Dang!! I don't even really know where to start! My first whole week in the mission field!! Crazy, right??
So this week has been pretty interesting with a lot of ups and downs and I mean a lot! It is SOOO HOT here in Catamarca! Literally sweat like a pig! And we are constantly walking non-stop! It gets pretty exhausting! I always look forward to plopping onto my bed at the end of the day! Hahaha. And for the first part of the week we had no working water!! AHHH!! SO that meant no "showers" (not much of a shower anyways haha) and no bathroom! EEECKK!! But it's working now thank goodness!
So Tuesday like ALL the people we tried to teach were not there or didn't have time! It was a hard and disappointing day. Sooo . . . I suggested that we buy a delicious ice cream cake to make us happy! Hahaha, ice cream always cheers you up right?! So I know I have said this before but trust me the ice cream here is seriously the best thing on the planet!! I ate that ice cream cake like my life depended on it! (You would have been proud dad) haha! This happens quite a lot actually, we will come home and eat and listen to Disney songs!! haha #missionaryprobs I love it!
Sooooo I realized that I have the wrong shoes! Hahaha, oh man I have SOO many blisters and sores and bug bites literally my legs looked deformed (they are starting to get better though so don't worry mom :). It hurts to walk sometimes but I am pushing through! And I am going to buy some new shoes today!
It's been hard having to adjust to everything here, I’m not going to lie. Especially the Spanish!! AHHH!! I just wanna be able to understand it and speak it already! It's hard feeling helpless in lessons. I don't know what it is but this week has been one hard thing after another . . . Satan is really trying hard to discourage me. But I WANT to be here and I WANT to work so I am going to keep pushing through giving 110%! I always read the talk you sent me by Elder Jeffery R. Holland at the MTC and it helps SOO MUCH!! Thank you!! I LOVE the quote that says “Forget yourself and go to work!” And that's what I have to tell myself each day!! And I do notice that I do feel better and forget myself when we are teaching and helping God's children because this is HIS work and they NEED it! Being able to testify of that is such a blessing and it reminds me every time how lucky and blessed I am to have the gospel and be able to share it with others!
But like I said this week has been hard! We really hardly got to teach at all this week . . . no joke. Just tons of walking! And a bad sunburn, haha! BUT we did have some good times!! For example, one of our investigators, Jorge, is a 70 years old and said he would get baptized on the 15th! BUT like I said Satan is working so hard to stop this work and now Jorge has to get heart surgery so we are trying to figure all that out.
One of the BEST things of the week though was we were randomly walking and a man was like "Hermanas!" And we were like "What the . . . ? Who knows us?? Who is this guy??" So we go talk to him and find out he is a less active! He invites us over! So we go over to his house later that week and his girlfriend, Andrea, is there too and she isn't a member!!! So we start talking about the gospel and the BOM and it is going awesome!!! Especially because Miguel (the less active guy) is participating and sharing his thoughts and testimony and it was just AWESOME!! The spirit was literally SO strong I can't even tell you . . . but it gets even better! So we ask him to pray at the end and he does! And he starts crying a little bit and SO was Andrea!!! AHHHH!!! It was the most amazing feeling ever!!! I can't even tell you! AHHH!! MY HEART!!! THE SPIRIT!!! AHHH!! I can't wait to go back and teach her again!!
So there is this cute family in the ward called the Rivera’s and they have two super cute daughters. And we happened to be on the same bus as them one night and the littlest one kept calling me "Hermana Barbie!" HAHAHA, SO CUTE!!! I just about died! So . . . I am thinking of changing all my name tags to "Hermana Barbie" hehehe. :)
On another positive note, sometimes I will hear someone randomly playing a song in English and I think to myself "Oh my heavens!! I can still understand something after all! The world makes sense!"
HAHA it's great! You got to look for those little things!
Anyways . . . I am working hard and trying to stay positive and happy!! I hope everything is going great at home!! I am so jealous you got to meet Hermana Tuttle's family!! I miss her sooooo much!!! Tell them I say hi!!!!
And OH MY HEAVENS!! Hermana Steward is the BEST!!!!!! I can´t believe you got to talk to her and you will meet up with her!! I love her SO MUCH!!! Tell her I say hi and I miss her!!
Love you all!!!!
Hermana Wade
P.S. Are you getting the pictures I am sending???
P.S.S. Funny Story . . . So I have a lot of weird sayings (as most people know) and Hermana Marin thinks they are so funny and makes fun of me all the time for them! I always say "SWEET MERCY!" or "HOLY COW!" So now it's our little inside joke and we always say them in English or Spanish! It sounds even more funny in Spanish! "SANTA BACA!" "DULCE MISERCORDIA!" Hahaha, good times. . . . Oh the things missionaries find funny!