Week #3 Better Every Day and Happy 4th of July
Hola Todos! ALSO HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!
So many exciting things this week! I wrote out my email on Sunday so hopefully its a little less scatterbrained than last weeks...we will see.
The subject is better every day because its true! My experience here is getting better and better every day! Saturday was so beautiful. we spent a lot of the morning outside so that was super cool. We get to study outside more often now which offers a much needed break. I am very grateful for my night teacher. He's been a huge help this week for me. I learn so much during the day that i consistently get a headache at around 4 or 5 pm. I usually drink water and then it goes away. I have been sleeping better because I bought ear plugs so thats been pretty helpful. This week I also got a minister certificate. I was unaware we need one for Guatemala so that was kind of a cool surprise.
Quick experience: P day last week my wonderful companion Hermana Longson wanted to play sports in the gym but I did not want to. (I wanted to study Spanish in my room in my pajamas.) However she wanted me to come with her to the gym because she didn't feel good about being separated. So i changed into my Sunday dress and brought my Spanish Book of Mormon and my English Book of Mormon to read while I sat in the loud hot gross gym while Hermana Longson played and worked out. I didn't study a whole ton because it was super loud. Anyways, a teacher I don't really like came up and started speaking Spanish to me wanting to help me study. I told her it would be most helpful if she could just talk to me in Spanish so I could practice using words I already know. So we began to have a slow labored full of effort conversation on my part and it lasted around two hours. When the gym began to close she began to speak to me in perfect English. #facepalm (usually its safe to assume people don't understand any English, so of course that's what I did.) She said lots of things to me, but the biggest message that I had already heard maybe like 4 or 5 times during the week was be confident with your Spanish. I was like ok...I have been trying. But I do need to be more confident. I was like so many people told me my Spanish was good this week but I'm pretty sure they only say that because they have to. Anyway, we ended our conversation and she said "I don't just say your Spanish is good because I am a teacher. (Which is what i had been feeling was happening all week.) I say it because I mean it. Your Spanish is good. I don't tell people they have good Spanish often." Her saying that was a direct answer to my prayers and was a huge blessing because I had been so discouraged earlier in the week.
That experience lead me to ponder why I was/am scared to use the Spanish I know and I decided it was kinda like having the gospel in my life. I know it and I am extremely confident on the inside that I know it but outside the world is a daunting place. It's scary and hard but I want other people to be happy like I am. D&C 4. Being a representative of Christ (who was perfect) is a heavy weight sometimes but I know that the Lord qualifies those whom he calls.
Another cool experience was with an Elder in my district. Elder Jensen. I was bearing testimony to my district, like I do often and and I had just finished testifying of Joseph Smith and the restoration and he raised his hand and asked, "why is that so important to you" I answered in front of everyone a shallow short answer but one that came from my heart. Anyway, during the movie on Sunday I decided to write him a note. I was not satisfied with the answer I gave him and to be completely truthful it did not help him enough and I knew it. I intended to write a note and bear a deeper more powerful testimony to him but instead I ended up telling him how I gained my testimony and the very core of my testimony of Joseph Smith and the restoration. The next day my teacher put us together to do an exercise together and before we even started the exercise he said to me "thank you for the note. It really helped a ton" I told him how i had kinda struggled with the finished product because it wasn't what I intended to tell him. He said it helped so much that he shared it with another Elder! I was so amazed. It was really cool to see the spirit be able to work through me.
I also fasted for 24 hours and did not struggle with it really at all. I never thought I would be able to do it. But I did! When we try to do what's right and to do our best with what we have the Lord makes up the rest...like a lot of things in life.
One of the Elders called me honey earlier in the week. On accident but it was still kinda funny.
I also got four huge bug bites. I went to the nurse and she said they were probably flea bites.
Last night lots and lots of tears were shed because the Latinas that came to the MTC with us left because they are only here for three weeks. We had grown very close. I got a note from two of them. Anyway, we went room to room singing "God be with you til we meet again" and it was amazing. The spirit was there and I really realized...I think maybe even for the first time...that we are called by a prophet and that this work is a good work. Its necessary and helps so many people.
We are going to the zoo later today. That should be fun. Then Wendy's which is like gourmet food here. Then a a farmers market like thing.
I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I have felt it and that is the most important thing to me. I don't know a lot of things and I don't have all the answers but i do know that. If Joseph is a prophet (which I know he is) then the church is true and really was restored along with the Book of Mormon. I am here on a mission because, like Joseph, I received revelation that this is what I needed to do. Joseph went to God and asked a question as a 14 yr old boy. I asked my Father in Heaven--the same God Joseph Smith asked--whether or not i should go on a mission. I got the answer: yes. And now I am here and I love it.
Thanks for all the emails. An hour is so short but I do my best to be guided in how to use my time on the computer wisely.
Love
Hermana Larimer
