Behold! A Royal Army!

I LOVE TEXAS.

Wow. My whole life I have imagined the perfect location for my future farm. Nobody told me it existed and that it is Texas. The weather here right now is beautiful. And the humidity is just right. Everybody keeps telling me, "Yeah but you're in for a hurtin' this summer." But, you know what? I don't care. I will find reasons to love it then too. Ok.

Where to begin? I have been assigned to the Houston 6-Hafer area. It's really close to the mission home. It's in the suburb area north of Houston near the town of Spring, if that helps you find it on a map. Our area covers parts of Houston and Spring. The area is one of the only "Zebra" areas which means it contains Spanish and English missionaries. We get referrals for them, and they reciprocate. We try to only find Latinos though, which is easier than you might think. They like to collect little statues, plants, and things for their front yards.

 

My trainer is a dream come true. Her name is Hermana Villanueva, she's about 23 and from North Carolina, but her parents are El Salvadorian, so she is really good at Spanish which has been great. I've asked her only to talk to me in Spanish, so I'm still picking up the language pretty fast. She actually thinks I'll be able to be fluent really fast too, and it's nice to have that encouragement. Hma Villanueva is practical, to the point, really open, and really intuitive. Everyone tells me she is one of the best missionaries in the mission. I've definitely already seen that one of her strengths is how she lifts and supports others. The members, the missionaries, and all our investigators really love and depend on her, and I hope to learn to be like her.

 

Let me tell you about my first few days here. First of all, road kill here is not cats and squirrels. It's those things that hang upside down in trees (not bats) with the big eyes?

 The members are awesome. They feed us ALL THE TIME. Like, I haven't had to eat at our apartment yet other than apples and nuts. My first night here we went over to the Escobars, the bishops parents, for dinner then we went and contacted a less active member later and the first thing his wife said when we walked in was "Oh! hi hermanas! You like pork?" They were from El Salvador and she brought out this delicous sweet cake that they call "quesadilla" and little bite sized fried pork to wrap up in her homemade tortillas. And while we talked they just kept saying EAT! Eat! Have another. I've also had food from Mexico, Honduras, and Ecuador. I was asked to bear my testimony to introduce myself in church yesterday and when i got up there I said something in Spanish like, "I don't know much Spanish, but I love the language, I love these people, and I love their food." BIG mistake. After the meeting Hma Flores said we have to come eat her Chili, Hma Ovalla said we have to come get her Tamales, and there are many other dinner apts in the works. The members definitely lift my spirits and fill me with purpose to be here! I am filled with love for them and for those who have been prepared to join them in coming to Christ.

 However, these first days have been kindof hard for me. I think somebody needs to tell the MTC to calm themselves down because they set some pretty unrealistic expectations. I don't think they realize that I plan to do exactly what they tell me. So when I marched down here, ready to change the world, full of true "greenie" enthusiasm, it was really hard to realize ALL of the things we had to do other than preach the gospel. We had to give the other hermanas a ride to their car, figure out luggage situations, get a bike rack put on our car (we get to ride bikes sometimes to save miles! Yippee!). I was sweating bullets over the fact that we hadn't talked to anyone about Jesus Christ yet. I had no idea if we were using our time effectively or not and I just was so afraid of disappointing the Lord and my mission President, but my awesome trainer helped me relax. She said she had the same problem of realizing everything that has to go on besides teaching and that it's ok to do service, and stop and chat for awhile with people, etc. So I have gained a lot of comfort and assurance from listening to my trainer, believing she IS the best missionary in the mission, and trying to adjust my hopes to the reality of hard mission work.

 Everything has been so hectic with this transfer (every single sister that was here before has had to become a trainer to accomodate the sisters that came out this transfer. We doubled the number. And they're expecting more in 6 weeks.) that we have just been scrambling for time to teach. We haven't been able to plan yet and we could really use a planning day. My companion is still getting to know the area, so we are really craving a good sit-down where we map out all the less-actives, inactives, investigators, and referrals, and try to get a handle on everything happening in our area so we know how to best use time. We've knocked doors for quite a few hours this week, found a few new investigators, and spent a lot of time trying to visit less active members.

I love my President and his family. He is the most wonderful man. The only man I think I could respect in even the same realm as Dad. He is full of light and love and the best example of a missionary. He talks to everyone he sees (everyone. you should have seen him at the airport.) he just runs around almost like he's saying, "have you heard the good news? We're all saved!"

 Okay! Until next week!