Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Let´s get down to business

Hola todos!! Como estan??



This is our cute investigator, and her 18 year old son in the back, and her other son who is like 1 years old. Next to me is a member (he´s from Honduras, Dad), who always helps the missionaries, like literally all day every day. He´s the best. He´s literally a missionary, just without the chapa. She made us these super strange empanada type things called sitrenas or something. She´s from Bolivia. 

Transfers is tomorrow and me and Hermana Lamoreaux are staying together!! WHOO! I´m so happy! We were SO sure that I was leaving since my training is over, but President really didn´t switch around like any of the Hermanas this transfer! I´m so glad I´m staying! I love Valencia!! Our ward is amazing, during Testimony meeting there´s NEVER a lull in the testimonies. We actually sang a quartet of Mas Cerca Dios de Ti (Nearer My God To Thee) with the Elders after I bore my testimony, the bishop said we could because Elder Edwards is leaving. It was cool. 



The other Hermanas that live with us in our piso have had two baptisms so far. Me and Hermana Lamoreaux have been working so hard and we haven´t had a baptism yet. It´s super frustrating. But we have been really good at just staying focused and doing the work. Hermana Lamoreaux is an incredible missionary, I´m so lucky to have her as my companion. 



​Doner kebab. Pakistanis here own these shops where they sell this like meat burrito. It´s everywhere, there´s like one on every corner. The meat is on like this rotating thing all day long and he scrapes it off with an electric knife and then puts it on your sandwich. Kbab is super popular, it´s like a rite of passage that you have to try one as a missionary. So I did. I´m not a fan. My companion and Patrick made me eat one though. It wasn´t good. The meat is super low quality, that´s why they cook it on a pendulum thing all day cause it´s like that cheap and it disguises the flavor or whatever- i don´t know but there´s a reason these don´t exist in the USA. Haha.



I am literally Mulan. Listen. That song ¨Let´s get down to business¨ (is that what it´s called?) My two transfers in the field I was like Mulan in the beginning of that song. When she´s like running up the mountain with the water pail and she´s too tired so the tough guy has to take it for her. Or when she´s like trying to climb the pole with the metal things and she keeps falling. Yes, that´s been me that last 12 weeks. But the last week has been super incredible, like I think I´m finally adjusted to missionary life. Like I don´t think you can ever be completely adjusted but like, it´s normal now and it´s comfortable. And at night when we´re running to the metro so we can get home by 10 and I´m fiddling with my purse to get my wallet out while we´re running, like I´m able to keep up with my companion, and I know which metro we´re about to get on and I don´t feel lost. And like during lessons (especially the English ones) I feel like I don´t struggle as much and me and my companion take turns talking, instead of her just taking over. Like I´m not the silent companion. 

We had a really cool experience this week, I wrote about it in my letter to President:

Dear President, 

We had such an amazing week! I am learning so much on my mission. For a while I felt like I was in a slump spiritually. So this week I really focused on more meaningful prayer and I have seen the fruits of it! Wow, I love it so much. I actually have been praying to know when I am sinning, so that I can repent of it. Like sometimes I covet other missionaries´ success or I lose faith because I´m struggling with the language and then I lose the Spirit. But I forget to work on these things because they´ve become so natural. So just asking God to help me recognize when I´m doing things that will lead the Spirit away has helped me alot and I feel so much more love and I have a better vision of my purpose here for our friends who we are trying to teach the gospel. The Lord has definitely a lot of love for his people here in our area of Valencia. I can see that and I know it´s true. Something cool that I absolutely love about the mission so far, for me personally, is that so many of our friends remind me of people that I love back home or even people that I used to know. Like almost every single one of our investigators, has similar traits and qualities (physical and spiritual) that remind me of a friend I have back home and it makes me love that person that much more! I think it´s Heavenly Father´s gift to me to help me remember that He loves all His children. I love it!

I´m sure I´ll be the third person to tell you about this miracle we had, so I´ll keep it short. But we were on the metro, in a trio with Hna Reid, and we sat in front of a lady. I noticed her when we first sat down and I smiled at her and said hi. But she looked super sad, like usually people don´t look exactly thrilled when they´re sitting on the metro, but she looked kind of distraught. And I thought we should talk to her. But we were looking at our agendas and we were talking about the lesson we were on our way to teach, and I didn´t talk to her. Luckily Hna Reid is in tune with the Spirit and follows promptings, and she started talking to her. The lady was like ¨sois angéles¨ and Hna Reid was like, actually we´re missionaries from the Church Of Jesus Christ. Then the lady freaked out, like literally stamped her foot on the ground and put her face in her hands for a few seconds and was like shaking a little bit, and then Hna Reid like stood up to be closer to her, and the lady looked up at us and she was crying!! She explained to us that we were dressed in white and we descended into the metro like angels and that we were white and we were united with a heavenly sword. She kept saying you guys are angels! She was like ¨you guys are fighting God´s war¨. We missed our metro stop because we were talking to her and she gave us her number. That was just yesterday and we haven´t any contact with her since. It was super interesting, Hna Lamoreaux was like, I´ve never had an experience like that before on the mission! 

This week for the first time, I´ll tell you, I love being a missionary!!

Todo bien,
Hermana Birch



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