Hermana in the Heartland: Spanish

Mom's note: Her P-Day was pre-empted by a mission-wide conference yestrday, so here is her letter for this week:

5 Questions:

1) What is your new compañera like? Where is she from? How do you get along?

2) How is the new area? How are the investigators? How is the branch?

3) Are you using your language more in the new area? How is that going?

4) Did you get the box with the spring/summer things in it for you?

5) Did you get to watch conference? How was this general conference different from October? Mission field vs. MTC for conference?

1. Okay, well to be completely honest, I think I've got the coolest companion from Orem, UT of all time. No joke. It already feels like we've been together forever and we have so much fun together.
Some random fun facts:

Her dream is to be a fighter pilot for the Navy, but since the dream took root they've retired her plane. But the dream is still strong.
She studied Arabic in high school.
She played rugby in college.
She was originally called to serve in Peru, but after three months was too sick and was sent home. She was then reassigned to this mission, for which I am very grateful. She's technically been out about nine months, but only about six in this mission and so we're co-senior companions.

2. Well. The new area = the promised land. There are so many Latinos! Like, it blows my mind. I didn't realize how scarce they were in Bloomington-Normal. It's amazing here. And then we've got super solid super awesome investigators. The highlight so far is this couple, Juan and Jovita. They have to get married before they get baptized and had picked the date 20 June for their wedding but then, with next to no effort on our part, they decided to move it up about two months and they're now getting married 24 April, baptized 25 April, and confirmed 26 April. SO COOL. It was one of the greatest experiences of my entire life.

And then the branch. So I've been serving in 3 English wards for six months. Which I loved, completely, don't get me wrong. But a Spanish branch is like a dream come true! It's amazing. I'm honestly kind of surprised at how well my Spanish has stuck but I feel like I'm doing pretty good. The members are awesome, especially the Torres Family. Here's why: they have us over for dinner every Friday and feed us enough to last a week (now I understand why so many missionaries in the Spanish
program gain so much weight...) Plus, they're basically willing to drop everything to help us out. Por ejemplo, yesterday it was 8:00 at night and we didn't have a ride home. We finally called them and
explained our situation and their response was "Where are you?" Oh man. They're life savers. We got home before our pumpkin time (:

3. Definitely using the Spanish more. Because I can talk to investigators AND members in Spanish. I feel like my ability to understand has already gotten better which is sweet.

4. Yes, thanks. However, one thing I've decided to do thanks to conference is to either send stuff home or donate it to the sisters exchange so that I don't have so much stuff. So I'll probably be
sending a box home pretty soon.

5. Yes, and it was awesome! Man I love conference. Every time. I ended up just taking one question to conference and got a lot of revelation the first session, but then it was cool to keep getting promptings every now and then throughout the other sessions. We decided to watch one of the speakers in Spanish (the second Elder that gave his talk in Spanish) and I got less out of it than I hoped but still managed to catch bits and pieces. What we ended up actually doing for conference
was this: went to the Schaumburg stake center on Saturday and then to the Bloomingdale chapel on Sunday; the members showed it in Spanish at the chapel on Sunday so we were there because of our investigators that came, but us and the other hermanas went off into another room and watched it in English on the iPads.

One sad thing: of all the times for the internet to go out, it had to be during Elder Holland's talk. I think we all died a little bit every time it stopped working....so we only watched about half of the talk,
unfortunately. It also had problems during President Uchtdorf's but not as bad. haha but so now I'll have to go listen to/watch Elder Holland's talk again. haha guess there are worse things.. (:

This week really quick: has been so weird. Random crazy things have happened and it has not been a normal week (hehe see what I did there...? haha) but the best thing (other than conference) was the
mission conference yesterday. SO GOOD. It was all about Joseph Smith and the First Vision, and then about 50 missionaries shared their testimonies. So it was a fantastic spiritual meeting. And it was
pretty great to only have to drive ~30 minutes to get there, rather than 2 and a half hours...haha
Plus, I got to talk to Elder Craig (the Spanish elder that took over my old area) and, good news! Angelina and Maria are still on date for 25 April! Hopefully I'll get to go, but I'm not so sure (Hna Grant couldn't go to one of her investigator's baptisms when we were in Peoria because we were in Peoria....so I'm worried I won't be able to go because it's in Peoria) but at the very least I can Skype. (: AND! They put Mayra on date for 2 May! So cool. She's the sister of a recent convert of about a year. So I'm pretty stoked for that. Woohoo!

