Out Of The Blue

So this week was one full of surprises.

Monday

A member in our ward has been waiting for his mission call and he's been going out with us to appointments. We've become really good friends with his family and monday morning we got a call that he got his call!!! Him and his family wanted us to be there with them and it being PDay we were able to go:) He's going to the Peru, Piura mission. 

Also, we dressed up :)

Tuesday .... I don't remember. I'm pretty sure we walked a lot and in our area, walked a lot of the time means hiked.

Wednesday was pretty normal...except not. In the morning we had an "emergency meeting." with the missionaries in our stake. Turns out we've got a stake ward coucil this coming sunday and they asked the missionaries to do a skit demonstrating a bad ward council. I get to play the role of...... the primary presdent (go figure, right)

Thursday we had our district meeting. My district leader surprised me the night before with a call "hey can you teach english tomorrow?" Yea, surprise. It was fun though :) I'm the only gringa in the zone (again) and one of two gringos out of ten people in our district so there are a lot of people that need to learn English. I realized how much I really enjoy teaching :)

Friday and Saturday, I would like you all to know that I have never had a hangover (never had a reason to) or a migraine but I could hardly help friday in lessons and I was bed ridden most of saturday because I could not move my head. I've never had a reason to use the word excrutiating before either. It was terrible. Luckily it died down at about 6. I woke up and said "I'm hungry" My companion basically said "there's my companion!" Yea, siempre hungry. Luckily I got better because we had a baptism at 7. Abelardo!!!! He's friends with basically all the young men in our ward and finally got baptised. He's been attending seminary and church and everything but couldn't get baptised because he didn't have the missionary lessons. We finally finished them this week. He shared his testimony after his baptism and all he could say was "I'm so happy"

Sunday: Eh, normal

I love you all. Don't worry my head is all better now. We have no idea why it hurt so bad but I got a blessing from my pensionista's husband so everything's ok now. Oh, also, thank you uncle Richard for the oil... it's come in handy multiple times already.

Love, Hermana White

Oh,...Hi President

This week Nain and Alex were baptized!!!!! It was beautiful. They were so ready and we finally got the ward to work with us. There was an off key musical number, the relief society president brought a small gift and the Elders Quorum president decided to sing a solo half in english and his welcome to Hermano Alex. It was awesome! Nain and Alex shared their testimonies and Nain started crying. It was so beautiful.

Also, while we were taking photos we looked over and President Henderson and his wife walked in. He never goes to baptisms, he just doesn't have time, but we found out from one of the asistants that he came specifically for the baptism... and he congratulated the bishop for the way the baptism went. I'd say we did good.

My comp has been doing a lot better. She's got a wrap around her torso to help and we've been able to get a ton of work done. It's so nice to come back to our room and feel exhausted but like we've worked hard.

Also, I'd like to let you know, that if you look for little miracles they're all around you. The other day we were looking for an old investigator that was left in the binder from other sisters that were in this area before us. We walked and we walked and we walked like little pioneer children and we still could not find this house. It was hot, we were walking on dirt road and we were just about on the point to give up... actually we did give up. We were waiting for the combi to come take us back to our room when I said, " Hey, can we go stand in the shade, I'm going to return to my house red instead of white" We started walking to the shade... but there were pigs, giant pigs, in this spot so we moved towards another spot of shade and lo and behold, there was the house, right in front of our faces. I testify that if you put in the work and work until you have used all your mortal, human strength, in these moments something else, something greater than you will help you out.

Also, on a less spiritual note. The entire month of August people have been celebrating Santiago. Basically they dance through the streets and drink a lot. But the music is cool :)

I love you all!!!!

Please continue to send your prayers Southward.... we need all the spiritual strength we can get

Love, Hermana White

In My Room

My comp fell down the stairs last sunday... so there's really not much to report today.... because I was basically in our room all week. As missionaries we always have a companion with us and when one of us is down we have to find two sisters to accompany us: one to stay in the room and one to go out with the healthy one. A few days we were able to find two sisters in our ward or in the wards surrounding us for a couple of hours but it was extremely difficult. In the couple hours that I was able to go out however we got a lot of work done. Also in the time that I was in our room with my comp I was able to read... alot... of Jesus the Christ. It's a fantastic book.

News for this coming week: Nain and Alex are getting baptized!!!!! We finally got the ward to work with us on a baptism so this Saturday should be super beautiful.

Also, I got the package :) I have never been so happy to see peanut butter in my life.

I love you all, please pray for my comp. Her back still hurts... and now she's going crazy from being stuck inside all week. 

Love, Hermana White

Tacos

Last Pday our district got together and we made tacos! You'd think living in Texas I'd know a little bit about tacos (but we're so spoiled in the US that we can just buy packets of taco seasoning). Luckily there's a sister from Uruguay in our district who'd made tacos before. We made the meat with oregano and onions and tomatoes and it was the best taco meat I've ever tasted. Also, we know how to make tortillas now :)

Tuesday my companion and I had 8 lessons with a member. Erik is waiting for his mission call and is probably the most excited future missionary I've ever seen. He participated in lessons and everything. He was exhausted by the end of the day. It's cool to see that I was super tired at the beginning of the mission and now I can walk for a whole day straight and.... nope, I'm still exhausted. I'm just used to it.

Hermana Pizzuri and I have had problems with working with our ward. There's just not a good connection between us and the ward members. We took the bishop and his wife out to dinner... and immediately the next day we saw a difference. The bishop asked us to help him push his car and actually let us borrow the keys to the chapel. (and then he asked us the speak in church).

Now our Sunday adventure. We went and visited a recent convert and her recently reactivated husband. They're really great friends with the missionaries and have goals for the temple and everything! Anyway, we were leaving and my comp fell down the stairs. I called the elders (one of them is a gringo and I'm pretty sure an Eagle scout because he first told me to just tell my comp to drink some water) they told her to take some ibuprofen and rest until the next day. We had a lesson with Alex and Nain that we really needed to go to because they have a baptism date so we had to find divisions within a half hour. We called one sister who is preparing to leave on her mission to stay with my comp in our room and then we had the hardest time finding someone to do divisions with me. We called everyone and then we said, well lets call Diana one more time. We were able to do divisions and succesfully teach Nain and Alex. They're so awesome :)

I love you all :)

Love, Hermana White

PS: 6 months!!!!

Cambios - Part 2

Well, it's that time again... we've had cambios in the mission. Since I killed my old companion I knew that I was going to be staying in my area. My new companion has only two cambios left in the mission...it seems I'm destined to be with people who are dying. I'm just going to end up killing everyone. 

My new companion is Hermana Pizzuri. She's from Iquitos, Peru (the deep jungle... like where they eat pirhanas). Fun fact, in her family there are 8 kids and she's the ony girl. Basically it's destiny.

I don't think I realize how much spanish i've learned in the mission but right now as I'm writing this, I realize that I am living with someone from the amazon jungle... and we communicate just fine. The gift of tongues is real everyone.

In other news, we're teaching a family that just kindof showed up at church one day. They're a young family with a 6 month old baby. The husband (Alex), his mom was a member but she passed away about two years ago and left some books on the shelf....the wife (Nain) and Alex decided to read them one day and then decided that they needed to go to church. We had our first lesson with them and Alex asked us what a person needs to do to be baptized. Well, we can help with that :) They accepted a baptism date right there and now we're just going to be finishing the other lessons and helping them progress. Gah! It's so awesome.

Well, everything's good, my comp's awesome, I pray for you every day.

I love you all!!!

Love, Hermana White