HELLO, WORLD. I'M TWO DECADES OLD. ¡Que traumante! En serio. No lo puedo creer.
Yep.
Once again, I'm done with the Spanish. I'm just self-conscious that all
the Spanish speakers are snickering, and they're like "ha she thinks she
speaks Spanish" and I'm like YO HABLAR BIEN ¡CACHAIS?
Well, this week has been quite interesting. The highlight? I got in a full-on-full-blown-big-fat-
Now, I know this kid. This little kid. He runs
around in la Sociedad de Soccoro (Relief Society) and just terrorizes.
Absolutely terrorizes. Anyway, we're at their house, and the mom
suddenly tells Juanito (THAT IS HIS NAME. JUANITO) she tells Juanito
that I am going to feed him lunch...and he comes over to me all smiles,
and is leaning his head on my lap all cute, like he loves me, and I'm
just thinking..."yeah, yeah, Juanito. I have a feeling we're about to
have a really fun moment, here..."
Yeah, it was awful. At first it was all fun and
games, we were dancing to the music together, he took a couple bites of
food...well, then he decided he was done, and he was climbing out of his
high chair...I strapped him back in, and he started screaming. I asked
his mom what I should do, and she told me to grab his face, pry his
mouth open and shove the food in. So I did. AND HE WAS NOT. GONNA. HAVE
IT. He just starts screaming. Screaming. And his mom comes in and picks
him up, and he's glaring at me just crying, giving me this evil, EVIL
glare...and I was glaring right back, I was like, no, I'm not breaking
eye contact with you, because you offended me just as much as I offended
you...and he was looking at me over his moms shoulder while she's
bouncing him up and down, just glaring at me, but I refused to break
this eye contact power struggle we were silently having...then all the
sudden he sits his head up and shouts, "CALLATE!!!!!!!!!!" (Not sure if I
spelled that right, but it means "shut up" in Spanish.) And everyone
looks at me like, holy cow what did you do to this child, so I wait till
everyone stops looking at me, and I wag my finger very disapprovingly
at this kid (we're still having this fight,) and he shouts
"CALLATEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
PLUS CAN WE JUST DISCUSS THE FACT THAT THIS KID IS NAMED JUANITO.
.....YEAH.
Okay. So I guess the point of telling you all this story is to show how
Christ-like I'm becoming. Afterwards, Elder Favila was asking, "and HOW
many kids do you plan on having, Hermana Thomas...?"
Another quick story: Dad, you know that big pink
monster story about that guy feeding the rinds of a watermelon to the
monster? Well, I told it in Spanish, and it was a hit. (If you'd like to
hear the joke, as my dad.)
Also, I turned twenty! That was weird! I woke up to
my entire desk decorated, made-from-scratch brownies, and a little gift
from my companion! Ugh. I love Hermana Kenney! I'll send pictures.
Honestly, though, a birthday is just like any other day in the
mission...but, for being just-like-any-other-day, it was a good day!
As for investigators...good and bad news. Bad
news...I think we might have lost Hernan. It really has broken my heart,
because he KNOWS that this is the true church. He knows that Joseph
Smith is a prophet of God. He knows that he needs to be baptized in this
church. But...le cuesta. He says he just can't. He said maybe when he
turns eighteen in six months he will, because it will be easier, but we
told him it will never be easier. Satan will never want him to do it,
and there will always be a reason not to do it. Always. But God has
given him answer after answer, and if he doesn't act on it, he's denying
the answers he has recieved, and God's not going to keep giving it to
him for the rest of his life. We told him that if God had wanted him to
wait six months, he would have put us in his path six months later, but
he put us here NOW, because God needs him NOW for something. And he said
"I know, I know.......but I can't do it." He cried. It was so sad. He's
having a really big internal struggle...anyway, we decided that we're
going to leave him for a little time...because the truth is, now that
he's had the gospel of Jesus Christ in his life, he can never go back to
his church and feel good about it, because he KNOWS what's true. I
just wish he didn't have to learn it the hard way. I wish he'd just take
a leap of faith based on the answers God has already given him.