Well, that's about it for this week. Sorry. I just can't think of what to say. Oh! I tried elote this week. It's life changing. Find a panaderia somewhere in Utah and find elote. It was delicious....

And: one of the newest Elders (of last week's transfer) looks like half Daniel Radcliffe, half Wyatt Duclos. I'm not sure how it's possible, but it is.

Now that's it. Love you all! The Gospel's true!
- Hermana DeBuck

P.S. The title of this week's email is courtesy of an Elder from Italy.

Hola familia!

Mom notes: Here are the questions this week :

1) Did you finally get the winter stuff?

2) How was your training last week?

3) I have your boots you wanted in the box for Christmas stuff. Anything else before I ship it this week?

4) Did you have transfers yet? Are you staying in the same place? With the same companion?

5) Did you have a dinner appointment for Thanksgiving this week?

1. Yes. Muchas gracias, momma! Although, you did send way more than I had expected, they are all very much appreciated.

2. Uh, it was good....? Honestly, we're lucky when we do 12 week four times a week....so. It's a bit of a toss up. But it's good. Everyone says they love this program. And I think it's really helpful. So it's great. The trouble for us is just making the time. Cause it feels like we are always just go go go. Haha ah well. It's good.

3. Nothing comes to mind now.... But maybe I'll remember to come back to this.

Oh, thought of something! So I'll maybe/probably get to Skype or FaceTime y'all for Christmas so you're not allowed to open my gifts/cards for you until that call. That's all I want for Christmas (:

4. Transfers are tomorrow. But we're both staying here. This is Hna Israelsen's last transfer, as well as Sister Oliphant and Elder Skinner. So the only two (?) leaving are Elder Nielson and Elder Bennet. (We're still not sure if Elder Olsen is staying or leaving. We will find out on Wednesday...)

5. Yes, we've been asked by multiple members so we're definitely okay on the thanksgiving account, now we've gotta try to get appts that day....

Okay, well I don't wanna re type a bunch of stuff so here's what I sent Presidente and then I'll add more info. (Sorry it's in Spanish. Just plug it in to google translate and maybe it'll make sense...)

Pues, esta semana fue muy bien. Por algunas razones.

Primero, ¡Charlie fue al bautismo en Sábado! El problema es que él tiene como miedo de muchas personas....entonces, cuando él fue a la iglesia ayer, no estaba muy bien para su mente, supongo....y él nos dijo concerniente de sus problemas y no sabía cómo responder.... ¡Lo sentí mucho! Ay.... No sé. Pero, sé que Dios sabe, porque Jesucristo se ha sentido lo que Charlie se siente. Lo que he aprendido el más esta semana es como cuan bendiciones que tengo, y las bendiciones he tenido todo mi vida. Y yo sé que es por medio del evangelio restaurado de Jesucristo. Estoy tan agradecida por eso.

También, pasamos a la casa de la familia Rodas en Martes. Son muy amables y lindos. Ellos se movieron hace una semana de Los Ángeles. Son de Guatemala; la Hermana Rodas no es conversa (sus abuelos son conversos) pero el Hermano Rodas es así. Tienen tres hijos: quienes tienen 18, 8, y 3 (?) años. Su hijo que tiene 8 años está tan emocionado para ser bautizado,my él tiene mucho amor por el Libro de Mormón. De estar con ellos fue una experiencia que nunca voy a olvidarme. También me di cuenta de la diferencia entre los hogares de los miembros y los que no son miembros. No sé porque no la he visto antes, pero ahora yo la veo.

Pues, la obra aquí está muy bien. Todos los misioneros están dispuestos para trabajar duro, yo pienso. Está un buen tiempo para ser misionera para mi. Me encanta el sentimiento al fin del día cuando tengo mucho sueño por causa de la obra. ¡Es excelente!

Mom note: here is what she just said thanks to Google translate:

Well, this week went very well. For some reasons.
First, Charlie was baptized on the Sabbath! The problem is that he has the fear of crowds .... then when he went to church yesterday, was not very good for your mind, I guess .... and he said concerning their problems and did not know how respond .... I felt sorry fro him! Oh .... I do not know. But I know that God knows, because Jesus Christ has felt what Charlie feels. What I have learned the most this week is like how I have blessings, and blessings I've had all my life. And I know that it is through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for that.

