This weeks letter from Jenny. HI FAMILY!!!!! Ok, first off, I am going to talk about all the new people we got last Thursday. They are so awesome! One of them was feeling really, really, homesick so I just held her one night and played with her hair. She was just crying and she told me I reminded her of her mom. That made me feel so good! We all get a long so well. Our two Latinas are so sweet and are always trying to help me with my Spanish. I am so sad the Latinas are leaving Tuesday. I love them all ready. Next Thursday we get two new ones. Saturday is really the main event of the week PROSOLETISMO!!!!! The whole batched loaded up on a bus. We are on the bus and Bronson said, “I feel like this is a field trip but they are just going to leave us there.” They gave us a little sack lunch and then…creek…they stop the bus and yell out the zone number for Rozsa and me. We get out and just watch as the bus slowly creeks away. It was so scary! Just two American girls standing in Argentina, basically not knowing any Spanish and are just given one square mile area to spread the gospel. We started walking and at first we would just say “Hola” to every one we saw. Then we got up the guts to say, “Hola Somos Missionarias la Inglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias.” Some people would be really friendly. We would just tell them we had only been speaking Spanish for two weeks and asked if they were willing to help us practice. I know, we are sneaky, we would always end up getting them to take a pass-along card. Really we got so lucky. People in our area were sooooo nice. Our goal was 30 contacts, which is basically a conversation and saying you’re missionaries, and 5 referrals for the “for real” missionaries in that area. We got 34 contacts and 7 referrals!!!! Our golden referral was a family. We were walking down the street and Hermana Rozsa saw a little boy racking leaves. We walked over and started to talk to him. Our Spanish was so bad he couldn’t understand us so he went to get his dad. When his dad came out I was worried we were about to get yelled at. He greeted us with a smile and asked if we wanted to come in. We thought we had heard him wrong but he started to unlock the gate. They all have gates before there houses here like in Puerto Rico. We went in and he told us all about their life. His wife was home and we talked to her too. They said Sisters had come before but they never asked for their information. We got their contact info and they said they were really interested in our church, mainly because of how sweet both sets of sisters had been when they meet with us. Haha! He offered us wine. We explained that we don’t drink wine so he gave us water. It was just a way cool experience. When we left their house with all their info in our pockets we finally felt like real live missionaries with a real purpose. The CCM is way hard because you don’t have people moving you forward you just have your own want of learning the language. Our President says our CCM is the only one that has this opportunity. I am not actually sure if that is true but I am just so happy to be here and have that opportunity. Sometimes we get jealous of Provo because they get General Authorities every week but they don’t get to teach real live people that speak their language while they are still at the MTC!!!! So awesome. In our area there was a pet shop. Hermana Rozsa said, “Let’ss just say they don’t keep pet shops here clean like Petco.” Haha! I love her so much. We always say we would have picked each other if we could have. Truthfully, I probably would have picked Bronson because her and I sat on the plane together but its amazing how Heavenly Father knows exactly what you need If her and I were together, we would get nothing done. We are the same person and we both really aren’t very good at Spanish. Both of our comps are way way fun but also keep us in line and know Spanish way better than us. It’s just amazing to me how everything just works out so well here. Sunday I gave a talk on the atonement in sacrament. I knew it was coming before I was even approached at breakfast. It was way cool though. I love my Savior so much it was a way easy topic. We got to watch The Testaments Sunday night and it was way, way, good! I forgot how good that movie is. Also on Sunday I happened to be at the part in the Book of Mormon where Christ dies and the storms come in America. It was way cool to read all that the same day I was thinking so much about the atonement. Our IP, which is what we call our lessons with our teachers, is going really well. One of our investigators, Victoria, is getting baptized. We got a new investigator yesterday to replace her. Renzo is progressing but really we are progressing with him. Each lesson we get a little better at teaching. The last three lessons we went with a planned lesson and when we got there they were struggling with something else so we totally just go another direction with the lesson. That is so, so, hard in Spanish but we just do it and it works. It’s cool because my comp and me are so in sink we always know how to help the other and pick up where the other struggles. A lot of the time I speak Spanglish when we do this because I can’t always think of every word I want to say. My teachers said that is fine so I keep doing it. I feel so intimidated by the new North Americans. They seem to know as much as I know and I feel like they just got here. One of the North Americans in our room lived in Spain for 10 months so she is basically fluent. The CCM is such a range of emotion. Every day you experience the extremes: bliss, joy, laughing so hard you pee your pants (that comes later in the letter) and crying because of stress, language, missing home, frustration and mainly the spirit. I cry daily here because I feel the spirit so strong every moment. On Sunday I was really struggling and I kept feeling like I should ask for a blessing. I was embarrassed to ask so I didn’t. Later that night I really needed a blessing so the next morning I asked my District Leader if he would give me one. Of course he is so amazing and he said yes. I don’t want you guys to be worried so I will just say that I was struggling because the last few nights leading up to that I had had some really bad dreams. That’s also why I didn’t want to ask for the blessing, because I felt like it was a way dumb thing to ask for a blessing for. They were bothering me so deeply that I just finally had to ask. It was so sweet as my District Leader, who I know loves me so much, laid his hands on my head. He was shaking so bad, I don’t know if he had ever given a blessing before, said my full name and pronounced an amazing blessing of comfort and strength. It was such an amazing blessing. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by the priesthood here. Its weird to say but I love all the Elders in my District so much. I feel so privileged to know them I always look at them and think some mother somewhere is thinking about you and missing you so much right now. But they still get on my nerves like brothers do! Oh so peeing my pants….OK….Everyone reading this loves me so don’t make fun! I am entrusting you guys with this very embarrassing knowledge. So I laugh a lot here and I also drink more here than I think I ever have because it’s so hot. We are in class most of the day and you aren’t really supposed to go to the bathroom during class. On top of that, every time you go, you have to take your companion so I just hold it a lot. In the past week I have peed my pants four times. It’s so bad! I just start laughing and then I think, “Oh no!” and its just too late. The first three times weren’t a big deal. You couldn’t tell and I just changed my gs and I was good. The 4th time was at dinner and it was bad, it was really bad. I was going to send a pic but its not working this time so next time maybe. But, ya, it was very noticeable. All the Latin Elders call me Sister Pelota which I love because it’s opposite of Hermana Ball which is Spanish then English. They make it English then Spanish by saying Sister and then pelota, which means ball in Spanish. It’s so funny because they laugh so hard every time they say it. Keep sending pictures! I can receive them, and not only that, I can print them off and look at them all week!!! I read everyone’s emails like a million times throughout the week so put it all in there don’t hold back. Oh and try pouch mail I still haven’t received anything from pouch. I love you all so much and pray for you daily. Oh man, there is still so much to say I just don’t have time. This is the fastest hour of my life. I love you, I love you, I love you! Hermana Ron Ball
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:30:36 +0000