Holla Familia. <-- that was the black way of saying it. It's something that I really like to do here since as a Spanish speaker we're supposed to say "hola" but I don't. I say holla' (as in holler back y'all). That or 'ello mate. Don't ask me why. Sometimes I can't explain the things that I do. It makes me happy don't judge.
That was a really random beginning. My bad. A couple things, how many people are actually reading this e-mail? I was thinking family...maybe a couple ward members? Do I need to try to act more professional? Because I can. I'm pretty sure I can anyways. I'd try. Nevermind. I don't want to know. Pretend I'm cool. It sounds like you guys are having fun. Way to get to know some Rugby players. Tongans are always so nice. And scary all at the same time. We have this Tongan Elder who plays volleyball with us everytime and he has a super hard serve and he likes to spike it right in your face. Well, he doesn't try to hit your face, but your face just happens to be in the way. Therefore, ouch. The Elder is really nice though. I miss playing rugby sometimes. That was always fun.
I'm also glad to hear March Madness is thriving. I'm glad BYU isn't out yet, although I have to admit I almost forgot about march madness. I would have completely forgotten except Hermana Habel's brother-in-law is Noah something or other. The really tall one. He got into foul trouble last time? I don't remember his last name. The point is, relation, we took a picture with his newspaper closeup, the whole district did. The things we do to accomodate some people. I don't actually know who this kid is. But I'm glad everyone is enjoying it. I'm glad we gamble every year, it makes things more interesting. I'm glad I didn't this year because I'm pretty sure I'd be losing.
So, fun news of this week. I killed my companion. Well, killed is an overstatement. But it was a close call. So, I've been working on trying to love people I don't really know (something that should be easy to do, but for me is not. I like to know people first before I decide whether or not I want to continue to know them. Details). And loving my companion even though we had been struggling teaching together, we're both not confident, and essentially it's a minor tiff every time to push the other person to lead the lesson and not ourselves. So I was trying to work on that, and I was praying for charity, and to just want to serve her. So the Lord decided what Hermana Whitehead needed was a ruptured eardrum. I'm sorry. That's not what I wanted. But we are a lot closer this week and our teaching is doing much better. The story goes like this: after the temple last week Hermana Whitehead was just shaking and she nearly passed out. So I made her take a nap (which means I got one too! I miss naps. :( ) When she woke up she had built up some pressure in her ear. She tries to tough it out but by night time it's killing. So we call the on-call doctor who doesn't want to come in, prescribes her oxycodon and tells her to come see her in the morning. 1:30 de la manana rolls around and after having slept a half hour (it took her two hours of midnight strolling to get tired enough to try to sleep, the pain meds hadn't worked) she wakes up with blood on her pillow. Oops, dr.'s bad. We go see him in the morning and he's all "sorry, we usually try to stop this kind of thing before it happens." Well, we did call you last night......So essentially she can't hear out of her right ear (which is where I naturally sit of course). It is kind of funny though, because when she prays she's afraid she's speaking really loud so she'll bend over and talk into her knees, but then I can't hear her so I'll bend down close to her knees and then she'll figure out she's fine and move up, and then I follow. It's a moving circus. She can't distinguish noises from that ear yet. Which makes teaching interesting, because she can't hear the investigator.....shoot.
Other news, do you remember Elder Proctor? He's the one who gained 13 lbs in four days? He's been struggling too. A while ago his heart started giving him problems. His family has a hereditary condition that causes an irregular heartbeat. It was the saddest thing because when the doctor's found out about it they said they would have to monitor him. If the problem didn't decrease then they were going to reassign him to somewhere in the states where they could monitor his condition. I felt so bad for Elder Proctor. He is a very happy guy, he actually reminds me a lot of Ethan, very spunky, gets off topic, studies the best when there is a game involved. And he was thoroughly depressed for like two days. Which, to be fair I would have been too. But he got a blessing on Sunday and he says his heart hasn't hurt since. He's going back to the Dr's tomorrow to see what they say. Hopefully he'll still get to go to Argentina. That's where he really wants to go.
