First off, I just want to say sorry for the lame title, but I´m running out of creativity.
Speaking of running, I´m not kidding when I said I run in a egg in my pocket because for the last two sundays in a row, Hermana Nomellini and I have been running to the bus terminal late at night and I´ve always had a boiled egg in my pocket.
One time the police picked us up and gave us a ride to the terminal and my egg cracked in my pocket and I made their whole car smell like egg lol.
Why am I even talking about this?
No sé.
Pero, SPRING IS HERE!!! I´m so happy I could cry. It´s been soooo pretty and warm lately. Flowers and Blossoms are blooming everywhere and it hasn´t been rainy and cold at all.
But I can already tell that summer is going to suck because it can even get really hot right now, and it´s only August. Hermana Nomellini told me that it got so hot and humid in the summer that sometimes she just felt like crying. Sooo I´m stoked.
It´s not about what you say
So the one thing that has been frustrating me the most in the mission has been myself. I´ve always been impatient with myself but learning a language has taken everything to an entire new level.
I just want to tallllk.
I can understand way more than I can speak and I just feel like I´m struggling with talking and all the members think I should be speaking perfect Spanish because I have been here for a month and a half...
Hermana Nomellini totally gets me, and she told me that one cheesy quote about it´s not about what you say but how you make people feel.
So on Saturday we went to the Elder´s area for divisions and refuerzos and I was with Hermana Menacho (our newest Hermana in the zone fresh from the MTC in Buenos Aires, I´m not the baby anymore!) and one of the members who was a return missionary. We had a list of inactives to go visit and we only made it to one family.
It was this cute little Mom and her 15 year old daughter and they invited us in to sit and she and the member talked for like 3 hours (I´m not kidding when I say Argentine´s can talk sooooooo much) and the whole time I was trying to think of something to share from the scriptures because Hermana Menacho is still so new and I had to take the lead for once.
I remember I shared D&C 58:2-4 with a member the day before and she loved it and so I thought I would share it again.
So we said a little prayer and I asked the mom to read the scripture to us. She read every word so carefully and then at last line she and her daughter just started bawling their eyes out. I was so shocked I was not expecting the scripture to touch them that much.
For the next 30 minutes she and the member just talked something that had happened last september but I couldn´t understand what because 1. spanish and 2. she was just sobbing
But I understood that they needed comfort because I understood the word they kept saying "dolor" which means pain. I thought someone in their family died but I wasn´t sure. But I remembered what Hermana Nomellini told me.
But when the daughter broke down into tears I could just feel that for some reason she was hurt the most and I just felt like I needed to give her a hug.
So in my very broken spanish I asked her, "Puedo darle un embrazado?" And she nodded and I hugged and she cried into my shoulder for good couple minutes. I told her that God loved her.
After we hugged the daughter left the house, just needed to be alone I think. The mom talked to us for a bit and Hermana Menacho was awesome and beared her sweet testimony about the Savior and that through prayer and through Him they can find peace.
When it was time to go the Mom thanked me for the scripture and I made sure to give her a big hug too.
Hermano Menacho explained to me after that the daughter had been sexually abused by her brother last september.
What´s really cool to me is that in my mind, I thought the mom´s husband had died but I was wayyy off in what actually happened. Like I had no idea what was going on, but now I know that I was being led by the Spirit to share the scripture and hug the daughter. This experience was an answer to my prayer, because sometimes I just don´t feel like a missionary yet and if I was actually following the Spirit, or if I even knew how the Spirit talks to me.
This was probably the most spiritual experience of my mission so far. It´s so true when they say you don´t even have to worry about knowing what the people need, because the Spirit does.
"No fui yo, fue el Espiritu!"
Ella es Divina
So I have a funny story to go along with the same scripture I shared with the member the day before.
Hermana Nilda is the cutest 85 year old lady and she is so sweet and gives candy to us and everything. But she has a hearing aid and has a hard time hearing anything.
So when I shared the scripture and started bearing my testimony about it in my broken Spanish, I just watched her smile and nod her head but I just knew the look on her face because I have that same look on my face when I don´t understand what they´re saying.
"Me entendió?" I asked her, did you understand me.
But she just kep odding her head and said "Ella es Divina" (She is divine)
Hermana Nomellini and I just busted up laughing. Gahhh the struggle of the language barrier and deaf people and having a soft voice!
Quotes of the Week
I´ve noticed with old people, they have their own catch-phrases:
"Sí, es cierto!"-Hermana Nilda.
"Que va hacer?" - Roberto
"Mmmhmm. Como no?" - Cute grandma in the ward I can´t remember her name
"Hasta allí!" Grandma Toledo
I wish you could hear their cute voices when they say it.
*Me brushing my teeth before bed and smelling something gross and then after smelling myself realized that the gross smell was me and gagging*
*Hermana Nomellini on the phone with the zone leader cracks up watching me*
Elder Marin: ¿Qúe paso?" what happened?
Hermana Nomellini: "Nada, solo mi compañera es... Divina." Nothing, just my companion is... Divine.
So that´s pretty much it for this week. I don´t really write a lot about happened during the week because time just kills me. I´m not going to lie, the work has been a struggle lately. We really only down to 1 investigator, and he´s Cirilo. Please keep praying for him so he can be baptized soon, and also so that we can find more people who are prepared to hear the message of the Restored gospel.
Les quiero mucho!
This week I´m going to be the Senior companion with Hermana Menacho on divisions in her area in Punta Mogates. Wish me luck!
day with them, full of laughter and love."