Playing the piano...

December 30, 2013

Playing the piano...

MERRY CHRISTMAS! This week was awesome! I can't believe that it is already Christmas! I am so excited to chat with y'all tomorrow! :)

This morning we had such a fun time at "Grandpa's." We did a white elephant gift exchange, and I ended up getting such a cool gift. It is one of the "gold" copies of the Book of Mormon. I made some elders mad, but I love making that game fun.

Baby Chihuahuas!

This week was so neat on exchanges. Do you remember Mirna? I taught her first on exchanges and then the next time we saw her we were on exchanges again, but I wasn't there. Both times Sister Fallentine and I were with sisters that couldn't speak Spanish, so you can imagine. :) Anyway, Sister Fallentine came back to me with such a sweet story. She doesn't remember exactly what she said to Mirna, but at one point in the lesson she said, "Your companion said the EXACT same words to me the last time she was here. I don't know how you do it or what it is that you have, but I am interested in learning more. "HOW COOL! This lady was so cold at the beginning of the lesson I had with her and then softened so much. We will hopefully go caroling to her tomorrow.

Sister Brown on exchanges in Hondo Pass.

Trey, a cute little guy I met on exchanges that made me think of my brother.

We met a really funny couple, Bobby and Connie. Bobby is a white guy who says exactly what is on his mind. Remind me to tell you more about him in person please…words can't describe. Connie is Hispanic. They are both super sweet and we had a great lesson with them. They said they would come to church, so we stopped by the morning before church to pick them up. We parked the car in a very inconvenient spot, haha, and then knocked on their door. Did they even open the door? Nope. After a while we heard through the window, “I’m sorry, but I can’t go with you today…I am feeling sick.” Whatever haha.

It might have been a small blessing in disguise, because they needed me like crazy today during Sacrament meeting with the piano. As we left Bobby’s, we saw Kathy (another investigator) getting picked up by a Catholic lady we were talking to…burn. She even has a baptismal date right now. I was ticked. I shouldn’t have been as mad, but I was really frustrated. I am really ready for some people who are serious about our unique message.

We headed to church. On the way there, Hermana Portillo (the Primary President) called us. She is from Utah, served her mission here, and married a guy from here. She is super cute and directs the little choir we go to on Sundays. Thank goodness we help her out there, because these sweet Hispanic people cannot stay on pitch. :)

Anyway, she called and asked if I would play in Sacrament. I told her I would. I thought that would be it. After I played the two (yes they have two) opening hymns and sacrament hymn, I had a very stressful moment. After we took the sacrament, a guy who was going to give the last talk asked if I would play for his talk. I said, “Umm, I guess.” It was this narrated thing from the scriptures, where the piano is playing underneath and then the crowd sings. We literally put something together in five minutes and went back in and it was time for us to go. I was sweating SO BAD! Playing the piano makes me nervous, but I know God was helping me, because these people needed it. It turned out ok. The guy who gave the talk should have figured it all out sooner, but whatever. He said, “I only feel like it is ok to ask you so late notice, because you are missionaries.” Whatever that means, haha.

EVERYONE thought I was so good at the piano, even though I played only the right hand on some parts. They are so funny. After the meeting, I taught Isaac (my favorite kid ever, we quote him all the time) how to play “Silent Night” with me. He played some notes while I played. It was cute. After that, we thought that we were going to have to teach the Gospel Principles class. Thank goodness we didn’t have to. I think I would have died. That was already enough stress. I also played during Relief Society. Mom, I think you would have been proud of me even though I didn’t play that great.

Our zone is the Mount Franklin zone and we are known in the mission as the “Mount Franklin Misfits.” Thank goodness that name was here, before I got here, that way we know it isn’t us! :)

I made an announcement during Relief Society that we were going to be caroling on Christmas and going to investigators, less actives, and people that they knew (potential investigators). We are going to use the $50 that grandma gave me to buy ingredients to make a ton of treats to give to a ton of people with pamphlets and cards etc. I am so excited!

