Dear Family and friends!
(For those unaware, my Christmas begins on November 1st and endsNEVERDEALWITHIT.)
My
companion is learning this the hard way. I decided I'd be her personal
alarm clock on the first of November, and I started singing "Joy to the
World" in her ear...in Spanish!
High-five for Christmas. High-five for singing a song in Spanish. High-five for being a human alarm clock.
This week was a little off for us! Not gonna lie! Hermana Pineda was sick for two days of it...poor thing. She woke up at 5 am
to vomit one day...needless to say, we stayed inside. I spent six hours
organizing my scriptures in Spanish. Wahoo! It wasn't too bad. Plus, it
was raining a storm outside, so I was almost grateful that I didn't
have to run around in that...
Can we talk about the weather, here? Talk about
bipolarity. We'll leave the casa at twelve, and it's absolutely
freezing. Then we get walking and in a half hour we're melting. So we
take off our jackets and suddenly we're in the deeper stages of
hypothermia.
Anyway, I'm going to have to keep myself super busy
during these few months...because I can feel the nostalgia for lounging
around in my smoking jacket and setting up the tree and all that stuff!
Other than the christmas-songs-thing, Hermana Pineda
and I are doing just great! I can't believe I only have two weeks (for
sure) left to work with her! I really love this girl to death. It makes
me so sad to think that we might (probably) get changed. She's had a lot
of time here in this area (5 months,) so we've got a feeling that she's
out of here.
The other day, out of nowhere, she asked me what
"what the heck" means. I promise that I'm not saying it...okay. Maybe
I've said it once. But really, she didn't learn it from me. So I tried
to explain that, in English, sometimes we take swears and turn them into
a different word...and, magically, this word somehow isn't as bad.
(Which, now that I think about it, is a little bit ridiculous...I
mean...they're both words, right?) Anyway, she wanted to know what the
real word was for "heck," so I spelled it out for her. Then, somehow
there was some confusion somewhere, and she kind of screamed "WHAT THE
----!" (Like...she got confused what the "bad" word was, and said the
wrong one.) Anyway, it took me completely off-guard, and I think I
laughed for five minutes straight.
Oh, man...languages. Idiomas. Enserio. What. is. up.
One problem I've encountered is that every country has their own words
for everything. I asked Hermana Pineda how to say "plates/cups/things in
the kitchen," and she told me that she didn't know..."What?! How can
you not know the word for these things?" I said. She then went on to
explain that in Guatemala, they use one general word for all these
things in the kitchen..."trastas?" "Drastas?" I don't remember how to
say the word. BUT...in Chile, this word is a really bad word to say.
Like...it's the word...donkey. What? How can one word for something so
simple be so different in two countries that speak the same language?
Whenever I ask the natives which country has the most correct Spanish,
they always say their own. So I guess I just have to be really careful
about what words I learn from the hermanas from different countries, and
learn to speak...Chilean!
Well, sorry that this letter so far is about swear-words. That was not my intention. Let's get to the uplifting things:
We
kind-of sort-of have a baptismal date with our family of investigators,
which is kind-of sort-of SUPER exciting! We just have to work really
hard to keep them progressing. We have a lot of faith with this!
Also...okay. There are a few families in the ward
here who are always volunteering to feed us during the week. As
missionaries, we are SO grateful for these families, because it's not
easy to prepare food for four missionaries plus your family! Yesterday
we ate with one family in particular who we've eaten with many times.
The food is always soooo good when we go to their house...I always get
excited to see their name on the list! The food is prepared by the
husband (which is pretty darn uncommon here,) and it's always kind of a
lot to eat, but I always down it, because I don't want to get hungry
while we work for another seven hours without food!
Anyway, their food was super delicious yesterday.
When we finished, the husband told us that he had been asked to prepare
food for Elder Holland a few years ago when he visited Chile, and said
that he'd prepared the same meal that he'd just served us for the
apostle. He then explained that cooking is one of this talents/hobbies,
and that, whenever possible, he wanted to use this skill to edify the
kingdom of God. He said that serving his food to the servants and
representatives of Jesus Christ is a way that he can show his love to
God and his appreciation for the servants of the Lord. He said that he
gave us the same meal as the apostle, because it didn't matter that we
don't speak in General Conference, or tour the world giving huge
discourses--we, too, are representatives of Christ, and he was more than
willing to give his best for us. My eyes were a little wet with tears
by the end of his story, because this was a huge example to me of the
fact that we all can serve our Heavenly Father in different ways, the
best we know how. Sometimes it's a huge sacrifice, like accepting a
calling as bishop or relief society president, or serving a mission.
Other times, it's small, like helping someone in need, being a friend to
those who have none, or providing food for the missionaries.
Maybe you can all think about the talents you have,
and find a way to use these things to serve the people around you.
Because you definitely have more than one talent that can be used to do
so...who would have thought that cooking could help edify the kingdom of
God on the earth? But this member found a way, and he finds a lot of
joy from doing it.
I love you guys so much. Thanks for all your emails!
I print them out and read all of them. Like, each one fifty times. I
understand now why missionaries get SUPER EXCITED when they have mail!! I
miss all of you so much! I'm so proud of my friends serving missions.
And those who aren't, too! I'm grateful for all of their examples to me.
I'm so grateful to have this gospel in my life, and now I have the
opportunity to bring this joy into the lives of others. I get to help
families be together forever! I think I win the title of best job ever!!
I LOVE YOU GUYS A LOT AND I THINK ABOUT YOU LOTS.
If
anyone is interested, the running score for number of times my
companion and I have TOTALLY ATE IT on the sidewalks is now: me-32,
Hermana Pineda-43. So you can all take back your "McKenna is the
clumsiest person in the world"s now.
LOOOOOOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.
¡yo les amo!
Love, Hermana Thomas
ps:
if anyone at all wants to send me a really simple recipe for absolutely
anything other than eggs and PB&J, the offer is still open.
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