Another letter this morning, from Danie in her new area:
Wow,
where do I even start? haha :D first, hey mom :) I hope you know I love
you :)
Okay,
now for everything else haha :D the less important stuff... So this past
week has been very interesting. To start it off, we have lived a week
without electricity...yeah that is super hard. We have been using plugs
in other peoples houses to charge cell phones so we can at least communicate
and wake up on time in the morning haha :D we do everything by candle light for
the moment and it makes me think of little house on the prairie every time haha
:D It is definitely an experience let me tell you. The temperatures
here are in the 90s and 100s a lot of the time but the funny thing is,
during the day it doesn't bother me a bit, in fact I prefer the hot than the
cold. At night is a different story however, I basically don´t
sleep. I don´t there is ever an easy part of the mission I have to be
honest. If I am not learning how to work with a difficult companion
or area, I am dealing with lack of luxuries I once took for granted. I am so
grateful for the experience because it helps me understand some of my
investigators better and it keeps me humble, but I can´t imagine how it would
feel to not have the knowledge that it won´t last forever. For me I can
say that in 9 months more I will have nice things again and I am a lot more
willing to put up with it for now, but there are people who live this way every
day without the hope that things will change. That would be so, so, so,
hard! We have been teaching some pretty great people but just recently
found out that the Elders told us the wrong boundaries so we have to turn them
over to other missionaries. It is kind of sad, but it just
means we will have to find more :) It is starting to get easier finally,
to just talk to people. I was so worried about annoying people, but
something is finally sinking in that whether it annoys them or not they need to
know that this message is important but more so for them than for me. Of
course I am still looking for the way to best ease people into the conversation
of the gospel, figuring out what they need and what part of the gospel most
applies to them, but I am working extra hard to get a return appointment with
everyone I talk to and even invite them to be baptized on the first
contact. I know that is what they teach the entire mission, but it is
just now starting to kick in. My little missionary is such a hard
worker. I love her to pieces! It is taking some getting used to, to
share so much of myself, but it is good for me. She is very affectionate and I
think it makes her feel bad that I am just not very huggy and I don´t share my
personal space very well, but I am trying to change that so I can help her be
happier. :)
I
have to share an experience with you, that is going on here. So when I
arrived in Catamarca they told me there was no bishop. Well the reason
for that is because he is cheating on his wife with another woman in the ward
and wants a divorce. I admire his soon to be ex wife, because while one
would think this problem is big enough, there is more. It all started for
her when the spouse of her daughter left her for someone else just before she
was about to give birth to her child. This of course broke her moms heart to
watch her daughter suffer when only a month or so later her husband (second
marriage mind you) did the same to her. Okay she wasn´t pregnant, but still,
they were sealed in the temple and she felt like she had found the love of her
life no? Well it is still the talk of the ward because it only happened
four or five months ago and my how she is suffering. Yet still she bore her
testimony yesterday about the love of her padre celestial. She has such a
strong testimony! After church we went to her house for lunch and she filled
us in on the whole story, but to top it off, she has a tumor that is very
likely to be cancerous and she has to get it checked out in the coming weeks.
She meant to do so before, but her marriage kind of fell apart and so she
didn't have time. Satan is working on everyone right now. This man was a
bishop! But the thing is if satan can win over a bishop he takes a lot more
people down with him. It is heart breaking. However, this sweet woman is
faithful and strong despite everything that has happened to her and now has a
powerful testimony to share with the entire world. No one can say,
"well the leader of this church did bla bla bla and I just can´t be
associated with a church like that..." Because her response would be
"That leader was my ex husband, but thankfully I didn't go to church for
him, I went for God, and to this day I continue keeping the commandments
because I love God more than anyone else"
I am
convinced that without this mission I wouldn't have made it as a mom or a
spouse. There are experiences that I am having now that will forever bless my
future family and I am going to need it the way the world is going. I
have a super strong family right now and this means Satan is working hard on
you guys. Don´t forget the basics, read your scriptures everyday, say your
prayers morning and night and in between, and do whatever you can to not miss a
single Sunday okay? :) Thanks for helping me develop
those habits when I was younger, they are honestly so important. As a
missionary, I do my very best to ensure that my investigators are doing all
three before they get baptized so they can continue on after their baptism when
satan tries to tempt them more.
To
be honest I kind of forgot that it is the holiday season. Summer is
coming on here and it doesn't even feel a little bit like Christmas or
thanksgiving. Halloween came and went and I didn't even realize it. The
mission life is so different haha :D I am getting super excited to call you
guys though :) For now I need to get going, but know that I love you and
I will talk to you next week!
Love
always,
Danie
