July 20, 2009

I know I am really behind on this blog. I apologize to everyone who logs on to see if there is anything new and then is disappointed. Anyway, here are excerpts from Tiffany's July 20th correspondence:

"Only one week left of this transfer! I found out the name of the new hermana that is coming next week, it's Emily Bonner. I thought the next one coming was supposed to be a native speaker but Sister Moffat (my Mission President's wife) said no, she's been at the MTC for 9 weeks, which means she was there for the last 3 weeks I was there. I wonder if I ever saw her...? I'm excited to meet her."

"Oh and guess what... I have to speak again this Sunday! Crazy. Maybe they really liked my jumbled bad grammar talk last time, who knows... No, this time its going to be all 4 missionaries that are serving in this branch. One of the Elders, Elder Campbell (the one who baptized Gabriela and Natalie) this is going to be his first time speaking in Sacrament Meeting while on his mission and he has been out for about a year. And this is already my second speaking assignment. Wow."

"This past week we made a type of Mexican food Mole (Mo-lay) at a member's house - Hermana Munoz taught her how to do it. This family is from Guatemala - the Samayoa family. Well I guess in Guatemala they don't eat very spicy food, like we don't. So Hermana Munoz says that there are different types of Mole and the kind we made was dulce (sweet). Well Hermana Samayoa and I both took a bite and both thought it was extremely hot/spicy. I don't think I want to try the non-dulce Mole. "

"They opened up a new sky train in Seattle on the 18th, so that was kind of fun. We didn't get to ride it though. Lots of things to do, so no time to ride it. We might ride it some day (on a P-day) though. "

"Well we have 3 people on date now! Still Carlos, although we had to move his baptism date back from the 25th of July to the 22nd of August because he has an old girlfriend living in the same house as him and while he says it's not a law of chastity problem, he doesn't feel right getting baptized until she is gone. Although when we mentioned the date of the 22nd, he asked 'what if I want it to be sooner?' That's so good. And then the other 2 that we have on date are kind of iffy... I can't decide about them. Evelia and Paulino, Evelia has a drinking problem and she can't read. I think she really like talking to us and learning but she can't read the Book of Mormon on her own, and her husband Paulino is a really nice guy and he can read, but I just don't sense the motivation or desire to learn from him. He likes to watch futbol (soccer) on TV a lot! So he doesn't get around to reading with his wife very often. Although it has only been 6 days so I guess I shouldn't worry too much. They did come to church yesterday. Oh yeah, that reminds me of a story. So the first time we met them, while tracting, we set up a lesson at a neighbor's house that is a member, and Evelia brought her little kitten with her. I think the kitten is only a few months old, her little gato, gatito (whenever you ad "ito" to the end of a word it means little. So gatito means little cat.) The gatito just laid on Evelia's shoulder the whole lesson, I thought, well that's the calmest kitten I've ever seen. Well it turns out that Evelia is always holding it and takes it everywhere with her. At the end of the less we set up a church tour with them and then when we met them at the church, she had her cat with her, so she brought her cat into the church for the church tour. lol. Then on Sunday, I guess they didn't know how long church was, so they told us after gospel principles class that they were going to go. We asked why and they said that the cat was in the car, but that they would come and stay all 3 hours next week. LOL, I hope that they don't bring the cat in church next time. :) Anyway, so they are on date right now for the 26th of August. Its in the middle of the week because it's Evelia's birthday and she wants to get baptized on her birthday."

"We also taught this guy named Jose. We tracted into him as well, in fact he is the neighbor of Evelia and Paulino. He was orphaned when he was young and when he would try to go to church the pastors would get mad at him because they would think that he was going to try to steal from them. So he doesn't go to church now, but he likes to read the bible and other religious books. So we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and a pamphlet on the restoration and set up a church tour with him to teach him about the restoration. When he came to the church he ha read the pamphlet and had some questions, which is good. Most people won't even take the time to read the pamphlet, let alone think about it to have questions. So we answered his questions, invited him to church and set up another appointment with him. But then when we stopped by to visit him for a minute, since we were in the area, he had more questions. We can't go into his house unless there is another woman in the house, so we asked if he wanted to go over to the neighbor, who is a member, and sit outside on her patio and talk, but he said that she offended him once, so we just stayed on the porch and answered his questions. At the end he said that he was going to buy a Spanish bible, because he only had an English one, so that he could understand better and learn more. Then we left and after we left, he called us to cancel his appointment and to say that he wouldn't come to church on Sunday because he wanted to learn more first. Hermana Munoz was like that's why we're here, is to teach you, but I guess that he still feels like he needs to know more to talk to us and that he would call us."

"It's so crazy, everyone here is so poor. Most of the people live in apartments, and the rest live in trailers. In fact I have only been in one member's house that is actually a house. It makes me appreciate what I have. There are a lot of people that don't have jobs right now in the branch, which is hard because the branch can't do much to help them, because they don't have much money because 1) there aren't many members to pay tithing and fast offerings and 2) there the people that are in the branch don't really make much, so what they give, while it is generous, isn't very much. It's hard."

"We met this family this week. Norma and her daughters. Norma is married, but I haven't met her husband yet, because he works all of the time. There were a referral from the English-speaking Elders that tracted into them, but it turns out they are members. They have only lived in the place they do for a couple of months so they didn't know where the church was, and they don't have a car or a phone, so they couldn't get there if they did. They lived in Washington, then Norma's dad, who lived in Mexico, died suddenly. So they sold all they owned and went down there to help out. So now that they are back, they have to start all over. In fact they lived on the street for a little while. It's sad because the kids are 9, 14, 16 and 20. They are really nice though. The first time we met them, we stopped after an appointment that wasn't there. At that appointment we were going to show the lady how to make cookies, so when we stopped by Norma's we had everything we needed to make cookies, so we did. It was amazing to see their eyes light up when we mentioned cookies. I don't think they have had anything like that for a while. They really don't have much of anything."

"This week we had interviews with President Moffat. I can see why Keaton loved him as a Mission President." I can just feel the spirit radiating from him, and the love he has for all of us missionaries. I think it will be weird when we get a new mission president next summer."

"Well I love you all and think that my time is almost up. I do want to share one thing I learned in personal study this week though. It's in Helaman 3... It's kind of a random chapter, so the first time I read it, I thought why is this in here? So I read it again, because I know all of the words in there are in there for a reason. It made me think of the saying that necessity is the mother of invention (or something like that). In verse 7 it says that because they had little timber they became expert with cement, and if you think about all of the ancient ruins in South American, it's amazing that they are still there. So yeah, I would say they were expert in cement. It made me think that sometimes we don't always have what we think we want, or even think we need, but that if we trust in the Lord, everything will work out for our own good. And that through trials we can become stronger."

"I love you all and hope all is well. - Love, Hermana Hoskins"