Sunday, June 20, 2010

June 2, 2010 - Hard experiences - more growth!

How different are the keyboards? way different mast of the keys are in the same place but there are different letters like ñ and other things are rearranged so it is definitely taken getting used to! Have i found anyone to alter my clothes yet? NO I'm waiting for the field when have time to take it and pick it up and get measured. other than that i have no idea where other than maybe a dry cleaners. How is the language barrier? I'm knocking holes in it, i have officially gone for like a full 24 hours without being lost at any point during the day! Me and my companion can communicate kind of it depends on how patient he is and how focused i am but we manage. Were you able to go out on Friday? yes we were able to go out on Friday and it was definitely different from my other experiences. When is my departure date? Next Tuesday is my next P-day so write early and i leave wed morning! ;) Any rumbling in Peru? YES! we have experienced a minor earthquake and that one i didn´t even feel but the people in the cafeteria said the tables were bouncing and the windows were pulsating. I still haven´t received any of your letters yet however i do have to say i am sorry to SAMANTHA MANNES because i had just wrote a pretty decently long letter calling her and Lance and Leslie to repentance for not writing me and had just put it in the mail and sent it off when two hours later i got a letter from Sam so SAM I AM SORRY and i wrote you a pretty good make up letter that i put in the mail but wont be sent till next Monday, so when you get this one try and read it and laugh at my pettiness! but it is still necessary for lance and Leslie to read it so share it with the world. and i will thank you mom for hopefully relaying the message! ;) Okay my story about this Saturday is kind of a gut wrenching one because of how sad it was, but i was able to grow a lot from it and i think that i now have some idea of what really happens out in the real world. so we headed back out to Callao but were in a different part of Callao and this time instead of going with a teacher and a member we had the magnificent pleasure of proselyting with the brand new bishop of this ward. so we went out with him and he and my companion hit it off really well telling jokes and laughing, so i was feeling sort of like a third wheel in a foreign country where no one would talk to me but i had hope we would be able to get in and teach a lesson and feel the spirit! well this brand new bishop thought that this time to proselyte would be an excellent time to find out who the inactive members of his ward are so we would show up at the door and he would talk to the members for about ten minutes on the doorstep and then look at us and say they have a message to share with you. well i have no idea what the needs of these people are you were talking Spanish at high speed and i got nothing out if it, so i wait for my companion to bear his testimony, OK going to church OK that easy i can do that so i bear my testimony and then the bishop thanks then for their time and starts walking away and I'm thinking what the heck is going on we are supposed to be going out and teaching people and getting commitment to return to church and blah blah blah well this continues FOREVER and it honestly felt like we were making mandated office visits to bear a two sentence  testimony and move on, it was awful and i really struggled with feeling any unity with my companion or the spirit and so i returned to the CCM in a depressed funk. well thanks to some of the people in my district they were able to get me to smile but i really was trying to figure out why i couldn´t feel the spirit and why my companionship and speaking ability tanked. Well I prayed really really hard and this is the response that i hear'felt'thought ´´you are in a different country speaking a different language and have had the blessing of my spirit and strength continually with you and yet you feel robbed when you don´t have an amazing proselyting experience every single time´´ well after feeling that i put myself in the right frame of mind and being grateful for everything! i have even had a fast to try and improve my companionship and it has worked! i know God is real! no time love you by looking forward to my DEARELDER:COM letters