this.
The four of us, sitting at our
little folding table, reading the Ensign and our Scriptures and eating
peaches and drinking lemon soda, with our cell phones in the middle of
the table, completely silent, all waiting, tense, for the phone call
from our district leader to tell us if we are staying or leaving. How
does the saying go? You could have cute the tension with a butter knife?
(Where is that phrase from, anyway?)
Finally, at about 11:15,
we received the call- the other Hermanas had already found out, Hermana
Rodriquez had changes, and we just wanted to know. Had the phone on
speaker, the four of us crowded close to hear the news, SHAKING,
(dramatic enough?) And our district leader knew it, what a child, asking
how our day was, to tell him about our investigators and less actives
we visit, I could have died. DIED.
Someone should have been recording it, my reaction to finding
out that we have one more change together was priceless and wild. We
were freaking out.
But really, can you blame us? We are deliriously
happy working together, we have so much success and new investigators
every week and it is just amazing the kind of missionary you can be when
you and your companion are equally happy and excited to be a part of
this work. We were almost convinced that we would have changes, but I
know that God knows that we have more work to do in this area. And I am
so excited to continue!
December 29th: Visited Benjamin, one of our investigators who has a baptismal date from the
18th of January.
He gave us a Christmas card thanking us for our patience and
willingness to help him - super sweet. At the bottom of the card, he
wrote that it is good for two bottles of peach juice. He is 18, so
innocent and adorable, and he wrote us a CHRISTMAS CARD. Hermana
Velazquez and I were so giddy with it.
December 30th: We are all getting ready for the Transfer meeting,
and Hermana Velazquez asked me for advice on clothes. Then Rivera. Then
Rodriguez. Then Rodriguez said "Harkins sabe sobre la ropa." "Harkins
knows about the clothes."
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