We found a guy who is married to a less active, but also talked to some Russians. They were so stinking sweet! When we started talking to him, we automatically went to Spanish when he couldn’t understand. That did not help though, because they basically only spoke Russian. It was so frustrating wanting to speak to them (they were a cute, old, little couple) and not being able to. I kind of was pulling a “mom,” speaking English with an accent thinking they would get it, haha. They had such a sweet spirit about them, it made me cry. I gave them a picture of the Salt Lake City Temple and he acted like he had seen it before. We told them we would come back with someone who spoke Russian and teach them something. As of now, we actually found someone who can speak it, but we have to wait until he gets back to El Paso from Christmas vacation.

I sat by this adorable girl named Marisol during choir. She is 21 and doesn’t know English. She looks like Selena Gomez (Edith, the girl we ate with is her roommate and best friend). They are super cute girls. We had lots of fun during choir together. We are hoping we can get her to come out with us this week. Have any of you gone out with the missionaries? I am realizing more than ever how missionary work should be. Who are the full-time missionaries? The members. We are the specialists who are there for a short period of time on a special assignment. It is so neat when the members are so on the ball that THEY even set up the appointments with their friends. I love that idea! Another awesome thing is to go out with the missionaries when you can (and drive them around).

This is the Air Hawk Museum where we did service. They had a ton of old planes from World War 2, and we got to clean them and all the stuff in there. Dad, you would love this place!

Jesus came with us to see Esmerelda, her mom Maria, and her dad. We initially met them because we saw an old guy (her dad) getting out of a bus. He was in a wheelchair. He couldn’t speak, but motioned to us to follow him. We followed him and his caretakers to his house where we met his daughter, Esmerelda. Apparently they had missionaries before us, elders and sisters. But they had moved, so we found them randomly. When we talked to the sisters who had taught them last, they told us that they both got switched out at the same time, so this family probably just got lost in the switch. Also, they weren’t progressing at the time, but now they are. This lady had accused the sisters of stealing $100 when they helped do service for her before. Good times. Anyway, we had a pretty good lesson. It was kind of crazy, because sometimes it was just Jesus and the mom talking, while we talked to Esmerelda. I didn’t really like that, but at the end we brought it back together again. The dad has such a sweet spirit. We think he had a stroke, but he is always motioning to offer us food and drinks…always. Then, at the end we had Jesus give him a blessing. It was very sweet.

Getting soaked from a random downpour.

I thought I would tell you what my regular day is like: This morning we got up at 6:30am, worked out (running if it isn’t too cold, T25 DVDS-those DVDs Ash sent me, or stretching- if we are too tired). After that, we shower and eat breakfast and are ready to study by 8am. At 8am we study personally for an hour. We can study the scriptures, talks, or books from the mission library (Jesus the Christ, Our Heritage, etc) AND preach my gospel. I do all my studying in Spanish these days. At first, I would have spent too much time trying to figure out what stuff meant, but now I can do it. At 9am we have companion study. We read from the white handbook, sing, prepare our lessons, study together, do role plays, talk about our sisters (STL stuff). Then at 10am, we do language study. I LOVE conjugating verbs. I am actually really good at it thanks to Sister Wiggins (my HS Spanish teacher). Most missionaries can speak it because they hear enough of it, but can’t write it at all. I would definitely say that is one of my biggest strengths.

Bel, a sweet Argentinian girl that goes on exchanges with us!

This morning we went to a funeral for a man in the ward. He lost his mom a few weeks ago and just lost his wife. It’s so sad, but he is doing awesome. I was so surprised at how much testimony he bore about the Book of Mormon and stuff up there. It was really neat because there were non-members there. Sister Portillo sang a beautiful song. Apparently, the bishop pays her to teach some of the kids in the ward how to play piano. It’s kind of investing for the future, because they have NO ONE to play. I even played in the viewing room for a bit, because the bishop asked me.