Hola a todos!
This week was a fun one, mostly because I have officially been on the mission for 6 months! Woooo-hooooo! Yeah! Look at me, I’m a seasoned misionera. You can’t call me a greenie anymore. Well, if you really wanted to you could but I’d like it if you didn’t. 🙂 But I can’t even describe this feeling I’ve got about the time I have on the mission. Honestly, it feels like just last month I was saying goodbye to my Netflix account and the mess that is the continental United States. But here, I am exactly a third of the way done with my mission. I honestly can’t believe it. The time moves so fast it scares me sometimes.
The hard thing is feeling like I’m doing my best, all my life I’ve had something to compare myself to to know if I’m doing my best – if I’m doing better than other people really. But this last transfer I’ve had to rethink that and realize that this is the work of the Savior and I cannot compare myself to anyone but him and I’ll never be as good as Him, so my best is all up to me. Life is hard, the mission is hard, but honestly all I need is God and maybe some ice cream on the hard days and I’m okay. 🙂 I know I can do this.
This week was filled with a
I made a cake with Hna Green for her greenie, Hermana Post for her cumplemes <month celebration>. She’s had 2 months on the mission now and I couldn’t recreate the cake from Harry Potter, but we mimicked the essence of the “crappily made, but with love” cake. Get it, Hermana Post — Harry Potter?
We said goodbye to Presidente Boucher on my cumplemes <month celebration> 28 Junio 2017. He and his wife were/are great people. It’s not like they died, they just went home to Utah so its probs more appropriate to say they still ARE great people. I will miss the pasta salads of Hermana Boucher and the odd tendency Presidente had of putting “…” after every sentence in his emails to me. Odd people, fun people, Christ like people. They will be missed. RIPIU (Rest In Peace In Utah)?
Other fun thing: after a strange turn of events that include Lea Michelle singing Christmas music in our car and crazy Puerto Rican drivers on tiny streets, we popped a few tires on some sharp stuff and ended up in a Pep Boys for about 5 hours. It was fun, it was emotionally draining, and we missed basically a whole day of work. But I did learn that vending machine hot cocoa is the best hot cocoa even when it’s90 degrees outside with 90 percent humidity. 🙂
For my cumplemes <month celebration> we went to a place called Rex Cream that is an ice cream place and we bought a giant thing of Corn ice cream. It’s amazing, suuuuuper good. Reminded me a bit of horchata especially with cinnamon on it. Mmmmmmm. Yum. You should try it – oh wait, maybe I’ll just buy more and try it for all of you. 🙂
So on a more spiritual note, I want to suggest the reading of Mateo 25 to all of you. It’s an amazing chapter with good moral stories for all levels of understanding. Really, I spent this week studying a few verses every day and I learned a lot.
The most important story for me is the story of Los Talentos <The Talents>. Reading this with a different perspective every time can help you understand the different types of people. I studied it from these points of view: The man with 5 talentos <talents>, the man with 2 talentos, the man with 1 talento, the man who gave the talentos, and the outsider. Each one of these perspectives helped me think more about who I am and what I’m doing with my talents. Am I giving them to others so that they can learn and grow too? Am I too fearful to try and obtain more even when I don’t have enough? Are other people able to see my example and benefit from it? These is so much I learned about myself this week with just this one parable.
On a stats note, we’re actually doing OK here in Cabo Rojo! Hna Zimmy and I are working on trying to find a balance of walking, finding, and teaching people. De verdad <for real>, it’s so hard to be in a leadership position when I honestly don’t have much going for me. I hardly know the area, I hardly know the mission, but hey – I know Spanish pretty darn well. Here’s to hoping we can do better and find more prepared people. We don’t have anyone prepping for baptism yet, but we’re getting real close with 3 so pray for me!
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Keep Beach City Weird,
Hermana Thelin