To
start things off I want to thank all of those who sent me a letter this last
week! Your words of encouragement have made me feel so much better and I love
to hear that I’m not the only one struggling with my mission language! Thank
you all again. I am so very blessed to have the people in my life that I do!
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| This is me on the roof of the Thomas S. Monson Building (the biggest building here) and this is the amazing view I get to see everyday! We were doing service so that's why I have a t-shirt on :) |
This
week has been crazy! One of the craziest things that happened is I had to give
a talk in sacrament this last Sunday... ALL in Spanish. So the way they do it
here is they have everyone in our zone (like 42 people) prepare a talk about a
Christ-like attribute and then before sacrament starts they announce the “lucky”
few who get to speak that Sunday and no joke everyone holds their
breath. Then when they don’t call your name it’s the greatest feeling… but ya
they called my name this week and lucky me I felt really confident in my little
3 min talk. I read it mostly but was able to share a simple testimony at the
end. I was so nervous but once I got up there I had no problems with pronunciation
and my nerves were calm. (: THEN I sang
¨Loor al Profeta¨ which is “Praise to the Man” in Spanish with three other
girls for a musical number. There is one girl in our zone who is a piano
performing arts major at BYU so she had some fancy piano music to go with it,
it was so pretty!
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| This was the last night with all of our sweet Latino sisters |
I
have personally had a lot of success with our investigators this last week! My
comp did too but she is so good at the language already! I am at the point now
where I can share basic doctrine and very roughly share a testimony or my
feelings on a problem they are having. I feel that where I lack in the language
I try my best to make it up in doctrine and scriptures to share. My teacher
Hermano Tapia is one of our easier investigators and after a lesson the other
day he told me that I was very good at applying the doctrine to his current
problems.... and that the language will come haha. My other teacher Hermano De
Santiago was telling me the other day how far I have really come in my Spanish
since the beginning. It always means so much to me to hear things like that because
from my perspective it is still pretty bad.
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| Crazy Hermanas! |
I’m
not sure if I said this but we got a new district in our zone this week and
they are all going to Chile. I can’t remember what part but our zone is now one
of the biggest! So for gym the last few days we have been playing capture the
flag. There is a big field in front of my casa that has a playground and it
makes for the perfect obstacle course. We have some pretty intense games and we
usually play 2 youngest districts against the 2 oldest. That has made things so
much more fun. It feels so good to be outside and run around!
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| All the Hermanas' name tags |
My
poor comp is still way sick so we have been taking it easy or resting during
gym so she can try to get better. We have seen the doctor 4 times this week for
so many different things. My eye has been bugging me more this week and pink
eye has been going around my district so once my comp had it I knew I was bound
to get it! Which did happen the very next day and before the pink eye the
redness and the swollen came back so I had both those things on top of each
other. We went to the doctor and he gave me and my comp eye drops that helped
her and not me. There is an American doctor and a Mexican doctor. The Mexican one doesn’t speak any English so
sadly my companion and I would always wait around for the American doctor.
Since there are more Americans here, he is ALWAYS so busy! But today he was out
and my comp really needed more medicine. She has asthma and developed a really
bad cough so we went to the Mexican doctor and although we had to use very
simple Spanish he was able to help her with her problem a little better than
the other doctor. He actually gave her a shot to help with her breathing. So
then back to my eye drama, I was going to see the eye doctor but the nurse took
me back to the Mexican doctor (I really wish I knew his name so I didn’t have
to call him that but anyway) he looked at my eyes and I showed him what the
other doc had given me and told me not to use those 2 other drops I had because
they are for infection and I have red and swollen eyes. He got a different eye
drop and no joke within 1 min my eye redness and irritation went away. They
feel so much better now! I really do think I needed to learn this lesson this
way. That although there may be a language barrier that does not mean you
cannot be helped! I really do believe this doctor was the answer to mine and my
companion’s prayers!
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| I loved seeing Sister Woods at the CCM! She left for Florida on Tuesday |
We had
a really good devotional for Thanksgiving today by Dallin H. Oaks that was
broadcasted from Provo. Then here at the CCM they put table clothes on all the
tables and they had turkey, potatoes, corn and apple pie for us at lunch! It
was the cutest little Thanksgiving feast! I want you all to know how incredibly
thankful I am for all of you. I am thankful for this gospel, prayers, family,
my wonderful comp, my amazingly fun zone, the beautiful (but hard) language of Spanish.
I’m thankful god answers our prayers in his way and not ours. I’m thankful for
the gifts of tongues and God’s never ending love. I hope you all ate yourself
sick with food and remembered all the things in your life to be thankful for!
Next
week is my last week here and that is crazy! I have met a few other Latino
girls going to Guadalajara and that makes me so much more excited! I love you
all and I hope you have an amazing week!
-- con amor
Hermana Acor
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| This is Sister Packard and I at the Health Center at the CCM. I met Sister Packard and her husband in SLC at the Mexican Consulate the week before I fly out. They are serving the mental health needs of all the missionaries at theCCM. |
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| My District |