Also, we went to the home of the Rodas en Martes family on Sunday. They are very friendly and cute. They moved a week ago from Los Angeles. They are from Guatemala; Sister R is not a convert (her grandparents are converts) but Brother R is. They have three children who are 18, 8 and 3 years (?). His son who is 8 is so excited to be baptized, he has much love for the Book of Mormon. Being with them was an experience I'll never forget. I also noticed the difference between the homes of members and nonmembers. I do not know because I have not seen before, but now I see.

Well, the work here is fine. All missionaries are willing to work hard, I think. It is a good time to be a missionary for me. I love the feeling at the end of the day when I need a lot of sleep because I've worked hard. It's great!

Okay. Also, before I forget, I am officially a Facebook missionary. So if you want to add me you can but absolutely NO messages or posts on my wall or anything. If we become friends with family we have to unfollow them so that we're not distracted. But if you wanna do that, you can.

So Tuesday last week was zone training. Pres. talked about the principles of eternal families and how thAts what we ought to be focusing on when we teach people. So that was really beneficial. After all of us sisters went to lunch at an Asian buffet. It was fun. One sister said I looked almost exactly like one of her companions; she showed me a picture and it's true. It was so weird.....

Uh......I'm not sure what else happened.

Julia told us that she's been praying and reading (listening) to the Book of Mormon but hasn't felt like she's gotten an answer, but she basically told us that when she does she'll quit her job so she can come to church, so now we've just gotta help her recognize it. Also, kinda funny in this lesson: we had a member with us and Julia kinda started going off on how we (misioneras) can't relate to her because we're too young and don't have kids and all this because she thinks we just pray all day. (She also told us a while ago that she didn't want to join the church because she thought she'd have to be a missionary basically. Haha) So that was kind of odd. We told her we weren't offended, which was true, but it was just random. Luckily our member she could relate to.

The Acevedos family didn't come to church yesterday......but, granted, their daughter was sick. But still. We were really disappointed. However, we think we are making headway with Juan Antonio, so that's a plus.

Last week we had 19 people on date as a zone--10 as a district but now we're down to 5. Satan is trying so hard to stop the work. But we know that he'll never win, not in the long run.

I wish I had like two extra hours of study every day. One is not enough for personal study.....but. Oh well.

Oh, a while ago we had stake conference, and President Fenn spoke. He's really just so great. I'm so sad they're going home this next year.... They're just so awesome! Ah. Anyway. I wish you all could hear him speak...

The other day in Relief Society, the teacher brought up how in Downton Abbey, they deliberated over getting a refrigerator. (It was related to the lesson somehow.) But anyway, I thought of you, momma.

Also, last week in the Normal Ward was a mission homecoming. Yeah, that was really weird....

We made scalloped potatoes today. Unfortunately we FORGOT to buy ham at the store, and then the first disc we put it in didn't fit in the microwave and the second dish (belongs to a member who brings food for us and the sisters s dry Sunday so we got it from the sisters) but it didn't have a cover so we just used a circular lid.... I'll send a picture. Anyway so they weren't fantastic but ah well. We tried. Haha

Also, I felt kinda bad for not sending any pictures for a while so I'll send some in a separate email--we're not repeating week one....

Also, so I bought a keyboard for this hunk of junk (I'm just kidding. I respect the church's choice to use Apple products but it just might be the death of me.... And again, I know I have no room to complain so just bear with me.) and yesterday the keyboard decided it wasn't going to type two diagonal rows of keys--including a key included in the password for this iPad. So..... Luckily they let me return it at Walmart today (without a receipt, I might add) so that was really nice. I'm debating if I try again with either the same or different brand or do I buy a cover without a keyboard? I dunno. We'll see in a week I suppose.

Well, that's about it this week I think. I promise I write in my journal every day so in approximately 15.5 months you can go through it and see what I really did on my mission. (:

Can you believe I've been gone three months? Cause I can't. Wow. Time really does fly....

Anyway. Love you. I love this Gospel. I love the work, and how it is forcing me to grow. If I don't come out of this a completely different person, I did something wrong. Thank you for all the love and support.

Con Todo Mi Amor,

Tu Hija y Amiga,

Hermana DeBuck