The last experience I wanted to share with you comes from Sunday night. Every time we have a district that's leaving, we'll get together as a zone and have a testimony meeting, where the departing missionaries give advice and bare their testimonies to us (tangent, when you're bearing your testimony which form of the word "bare" do you use? I obviously have no idea). It was really good, and even though I didn't know these Elders like incredibly well, I was still crying. One told this story and I wanted to share it:
" So, a long time ago I had a best firend that I loved very much. This friend meant everything to me. We did everything together up there and never left each others side. Life was great and often times when me and him were hanging out we would think about our future call. We would guess what our call was going to be like, and dreamed about it every night. We had it all figured out! we were going to be together and be friends down there too. well the day we had been dreaming about for years finally came. the day we received our call. as i opened mine i read " you have been called to a city in the united states, you will be with a loving family. you will have parents that love you more than anything. sisters and brothers that will always be by your side, and great friends to cheer you up when you are down. but finally, you will have the truth of God in your life and the gospel of Jesus Christ to pick you up in those times of struggle." oh man, i was so happy as i read my call out loud to my best friend. we celebrated for a few minutes and then it was my friends turn to open his call. he quickly tore open the envelope, unfolded the letter and read...' you have been called to a small, poor village in Southern Argentina, you and your family will struggle greatly not knowing if you will have food the next day. you will not have the gospel in your life. you will live knowing and feeling everyday that a piece of you is missing. you will feel empty inside and will struggle to be happy"
'my heart dropped as my dear friend began to sob and struffle to read the rest. I was speechless as my friend congratulated me and dropped his head. my dreams and wishes quickly changed. as now i wished i could trade him and take his calling. but i knew that couldn't be. It was time to go down now. I grabbed my best friend and hugged him with all my might and said "i love you now and always will. i promise you, i will find youso i can bring you the truth, purpose, and happiness into you life., be patient my friend. i will come" his last words as he descended away from me to earth were "i'm counting on you. Don't let me down. I'll be waiting."
It was a really touching story, and pretty much everyone was crying. That was from our zone leader, Elder Reid (great last name). But it also kind of helped me to gain a new perspective. I've never been one to force my opinions on others. and for the first couple of weeks here I really struggled because I felt I was trying to manipulate people into conversations that they may have not wanted. I was interrupting peoples lives when they didn't even know me. and I did not like it. I know that this Gospel is true, but I was struggling to find a way to share it with out being an overbearing, annoying/attacking person on the street. We all have our agency, we all have the ability and freedom to choose. That's what america is. The land of the free. And I struggled with that a lot. But this is something that this story kind of showed me and helped me realize.
I am not forcing anyone to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives. I don't want that. God doesn't want that, Christ doesn't want that. I have been called by God, set apart and ordained to be a minister of Christ's church so i can INVITE people to come unto Christ. There is no forcing involved. But I have seen the blessings of it in my own life. And if I haven't shared my testimony with you before this point I apologize. As a missionary that's what I do. I testify, I don't force, I don't coerce. I just promise you that God loves you. There is a reason we are here. The experiences, good and bad, that we share, are making us better people because we have the opportunity to respond to all of them. And this I know. Christ is central to my salvation. And because of that, Christ is central to my life. I have the ability to repent and be with my family forever because of him. That's what the Atonement is, it's an invitation to be happy forever, because I can become clean always, no matter what mistakes I make. As I continue to turn to Christ, I will continually be forgiven. There is no sin, no mistake, no problem, no infirmity, nothing, that isn't covered by the Atonement. Something one of the Elders said applies here as well. Christ suffered alone in the Garden of Gethsemane so that we all could be happy. But he doesn't deserve to be alone anymore. And I won't leave him. We can't leave him alone. Christ has done so much for us. What kind of grateful lot would we be if we turned our back on him? Worthless. And I refuse. I will not turn my back on my God, and my Savior Jesus Christ. And I know that.
I love you all.
Hermana Reed
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