Monday, January 25, 2010


La Hermanita shared a pretty funny story with me last week. If you know her, you appreciate that she is a very blunt and open person, willing to share her mishaps and embarrassments with humor. First, however, I need to explain some things that La Hermanita refers to in her email: the Word of Wisdom and tithing. The Word of Wisdom and tithing are part of the lessons that missionaries teach to people interested in joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Word of Wisdom is the practice of taking care of our bodies by eating healthy foods in their season, and by refraining from foods that are harmful to us, such as drugs, alcohol, tea, coffee and tobacco. Tithing is paying one tenth of all our increase to the Lord. We do these things because God has revealed them to us through His prophets here on the earth.
Here's the email:
"Ok, so I had another baptism this week! Woo hoo. And boy is there a story behind this one. I can't wait to share. Her name is Fraisia. She is a little cooky. She talks to herself at random times and starts talking about other things…different things than what we are talking about. Then one day this week we were teaching her. She said, 'excuse me,' and gets up and walks outside. We were teaching her the Word of Wisdom to prepare her for baptism this week. She goes outside and we see her through the window, preaching to someone about the Word of Wisdom. We thought it was maybe her brother. I got up and looked. No. She was preaching to the grass for all I know. It was so WEIRD. She was preaching about tea and coffee. I just looked at my companion, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I laughed, hysterically. She came back in and everything was normal…? My comp and I both felt like we should keep teaching her and we did. She passed her interview; she is a smart cookie. She asks really good questions, she had no doubts in regards to paying tithing or anything. She is just a little weird sometimes.
"So yesterday we go to pick her up for church. She walks out in this short, see through dress! Ah! Then in her house, she turns around to walk into her room- her dress was tucked into her underwear! And we saw two little cheeks hanging out! Crap, so we had to tell her about her dress being see through and short, but we weren't sure how to do it with love. So we explained that her dress was really short and could she put like pants on underneath? Well she put shorts on. At least we couldn't see her white underwear. The baptism was great. She was so nervous! They had to do it twice, but it was good. Then after the baptism we were waiting for her, everyone, to get dressed. Well, she walks out without the shorts on, clearly with RED underwear underneath. Oh I about died. What could my companion and I do? Nothing. She was with everyone else and yeah. That is probably going to be my best baptism story. But she presented no challenges, we found her and baptised her in 3 weeks. What a huge, huge blessing. She is just a little weird, that’s all..."

Thursday, January 14, 2010

From La Hermanita

"I learned something this week about anger. I was talking to my mission president and he said that you just have to, ¨give your anger away.¨ Whenever we are angry, it isn't worth it. Sometimes we love to be angry and just fester over it, but we will feel so much better if we just ¨give it away.¨ We can focus that energy on things that are so much more important. I tried putting it to practice this week, and I really saw some good results. Anger just isn't worth it, it isn't worth what you feel and what you are giving up.
"My companion is great. But gosh I have been speaking so much English. Our entire zone, minus two people, are North American. I have spoken SO much English. I need to focus on Spanish, it is so hard. She is really funny. we are so sarcastic around each other, good fun. I forgot how funny North Americans are! I miss that humor. Latinos just don't have the same. I didn't realize how much I missed it!"

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

New Companion


"I had an ok week. Just trying to get the hang of things, being with a companion that doesn't know where things are. I have to lead. She has almost a year in Chile. I guide, but she has to guide the lessons in Spanish. Oh, I feel sometimes that I will never get to the point where she is at in Spanish. But it will come. Patience. I realized that I had missed living with an American, when it comes to humor. But Americans are much more upfront. I had forgotten that. I don't know how I feel about that after being treated so well for 4 months!"