Poised in Puebla: Vale La Pena

How has it already been a week since last Monday?! This week flew by so fast holy cow. It was a good week! My Spanish is getting better each day and I’m getting more and more comfortable with the area and the people and everything.

Okay so throughout the week in my planner I have an ongoing list of random things that I want to talk about in my emails that I write down at random times so that’s why everything is always so jumbled and random. Sorry! But here’s everything from this week that I have to say:

*Tomorrow I will be 1/9 of the way done with my mission. What?!

*I want to go to the temple so much. I miss being able to go every P-day in the MTC.

*This week, for the first time, we got flipped off by someone driving by. Then we walked past these drunk older men and I couldn’t understand everything they said but Hermana Lopez said they were “cosas muy feas” so yeah we got a little bit of hate this week for who knows why.

*Story from this week: We had a goal for this week that we would have 100 contacts - 50 done by me and 50 done by Hermana Lopez. (About 8 each per day.) It was a super hard goal but we were determined. So one night I only had 5 and we were walking back to our house for the night but I needed 3 more to reach my goal for the day. There was nobody in the street and we were about 2 minutes away from our house. I said a silent prayer and asked for just 3 more people that I could contact before we got to our house. Literally 30 seconds later as we were turning onto our street, a group of 3 people was walking past. And what did I do? NOTHING! I was SO mad at myself! My prayer was answered exactly and I didn’t even act on it. That definitely taught me a lesson about just opening my mouth and knowing that God has my back.

*On Wednesday we had our multi-zone conference that was so good!! There were 4 zones there. I got to see Elder Jarman and Hermana Gonzales who are my friends from the MTC. I was so happy! We talked to tons of missionaries and President Christensen gave a super good lesson on the Atonement, and we practiced how to teach and address doubts of investigators better. We had tons of snacks and food and it was super good. The beauty of being an American sister is that all the other American missionaries are automatically your friends. I spoke in English the whole conference with a bunch of Americans and it was so nice.

*The other day Hermana Peterson (good friend from the MTC) got emergency transferred into my Stake and I got to see her yesterday!

*We had Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday that was so so good. President Christensen and a member of the Quorum of the 70 (I forgot his name) spoke both days and their talks were so good! And 6 of Hermana Lopez´s and my investigators came!! They all really liked it and we were so happy ahh. Our investigators are awesome. On the way home from stake conference we fit 28 PEOPLE in a Combi for a good 30 minutes on the way home. It was packed and super hot and stuffy. Then we fit 8 of us in a tiny Prius, which was interesting.

*Our best investigator is a woman named Patricia. At first she wanted nothing to do with the missionaries and threw the Book of Mormon they gave her in the trash. But now she´s GOLDEN. She is so willing to change her life and absorbs the teachings like a sponge and is always coming to us with new things she finds in the scriptures. She is being baptized on October 11th and we are so pumped! We started teaching her daughter, granddaughter, and daughter´s ¨husband¨ this week and they are awesome too.

*This week we got 5 new investigators!

*I love my area and ward so much. We have so much fun with all the members of our ward.

*Something I´ve learned this week: Your mindset affects your outcomes.

Example: There was one day this week where we didn´t start contacting till later in the day and we didn’t ride in any Combis. (Combis are an easy way to contact lots of people.) We were tired; but we were determined to reach our goal of contacts for the day and kept telling ourselves that we could do it. And we did! That day I had the most contacts I've had the whole mission.

Another example: I kept telling myself that this week was going to fly by and it did. Other weeks I had the mindset that the weeks were going to drag on and they did.

*Today in a Combi the song “Hopelessly Devoted To You” from Grease came on and if you really know me you should know how excited I got haha. I was singing along and Hermana Lopez was probably like what the heck but it made my whole day

*All I want in life right now is a good Americanized enchilada. I haven’t had any food like the ¨Mexican¨ food in America and I really want some!

*The other day we found out that for La Comida (lunch) we ate Conejo... which in English is BUNNY. The lady told us it was pig but then afterwards the Elders showed us a picture of the pelt of the rabbit and the meat from it. Ugh I wanted to die when we figured that out...

*The tortillas here are all corn tortillas and have like negative flavor

*The stars are different here, I swear. Every night that there’s a clear sky I stargaze while we walk home and I cannot find any of the constellations I would look for in the States. I swear all the constellations are ones I´ve never seen before.

*The other day at the Bishops house, when we walked in, they were watching “Step Up 5” and I was so excited because the movie came out 2 days after I left for my mission and I was so sad about missing it. So it was a treat to watch little snippets of it and talk with the Bishop’s daughters about how attractive the main guy is and how much we love the Step Up movies. Hahaha

*I really miss people calling me Sierra. I haven’t heard anyone say my name in forever and it makes me a little sad especially since nobody here can say my last name right.

*The weather here is so weird. We have like every season in 1 day. Some days it’s super hot, then pouring rain and then it’s freezing an hour later. Some days it’s super cold and windy. We never know what the day is going to be like.

*Everyone here has scented toilet paper. It’s weird.

*We’re too afraid to kill the spiders in our house so we have like 3 massive spiders and it makes me want to cry.

*There’s a 14 year old boy in our ward who always teases me about being American and speaking English. It’s so funny because the other day we watched a movie with them but it was in English with Spanish subtitles and he was so bitter about it.

*Me and Hermana Lopez switch off days with who has the phone and I HATE when it’s my day because I can never understand what people are saying on the phone. Ever. I don’t know what it is but the Spanish is 10x harder to understand over the phone.

*I saw an albino person for the first time ever the other day. She was Mexican but had white hair and white eyelashes/eyebrows and white skin and all that stuff.

Sorry for everyone I didn´t reply to last week and sorry if I don´t reply to some of you this week. It´s SO hard to write everyone in an hour plus we have to write the mission president in that hour.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary. I know that what I’m doing is worth leaving the comfort of my home and my family and friends. I know that I am going to be so blessed for what I’m doing and that this is the only time in my life I can dedicate all my heart and life to the Lord. I know this is Christ’s church and I know without a doubt that God watches over ALL of his children. I know that it is never too late to change your life and it is never too late to start living the Gospel and learning of it’s truths. I have a stronger testimony than ever of the Book of Mormon and our prophets. I am so so thankful that I have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and I find so much comfort in knowing where I came from and where I´m going after this life.

I love you all sooo much and I hope you are all doing well. I love reading all your emails and I’m so thankful for all the love and support. You guys are the best!

Until next week. (:

With all my love,
Hermana Eyring