Friday, August 1, 2014

Stay on Target! Stay on Target!


For all of you who didn't get that reference... I'm sorry. 

So first of all, THANKS MOM FOR THE KRISPY KREME. You're the best! My district and my teachers and my friends here at the CCM and I all loved them! You're the best person ever! 


It was so funny! Hermano Muñoz is our teacher at night and he has the worst sweet tooth I've ever seen. He always asks to eat all of our candy. So when I got donuts, we ate the whole first box as a district and then it was empty. So we decided to prank Hermano Muñoz. When he got to class, I was like, "Hey! We got something for you!" And brought out the empty box of donuts and gave it to him. We weighed it down with our language notebook and when he saw the box, his face lit up. Krispy kreme is so expensive for the Mexicans here, so they never get them. Then I gave him the box and he opened it and his face was PRICELESS. Like stone cold, eyebrows furrowed, just looking at me like "Legit, Hermana Bills?" But him and I are always playing pranks on each other so it was fine. And then I gave him a donut from the box that wasn't gone so he was happy again.

Pdays on Thursdays have turned out to be a blessing because Hermana Stoddard and I were the only ones in our whole house who had pday on Thursday so we've had the washers and dryers to ourselves every week. But that doesn't matter anymore because on Tuesday morning all of the sisters went to the field! It's just us and our two roommates in the whole house! Kind of eerie. We thought we would get new housemates on Wednesday with the new shipment of missionaries, but we didn't. So weird. But it's been really nice because now we can all shower at the same time if we just use the showers in the other rooms and I've been getting to bed earlier, which is good since I got a stupid cold or something. Like a head cold and a cough. My immune system is so pansy. Somebody isn't praying hard enough for me. Come on, people ;) 
(Just kidding)

Okay so here's some funny stories about learning Spanish. 
Just for your information, before I begin the stories.
In Spanish, hombre = man and hombro = shoulder
casada = married, cansada = tired
cuarto = room, cuaderno =notebook
So they're all pretty similar.
The first story is of me. We were teaching our investigator Raul, and we had planned the word of wisdom and were asking him how he was doing living the ten commandments. He told us about how he has a girlfriend and how he likes to sleep around. I was just caught of guard at first cause it's our teacher Hermano Garza acting as an investigator, and that's the last thing you expect to hear. So I told him about why not committing adultery is so important and how marriage is sacred and is an incredible opportunity to become closer to God and understand the love of Christ. Then we started on the lesson on the Word of Wisdom. I was trying to explain how if we don't take care of our bodies, the spirit can't dwell in us. In English, I wanted to say "If we debilitated, or even sick or tired, it's very difficult to feel the spirit." instead, I told him that if he was married (casada vs. cansada) he would have a hard time feeling the spirit.
Right after I told him how important marriage was.
Winning.

Here's two about my companion. First, we were talking about marriage between a man and woman while we were teaching the law of chastity. But instead, she said marriage is between a shoulder and a woman.
Too funny.
Then we were teaching about prophets and how they receive revelation from God, and she was sharing an experience from general conference and trying to say that the spirit was so strong when the prophet walked into the room but instead she said She felt the spirit so strong when Thomas S. Monson walked into the notebook.
And I had to cover my laugh with a cough.

Classic moments, my friends.

In other news, the Hermana's and I always have classic moments. Hermana Burnham and I were playing tennis against Hermana Stoddard and Hermana Meads one day for gym and we lost 4 times in a row. I think we only won twice by sheer luck. It was so funny. We have some really impressive tennis grunts, though. But we love to play tennis. We try to as much as we can. The other day I got really mad though because there was this Elder who checked out the rackets at 9am and hid them in his classroom so no one else could use them the whole day. Then when he went to play, he couldn't cause some other kids were playing soccer on the tennis court. Then the guy in charge of sports came and yelled at him and now they have a rule that you can only check the equipment out for 50 minutes at a time. 
Thanks a lot, Elder Farley. 

Haha, here's a good story. The other day at lunch time they had these peppers in the rice, and our whole district was super excited. they looked like jalapeños or something. 
They weren't.
The first elder bit into one and his eyes immediately filled up with tears. So then we took turns going around the table biting into these super burning hot peppers and watching everyone cry and laughing. The other hermanas wouldn't do it, but I joined in with the elders. It burned my tongue and lips and throat so bad. Hilarious. The last person to do it was elder cates. he's so stinking funny. he bit the pepper and it took about two seconds for it to hit and his face when red and he started getting tears and he was like. "oh. Okay." and then like 4 seconds later he grabs Elder Ellis and is like, "Dude! Am I gonna live!?" 
I couldn't breathe. It was so funny. 


This email is enormous...

The other night we were having district discussion and the Elder that's coming to Pittsburgh with me was talking about how he thought it's so honorable for sisters to serve and how he has so much respect for us and it was so sweet. I got so emotional.



I'm so blessed to be out here on my mission. I am so blessed to be a Sister Training Leader and to have the opportunity to serve 13 amazing sisters in my zone. They teach me so much. I am humbled every day by their example and their strength. 
Being out here on a mission is so hard. I miss being home. I get so home sick. But I know that there are people that I promised I would bring the gospel to in the premortal life, and I am going to find them. Just like my body feels homesickness, my spirit feels it too. I know that one day, I will return to my Heavenly Father. If I don't do my best and give my all here in this mission, I will feel horrible for breaking my promises. So I'm going to give it my all.
I've been learning so much. I just want to share with you all something I learned about faith this past week. The answer is always faith! 
Faith is believing and hoping for that which you cannot see, but it is also so much more. Hope and faith are power. Faith is the power by which the Lord brings miracles into our lives. Faith requires trust and humility, and true faith lead to charitable actions. Faith turns into knowledge, it grows. I have felt my faith grow here. immensely. 
I love serving a mission. I love studying this gospel. And even though I miss home, I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be! 
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. you are incredible! 


Hermana Bills

No comments:

Post a Comment