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Monday, January 14, 2013

Cast out to the desert!

PALMDALE!!!! Sounds sunny doesn't it? I thought so too when I first heard the name but in fact I am in the desert and right now it is winter soooo...... IT IS COLD! It actually snows and there is ice. I am so grateful to be in my car now. The poor Elders that are in our branch have to bike everywhere. Elder Davis is in my district again and he is training. We have 4 Elders that came to our mission that are waiting to there Visa's to go to Mexico. It is really cool! I wish we would have started getting them a little bit earlier but this is a new thing President is opened up for our mission. I have had some friends who have had to wait for Visa's what if they came here? That would have been crazy! So if anyone you know who gets called to a Spanish Speaking mission that is out of this country could come here if they are waiting for a Visa. Keep me posted! I will for sure keep my eye open! What was I saying?.... Oh yeah! So this poor Elder gets put in a bike area and not even in a warm place but to FREEZING cold Palmdale! And on top of that we passed them going back from the store the other day... Well we passed one and then kept looking for the other but never found him. We finally realized that Elder D was WAY in front! At dinner yesterday one of the Elders jokingly asked this new missionary "Does Elder D wait for you?" I didn't know but apparently Elder D is really fast on bike. Elder D replied "I wait, if I am not cold!" haha Oh Elder D! I might have to have a talk with him! I don't want this missionary to die before he gets to Mexico!
As for my new companion..... well she lived in Florida before her mission... for a year and a half... and before that.... well she... came straight from Peru..... which means.... She is learning English... Haha.. which means all we speak is the great language of Espanol! I can already say that I have spoken more Spanish with her then I have my whole mission. haha We have had to bust out the dictionary at least once a day. She gets frustrated when I don't understand her but she is using words I never knew before so I am learning a lot. Today when we were walking back from laundry she said something and I didn't understand. She repeated it a few times before she did her normal little frustrated scream (always in a laughing manner). I replied in the same manor that she need to be patient with me. I realized that I am the one that is learning today so I will have to tell her. She rarely speaks English! I know it is really hard for her. She knows very little and when she speaks it she has to speak very slow. I need to practice with her but I forget. I will have to find a time that I can make sure she is using English at least in a certian places like the car, store, or for an hour at home. I know she wants to learn and I want to help even though I never want to speak English again! haha I just love Spanish too much! haha jk
So besides the snow and cold what is Palmdale like? Well VERY different! I have wanted to serve here my whole mission. My mission mom and dad would always talk about how great it was. Now I am here and I can't even compare it. I feel like I am in Utah. I miss being on bike. In my last area all you had to do was sit on the side of the street.. I mean stand and find a huge list of people to teach. Now you have to go knocking to find people. Everyone is in there homes and not outside. It is fine I don't mind knocking. I just don't like dogs, people that say mean things, etc. President is really working on the mission becoming better then it has been in the past and because of that we have been encouraged to "Love to find". I think my prayers will increase. The work is definitely a lot harder. I am excited though. I think there are things that are just part of missionary work. Which includes knocking doors all long if that is what it takes. We did have some major success our first few hours of knocking. We first found this guy that was totally not interested. It broke my heart because his dad is Catholic. His dad and his mom were planning on fixing up this 1964 car.. I think.. and driving across country. About a year ago his mom was diagnosis with Cancer and died a short few months after! He told us his dad was selling everything and it just broke my heart. I wanted to tell him that he could see his wife again and have that happiness but the son told us he wouldn't be interested. A few houses later I felt like I should bring up the plan of salvation when we were talking to this girl. I did and found out she had a brother who also died a year ago. We are going back this week! I am really excited I hope things work out! I will keep you posted! Okay I have to go! Love you all! Thanks for all your support and prayers! Have a great week!

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