Dust in the wind....

September 1, 2010

Dust in the wind….

There´s been a lot of wind here. Ok so there´s ALWAYS a lot of wind here, but with the changing seasons there´s more. But I guess it´s blowing away the cold and bringing the warmer weather, so I shouldn´t complain. But there is a lot of dust in this wind. I don´t know where this city keeps all it´s dust, but it´s all escaping out into the street and into my eyes and nose and ears and mouth. But it´s ok! Soon the wind will be gone and I´ll have the terrible heat to complain about!
This week was pretty normal. On Monday we had a family home evening with an inactive girl and her mom (who is an investigator) and they fed us a TON. We ate pizza and tarta (like an empanada, but huge and cooked in a pizza pan) and CAKE. A gigantic chocolate cake with cream in the middle and dulce de leche and chocolate on top. It was probably the most delicious food I´ve had on my mission, but I got so sick after. I´m on a strict "rice, white noodles, and cheese" diet. Luckily it was the last thing we did that night and I could go home and sleep.
This woman, Carmen, investigated the Church a few years ago, too, and she says she loves to see how the missionaries get fatter after being in this zone after a couple months. So we already know that her goal is to fatten us up. But it´s ok, because she´s an amazing cook, and the more we eat, the more she likes us, so hopefully if we eat enough chocolate cakes she´ll get baptized!
We also visited with a recent convert named Oscar. He got baptized in February and he LOVES the church. He´s older, about 70, and very educated. He´s a university professor here in Bahía and he loves to study. When we first met him, he said that a lot of his life he felt a lot like Joseph Smith. He investigated a lot of churches, but none of them convinced him. But then he found "the Mormons" (because of a Sister in another ward) and WE convinced him. haha. So he got baptized. And he wants to know everything NOW. He loves to study, but he gets a little impatient with himself sometimes. We go over to study with him and answer his questions, but the members are great and help him a lot with that, too. I want to find more investigators like him!
But investigators like him come through the members. So all you members of the Church out there, go find an Oscar for the missionaries!
I´m loving the work here. I love to talk about the church, and I get to do it all the time now! I was talking to one of the Elders the other day, and he said something like, "When you feel sorry for yourself, you can look around and easily find someone who´s worse off. Like sometimes I say "Poor me, I have to walk around in the street all day and talk to people!"" But then I cut him off and told him that´s a BLESSING! So now he has to find something else to complain about. In 2 days we´re doing divisions with the Hermanas in the other zone... and I´m going to work with Hermana Seegmiller for the day! So we´re going to see if we´ve actually learned anything. Especially with Spanish. I FEEL like I´ve learned a lot, but I´ve always been with companions who speak better than me... so we´ll see if we have any uncomfortable silences or awkward pauses on Friday. But I´m really excited to get to work with her! It´s been a long 4 months since the MTC days...
So tune in next week to see if we made fools of ourselves in divisions! I´m sure I´ll have some good stories, even if we don´t make fools of ourselves. Hna. Seegmiller and I always had fun together.

I love you all!
Hermana LaPray