Monday, September 2, 2013

A Tuff Week to Swallow


UUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

I´ll be honest, I had a goal before the mission to only ever have happy, peppy emails. And maybe it´s just because today was super rough. But, I think I´ll start with the happy stuff first and you can just forward and blog that.

So. The good. I think the best thing that happened this week was that our District Leaders worked with us for an afternoon, and whatever they did, a light bulb went on in my head and now I feel a billion times more confident in contacting and teaching. For whatever reason, I wasn´t being real, I was just following a script, because that´s what we had been practicing as a companionship. But yeah, I have a goal to learn as much as I can from my trainer, but then still be my own missionary. Part of me hopes that I´ll have two different trainers, so I can learn different ways of doing this and decide which I like best...but then I also really like Hma. F.... We get along really well, for the most part. We have a lot in common, all that good stuff. We just have polar opposite teaching styles.

Other good stuff...oh I made guacamole for our Zone today. Except they don´t sell salsa in Ecuador, so I subbed and just added tiny cut up onions and tomatoes and it worked pretty well...everyone of course loved it. But if you did send me a guac package that would be pretty great. And speaking of packages nobody went to the office today, so I think maybe on Thursday I might get some of your stuff. Yeah, you never need to send peanut butter again. They  have this magic store called SuperMaxi and they have basically everything there that I need. Granted, a lot of the stuff I need is expensive, but It´s still cheaper than sending it in a package. Homemade stuff is like magic, I love it. Except the guac today made me a tiny bit homesick, but it´s okay. I haven´t been distracted, at all. For everything that´s happened, I feel like my heart is 100% in the work. Oh!! Other good thing. On Saturday we had members work with us all day. It was probably the most successful day of the mission so far. Seriously, anyone who is reading this, if you aren´t out helping the missionaries, who do you think you are!? I wish I could stress how much the missionaries need the help of the members. Volunteer to have a FHE in your home one night or something, that´s the kind of stuff we need. Our ward mission leader reminds me of the guy in the movie Up.

I suppose I should tell you about my investigators, haha. Right now we have a married couple, they are a little bit older but probably the most receptive people we´ve had. The husband loves all stuff religion, used to be a Jehovah´s witness, which is usually bad news bears, and we´ve met lots of people who love religion so they´ll let us in but won´t actually progress, but he is actually progressing. He loves the BoM. His wife let us in because she was feeling spiritually empty but she is progressing, saying her prayers, all that good stuff. Love it!! Then we have another teenage girl who is sort of quiet but I can tell she is really gaining a testimony, and she loves coming to church. This week all the Young Women took her in under their blessed wings, and it was wonderful. I also play the piano for our ward now, on a little electric keyboard. Haha it is wonderful.

I decided something. Anybody who was born into the church, in the United States, is absolutely, remarkably blessed. We all have our challenges, but seriously I always took for granted living in Utah and living so close to where all the stuff was going on in the Church. People here dream and dream and dream of being able to go to General Conference someday, and for me it´s like...yeah maybe I´ll try to get a ticket a few months later. Also, I´ve seen what a difference it makes having temples close by. People don´t really make the temple a priority here cuz it´s so far away, and I see members, who have been to the temple, start to fall away because they can´t return often enough to be reminded of their covenants. I can´t wait to be able to live in a place again where we have 16 temples 6 hours between each other instead of having to drive 8 hours just to go to one. Anyways, I´m probably definitely going to for sure live in Utah when I´m older, or the very least somewhere close to a temple so I can go every week. I got pretty temple homesick this week because we were speculating about the new movie and reminiscing on the old. Haha. Good times.

Okay, to be honest, I don´t know who all is reading my emails...haha...but I hope I never offend anyone. That´s why I´m saying maybe sending this part out may not be the best idea because it´s about to get....let´s just say I´m going to start talking about more cold showers and abnormal bowel movements.

First, the food IS going to kill me. Dad, I prayed once that I would be able to enjoy the food, and the mamita served us Cerviche.  Aaaaah. Usually my "magic foods" are rice and tortillas. In the CCM, I would just shove whatever food into a tortilla and I could eat it. Here, I just mix it with rice and I can usually eat it. Except the Cerviche. Luckily Hrmna. F... had the foresight to eat all of hers and then switch me bowels, but yeah. My other "formula of survival" is to put the food in my mouth, take a drink, and swallow it whole. Every meal time is so stressful because there´s always one thing that I absolutely can´t stand, and I have to get creative in how I´ll clean off my plate. I get sick every once or twice a week, and unfortunately this week was today. It´s always at 2:30 in the morning, and the next day I feel like crud. But last week I bought a bunch of saltines, and this week I ate almost an entire package of Saltines because I was pretty sure that would help and basically it didn´t. But today was bastante stressful because we were completely broke, and we spent like three hours looking for a working ATM, and then every week our Zone thinks we need to have a zone activity on P'day, and it takes up like the entire day and we never get anything done. Good thing I don´t have very many emails today. But we didn´t have time to clean today and our bathroom looks like a war zone, oh and our water hasn´t been hot for the past few days. Unrelated, my hair hasn´t been very clean for the past few days. Yeah, basically everything went wrong today, and right now my body is trying to tell me that it wants to dispel everything I´ve put into it today, which is a lot of crackers and a crud ton of rice because Mondays I usually get to take a break from the strange food of Ecuador, but at our Zone activity they decided to take all day to make more of the strange food of Ecuador, ah I was so mad, so I just gave it to my companion and ate guacamole while my body made angry sounds at me.

Anyways, that´s my negative shpeel for the week. Sorry this email isn´t as upbeat as the others, it´s just been a really, really difficult week. But I pray for you all every day and please keep praying for me, heaven knows that I need it. I´ll send you some pictures too.

Thanks for all you do!!! I love you all so very very much!!!

Love, Hermana Carter

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