Querida Familia y Amigos,
Que pasa? Como estan? It sounds like everyone at home is doing well. Good,
good. I am loving all the letters, postcards and packages. You people are too
good to me. And Mom, the Friends quotes just completed the whole package. My
companion didn't fully appreciate them, but I had a good laugh. And
Sydney...that picture of Emma! I seriously have the cutest little niece
and I can't freakin' wait to meet her.
So I now realize that I haven't given everyone the full run down of what a
day for a Spanish Hermana in Seattle, WA is like. The alarm goes off at 6:15, we
push snooze until 6:20. Then it's rise and shine. We recite our mission pledge
half awake, say companion prayer and then individual prayers. Next we exercise for 30 minutes,
shower (sing in the shower- hymns only), get ready and make breakfast by 8.
Then we have personal study until 9 and companion study until 10, training until 11 and language
study until 12. Lunch until 1. A lot of times we have meetings or set
appointments so we can't have full studies, but technically we don't leave the
house until 1:00.
Since we are Spanish speaking, we have a zillion and one
referrals, which is a good thing. We spend a lot of our time tracking these
people down. I have only gone door to door tracting once and that was during
exchanges with the English sisters. Plus tracting is like the least effective
finding tool, but every missionary needs to experience it:) Sometimes we have
set appointments with investigators, but we spend a lot of time teaching
members, especially less active member families. We thankfully have a car. We
wouldn't be very effective Spanish missionaries without one. We are in it...all
the time!!! Hermana Boley is the designated driver because she is the Sr.
companion. I am in charge of the phone. I do a lot of work on it in the
car...well at least I try to. When some Hispanics call and start speaking so fast, I chuck the phone at Boley!! Haha no... I can do a lot, but sometimes we do have
to pull over so she can interpret.
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| Our car - the place where we live! |
I have gotten to the point in my Spanish where I understand what's going
on. I don't understand every single word, but I know what we are talking about.
Now it's just getting frustrating because I can only say a little bit and not my
complete thoughts. Hermana Boley and I are working on speaking Spanish more to
each other, but sometimes (ok like a lot of the time) I have just got to vent
and say what I am thinking and feeling.
And that brings me to my marvelous companion. She is so good to me. Hermana
Boley reminds me so much of two great women in my life- my Grams and my mom. She
is gives so willingly, charitable and selfless like my Grandma. I have to tell
her to put her wallet away and to stop making my bed for me. She always beats me
to it! And she is like my mom in that she is such a great listener. She will
listen to me for hours just talk and talk and talk. She says she thinks I am
funny and we love speaking in different accents! It's da best! I missed her so
much when we went on exchanges. I felt like the other sister didn't really get
my humor...I am so very grateful for Hermana Boley and we will be friends after
the mission. She is from Wyoming, and she is going to hit her year mark this
week!
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| Hermana Boley We had a very crazy day this week and didn't have time for really anything including dinner. So we had ice cream at 9 while we were doing our daily planning. This is how Hermana Boley deals with her stress! haha This is just a beaut! |
More about where we live: The apartments where we live aren't
very sketchy. We are the only white females that I have seen so far, but
we have never had an incident and I never feel unsafe there. We do have a gate
around our complex if that helps to put all of your minds at peace :) They don't
seem to be super old. The only thing I hate is our nasty carpets. And I am more
than positive that a smoker use to live there.
As the only Spanish speaking missionaries in our zone, we cover the whole
stake. That includes West Seattle, Beverley Park, Normandy Park, Seatac, Burien
and Des Moines. It's a big area and we have to be careful not to rack up the
miles. This week was really the first time I have spent really any time in West
Seattle and Des Moines. They are definitely the more wealthier parts of our
zone. So beautiful! In West Seattle you can see the water and the city center.
If I were to move here, this is where I would live. If I could afford to live
here! Des Moines is also near the water and has a nice harbor. We spend most of
our time in the less wealthy parts of Beverley Park, Seatac and Burien.
Especially Burien.
Haha so something that I have learned this week. All the white people
either tell you they are not religious or Christian and all the Hispanics tell
you they are Catholic. They always tell us they are Catholic and look at us like
that's going to detour us or something. Hermana Boley and I were joking around
the other day that we should make a scale. On a scale of 1 to 10, how Catholic
are you? Most of them are around a negative 1, but we did get ourselves into a
Bible bash this week. We kept just baring testimony and walking away, but that
guy was not having it. After walking away all frustrated 45 minutes later, we
found our district leader and his companion and found out that they had been
watching us most of the time and not even helping. Elders! Well, I guess only
one of them would have been able to help us since we were speaking Spanish, but
still. I swear before I was a missionary, I only saw missionaries like twice in
my life. Here, I can't go a day without running into a set of them! It is
awesome though because almost every person in Seattle has talked to missionaries
before so we get to follow up on commitments and talk to them again!
This week the Tongan and Samoan Elders gave us so many referrals that are
on date! Go Elders! So right now we have 8 investigators with baptismal dates,
but only 1 is progressing. She is a 17 year old girl and she is really into the
gospel. We are super excited and praying all will go well so that she can be
baptized on the 27th.
To be honest, I just feel like a stalker sometimes. Hermana Boley and I
sing, "One way or another, I'm gonna find ya! I'm gonna gitcha, gitcha, gitcha!"
A pro-stalker, that's what I am going to be after my mission!
Okay, so I am going to reinforce that challenge I gave you guys last week
because I am serious. Every member needs to be involved in missionary work!
Especially helping less actives!
1. Buy a Preach My Gospel
2. Study it (preferably during Family Home Evening)
3. Have Family Home Evening
4. Every week, report to me what you are learning in PMG
5. Use what you are learning
There is so much work to be done and to be honest, I didn't realize that
members have a stronger influence on the work than missionaries until I came out
here. To retain converts, to teach with power, to keep a ward running, to do
everything we need members. This is the challenge we are giving all the members
in our Branch. It's harder in Utah to do this kind of missionary work, but there
are inactives, less actives and non-members in our neighborhood. Also there is
so much that everyone can do through the media. Elder Bednar just gave a talk
about the media and you can find it at lds.org. I
encourage you to read it so that you can know how to use the media. Also the
talk "Following Up" by Elder Ballard is a really good tool as well. President
Choi has made a really big emphasis on doing work here in Seattle as well as
having my friends and family doing work at home. Just always remember to put the
Lord first.
This week I learned about Saints. I looked it up in the Bible Dictionary
after reading about it in Mosiah 3:19. As members of the church, we take upon
the name of a saint. That means we are set apart and holy for God. Pure for God.
I have been set apart as a missionary and a representative of Christ at this
time, but all of you have been set apart from the world as Saints. To be a Saint
you must be pure and worthy. Keep being faithful members and go to work. I love
you all so much and have a lovely week!
Week 10 Challenge:
Con Amor,
Hermana Stoddard
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