Good news: Our investigator, Elizabeth, is getting
baptized in two weeks! We're really excited! She has a really hard life,
but the gospel has brought peace into it, and she has a really strong
testimony that the things we've shared with her are true. We're really
excited for that!
We divided our huge sector between the three companion ships her in Cachapoal today...it was hard. Before, we could go
wherever we wanted and it was just really cool...but now we have just a
part that Hermana Kenney and I proselyte in. Honestly, I was bummed,
but I think it's for the best, because now we can concentrate our
efforts a little more. But we were still a little bummed!
BUT GUESS WHAT. The work is still good! I love my sector! I love Chile! I love the mission! I love my companion!
KEEP
READING THE BOOK OF MORMON AND PRAYING EVERY DAY AND NIGHT. Are you
guys doing that? Erin and Ireland. I'm talking to you guys.
That's all for now, but thanks everyone for the
birthday wishes! Can't wait to see you all face-to-face so that I can
thank you in person and give you big huge Chilean hugs!
LOVE, Hermana Thomas
February 17, 2014
Hello, family and friends!
Another week, another dull letter home! Just kidding...first of all...I'M ALMOST TWENTY. UGH. OLDNESS.
Also,
I will never take for granted a plain cheese pizza again. A few days
ago, our lunch appointment fell through, and Hermana Kenney and I were
left to fend for ourselves against the powers of starvation. First of
all...may I just say, the absolute WORST situation a missionary can be
in is deciding where to eat when your lunch falls through, because
ALMOST EVERY SINGLE OPTION YOU HAVE is chicken and rice. That's it. Or
an empanada. At first, I was so into the empanadas...I could have eaten
those all day every day. But after about the fourth time someone cancels
lunch on you, the very thought of an empanada makes you want to throw a
boulder on the next bird you see. (OH YEAH. STAY TUNED FOR A REALLY FUN
BIRD EXPERIENCE LATER.)
ANYWAY, so we both were craving pizza...just good,
cheese pizza. There's a Papa John's here, but it's about a twenty minute
drive, and the next closest pizza place is this hut called
"tele-pizza." (Yes. It's as appetizing as it sounds.) But we were
desperate, so we headed on down there to buy ourselves something to
eat.
We walked up to the front, and asked for a
family-sized cheese pizza. The lady goes, "yeah, and you get three
toppings with that." So we're looking at the list of toppings, and we
either decide that they all look disgusting or we probably shouldn't
trust them. So we simply tell the lady that we don't want any toppings,
just cheese. This LADY looks at us like we have FIVE EYEBALLS on our
faces. She's like..."........just cheese?" And we're
like.....".........yeah. A cheese pizza." And she stares at us for a few
seconds like she's hearing this concept for the first time, and says,
"....you know it doesn't come with anything else, right?" We were like,
"yeah...............just cheese............" And she stares, stares,
stares...it's awkward...then she says, "yeah, well...you HAVE to choose
three toppings." And we're like...."...why." And she's like, "that's
just how it is." So then I look at the toppings list, and I point at the
topping called "extra cheese" and I ask if we can "just have that three
times, please." And she says no, and by this time, we're starving
enough to just go with it, so Hermana Kenney just starts naming the
ingredients we recognize, which are pepperoni and bell peppers...?!
Together?! And then some impatient lady behind us shouts another
topping we should just order, so we just go with it, even though we have
NO idea what this thing is that's going to be soiling our
should-have-been-just-plain-
WELL THEN while we're waiting for our
mutant-chilean-pizza to finish, the cook comes down and says they ran
out of pepperoni and bell peppers. So then Hermana Kenney just asks for
just cheese and nothing else please and the guy looks at her the same
way, like he's never heard of just a cheese pizza, but he says he'll do
it.
