April 1, 2013

My area is East Las Vegas and we're in the Ensign Spanish ward.  I am approved for driving, but I'm not the designated driver in our companionship.  I did get the oranges while I was at the MTC.  They were good!  I gave a lot of them to Elder Jensen from my district and Elder Sierra, who was in our zone at the MTC.  Elder Jensen's from California and Sierra is from Miami, so they really appreciated good fruit!  Haha!  Some of the Hermanas in my district didn't know oranges could taste so good! 

We have bikes, but haven't taken them out yet.  We plan on taking them out more often, though, because it's a better way to talk to people.  Right now we're just trying to get referrals by visiting members and doing street contacting along the way, so being on our bikes will help us meet more people.  I haven't taught the first lesson yet.  We have scheduled like three so far, but the one decided to hide from us, the other got moved back, and the third one's wife answered the door and laughingly told us to get lost.     

I'm not going to lie to you, I'm having a tough time.  It's been hard for me to just open my mouth and I'm terrified that the language will not come to me.  We are in a new area together and it's difficult working with Latinos because they're not ALWAYS the most reliable people.  We actually had a really awesome talk given by the bishop in our ward at a Spanish conference just a few days ago.  He talked about the differences between the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh.  He read from the scriptures about the characteristics of Lamanites.  Mostly by nature, they feel the truth first in their hearts, and then it makes since in their minds and once they feel that truth, they are strong in it.  Which is fantastic!  Also, by nature, the tribe of Ephraim have more characteristics of a leader, and those from Manasseh are workers, but need more direction.  They both go hand in hard, one can not function without the other, but each have their own strengths and weaknesses.  Manasseh is attracted to leadership, and so as missionaries we need to understand this relationship and stand up to be that leader.  It was a super interesting talk, and made so much sense!  The "sign up to feed the missionaries" calendar doesn't work well in most Spanish wards.  They're more willing to follow through if we walk up to them personally and give them a time and date.  Once they're given a task personally, though, they will definitely do it and work hard to make it happen.  We learned a lot about their culture and their roots as Lamanites.  It was really interesting to see how it tied back into doctrine.  In the Book of Mormon it talks so much about the traditions of the Lamanites.  Well, Latin culture has SO MANY traditions, some that even keep them from getting baptized or obeying certain commandments.  The bishop emphasized on the Macho Man complex that is prominent in their culture.  Haha!  Then he told all of the elders to help out and be nice to their wives when they start their families!  

Even though I've been having a hard time, I'm recognizing many blessings.  It seems that everyone we visit was either in need or knew someone who needed our help specifically.  The other day we went to visit Hermana Lopez and her family.  I didn't understand everything she was saying, but she was talking about how hard the world was and how Satan has his hand in so many things.  I was only catching bits and pieces, but I felt this strong prompting to ask her what her favorite scripture was and then share mine.  I tried to quiet the prompting at first, just out of my own fears, but I knew it was the Holy Ghost, so I followed.  I shared Helaman 5:12 and bore my testimony, which turned out to be just what she needed to hear.  It was such a wonderful feeling and it was so obvious that it came from the Holy Ghost, because otherwise, how would I know how well that scripture would apply to her concerns when I didn't know what the whole conversation was about?  

I know that the Holy Ghost is with me and wants to help me.  I have to constantly remind myself of this, but I'm so grateful.  I'm just striving now to improve.  I realized just this morning that I've been so intimidated by the title of a missionary and so I've been feeling like I can't teach the lessons and I can't be a leader because I'm not cut out for it and don't have the knowledge.  I'm not understanding, though, that I just have to be myself, have a testimony, and share that testimony in simple, powerful ways.  I have a bad habit of over thinking things and being too harsh on myself.  I need to have faith and trust that my Heavenly Father only asks that I be myself and bear testimony of Him, and he will help me through it.  

I really need dad to tell me how he did it!  And how he felt and all that stuff!  

Oh, my Easter was good.  The family we're staying with, the Hopkinsons, gave us chocolate bunnies!  We brought them to church with us, and the melted in the car, but they were still good!  How was your Easter? 

Just so you know, everyone thinks I'm related to Joseph Smith.  Haha, it's suddenly such a rare name.        

Love you!  

And then...

Oh, I forgot to mention something pretty funny.  So, some of the English speaking elders called us and gave us the number of a lady in their ward who had a lot of Spanish speaking referrals for us.  I called her as we were pulling up to the house of a member we were going to visit.  This lady, Sister Ander, talked to me on the phone for about 45 minutes.  She would just talk and go off on the most random things.  She is a ward missionary and takes her calling very seriously.  She went through the play by play of how she wanted us to get to know the referrals.  She calls herself an "espionage missionary" and it's quite a fitting name.  She never just said, "oh, you can knock on her door and get to know her."  It was more like, "this is what I was thinking we could do... you come over and we'll talk a little bit about each one and then, you can go park around the corner or something, I'll invite her to dinner, she'll come over, and then you come knock on my door and act like you're just coming over for an unexpected visit, and then I'll invite you to join us for dinner and you can start talking to her and get to know her, but don't mention the church yet!" 

She went on and on with in depth plans like that and even told us of some times when her excuses got people mad at her.  Like she was in the hospital or something and one of her friends she's trying to fellowship was upset because she missed a party or something and instead or just explaining she was at the hospital, she made up some totally out there excuse instead.  She also talked about how two elders in their ward bumped heads with her and her husband and the bishop interfered and told the elders to let the Anders deal with it.  Well, apparently Sister Ander never intended to step on their shoes and she explained to me through the phone that the bishop had "butt hurt the missionaries."  She used a lot of funny terms like "knocked out" when she made someone mad and even told us how someone called her an M F-er after telling them to shut up.   

Anyway, we went to Sister Ander's house that night because we didn't have dinner planned.  Sister Franco at the time had bad allergies, which we went to the doctor for, but he said it was nothing serious.  So as we talked to Sister Ander, she goes off on more long stories, and pretty much told us she wants to work with us all day everyday and many times told us, "this is what I want you to do..." which freaked us out a little bit.  I think I can she why she doesn't have a good relationship with the elders in her ward!  She considers herself a full time missionary and isn't about to let anyone tell her otherwise!  Anyway, she saw that Sister Franco was pretty sick, and insisted we go to the doctors immediately and that she had an upper level respiratory infection and needed to go to the emergency room right away.  She also told me to rub Bengay on her back and chest.  Anyway, when we're about to leave her house, she forces Sister Franco to sit down on her stairs and brings out her son's inhaler.  Sister Franco freaks out and Sister Ander insists that she inhales two times.  Sister Franco fought the entire time, but Sister Ander INSISTED!  She said that her son had died and she brought him back to life again with that same inhaler.  It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen!  After we finally left, sister Ander called us multiple times and continues to call us often.  She asked the English elders for our address.  She means well, but she's crazy!  She fed us an ice cold roast and apple sauce.