Well. I am here to testify that there is a REASON
that no one ever orders just a PLAIN cheese PIZZA in CHILE. It is
because it is absolutely unbelievably UNFATHOMABLY DISGUSTING. Awful.
Just awful. And on top of that, it was all...doughy.
I do not tell you this story to complain, but rather
to demonstrate the differences between the American and Chilean
culture. Hermana Kenney and I, as North Americans, walked into a pizza
joint with a purpose--we were going to have cheese pizza whether they
liked it or not. On the other hand, we have the Chileans, who regard any
type of meal without meat as something unfathomable and something that
really shouldn't be done. Also, they are very cookie-cutter,
this-is-how-its-always-been people. I LOVE IT. But sometimes...it compromises your pizza experience.
Another example: a while ago, Hermana Kenney and I
stopped to grab a drink in a little store on the side of the road (there
are tons of these little stores here in Chile.) Anyway, we had just
paid and were walking out when Hermana Kenney's soda just exploded on
its own accord. Like, she'd barely had it in her hand for a minute when
it erupted in a stick, carbonation-y mess all over her and the floor
and everything. And the people working just stared at her, and half her
soda was on the floor, and they just shrugged and kept on working. I'll
tell you what, in America, I think I would have demanded a new one. And I
feel like there's a good chance they would have given it to me.
But, do you know what? I absolutely love Chileans!!
It's all this--the confused faces at the thought of cheese pizza, the
indifference of the store-workers at my companions expense...the "eh,
I'll do it later" attitude and the "you only get EIGHT HOURS OF SLEEP
EVERY NIGHT?!" reactions that make me love these people more and more
every day! I wish you could all know these people I know here. You'd get
a kick out of them. I LOVE IT HERE.
Investigator wise, we have a LOT of them...but they
all have one desafío or another that is really holding them back! For
example, we've been working really hard with this joven, Hernan. He has
recieved so many answers that this church is true--even a voice one day
when he walked into the church, telling him that this church was of
God--and he has a ton of friends in the church, he's had interviews with
the bishop, he's gotten every lesson we can possibly teach him...but
the problem is, he is VERY catholic. He's seventeen years old, but he's
super active in his church, and leaving it behind is really difficult
for him. We really don't want to drop him...sometimes he even talks
about serving an LDS mission!! But we are working really hard to get him
progressing towards his baptism.
We have another investigator who LOVES the
gospel...her life is really hard, and she recently left behind being a Jehovah's Witness, and she LOVES the Book of Mormon, LOVES the peace of
the gospel, and LOVED the one time she went to church...BUT THAT'S THE
PROBLEM. She's only been to church one time. (Investigators have to go
to church at least three times before they can get baptized, so that
they have a habit of going.) It's been really hard to get her there with
us on Sundays. We're working with her, also.
The Lord is blessing us every day for the work we
do, I know it. I know this church is true, and that's why I'm here,
learning a new language, living a new culture, and becoming a new
person...so that someday I can live with my family, God, and Jesus
Christ forever. I LOVE THE GOSPEL. I love the Book of Mormon! I love to
pray! I love church. (Church nerd.)
Keep on keepin' on! And update me and write me
letters! (Especially my sisters..........) (That's all I'm gonna
say..........) I LOVE YOU GUYS!
OH YEAH. So the
other day we were in Olivar contacting. The sky was really dark, and I
thought it was probably going to rain. In the middle of a contact, I
felt a raindrop hit riiiiight next to my eye, so I got all excited,
like, "IT'S RAINING! IT'S RAINING!" And then Hermana Kenney says, "you
have something weird next to your eye..."
I GOT POOPED ON AGAIN. THAT'S ALL I'M GOING TO SAY. AND THAT WAS MY BIRD STORY.
HAVE I SAID THAT I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRDS?!???????
Con Amor, Hermana Thomas
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