Hola family:)
First, let me get down to the nitty-gritty..probably not how you
spell that! So yes mom I went to the doctor yesterday evening because my asthma
got super bad and I had a high fever and so my companions made me go to the
doctor. So when I got there the doctor was like, oh it's just a cold then he
asked me, wait do you have asthma? As he was hearing my back and my chest with
his doctor thing and then he was hearing my breathing and as he's using his
doctor tool, he goes "oh no.." and then it freaked me out so
apparently there's some kind of infection from my asthma and he gave me an
inhaler and then 2 other antibiotics and they're steroids...so let's just say I
felt like a super druggy when I was walking back to the campus with my steroids
in my mysterious white medicine bag they gave me. I have another appointment on
Monday at 8:20 to follow up and he said if it's still as bad as it was then
I'll be admitted to the emergency room. He had me take a breathing test that
went to 1,000 but I barely got to 200 so I mega failed. I didn't have a fever
this morning before the temple and I think it's because Heavenly Father blessed
me so I would be able to go because as soon as I got back it shot back up to
101.6. This is probably really scaring you but don't let it because I'm in the
Lord's hands! And he has my back :) And so do my companions haha they won't let
me do anything physical. Basically I slept for 11 hours last night and woke up
in the middle of the night sweating so bad there was like a pool of sweat. tmi
sorry. But if I get sent to the emergency room then you'll probably be
notified, so all is well :)
Okay!!! My week! Our investigator, Ana Maria was here on
Wednesday..not it was Thursday and we were giving her a lesson and after we all
taught her she comes out to say bye to us, then walks back in as hermana Martinez
and she is our other teacher!!!! Basically I was so stoked. I feel like I
already love and know her. She only speaks Spanish and she speaks a little
English that she's learning at BYU. Her English is like our Spanish to say the
least. But she is so great I feel so blessed to have her as our teacher. She is
such a blessing and brings the strongest spirit wherever she goes.
Also, Last Sunday my disctrict went to a devotional and Elder
Bednar gave a talk that waas called, The Character of Christ and you should all
look it up because there are so many things in there that can apply to
everyone. Some of the things that were in there were getting over yourself.
This mission isn't about me and I can't be telling myself "I want I want I
want" or, "yo quiero, yo quiero, yo quiero". My mission is about
serving Him and bringing others closer to Christ. My desire or my purpose for
my mission can't be to benefit myself, because nothing will happen if that's my
motive. If I work hard to bring others unto Christ, and if I focus on the
spirit then the blessings will be given to me as I go. Also, you should all
read Ether 3:4-6. When you read this think about the following: "If you
pray and sit and wait, you'll be sitting for a long time". You need to ACT!
That's key. If you don't act and if you expect the blesssings to just come
without you putting forth effort, you'll be there waiting for the blessings for
a long long time. Also in Bednar's talk he talked a lot about when everyone
turns inward to focus on themselves, Christ turns outward to help other people.
When Christ just finished suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, his 3
apostles, Peter, James and John, fell asleep while he was out there suffering
for all of our sins! After that they were walking and Christ was about to be
crucified while some mean guards came and were being way rude and Peter cut off
one of the guard's ears. In my head, I'm like, You show em who's boss Peter!
But in that moment Jesus Christ took a moment and healed the guard's ear...when
they were about to kill Him. Pretty cool huh? I would have been like, you
deserved it mean guard but JC always turns outward in service and love and
Charity and I want to be that kind of missionary! But like I said earlier, it
takes me doing something about it.
So basically Hermano Hammond, one of our teachers, is the best
and he said this during the week and I loved it: "If you're feeling
discouraged during your mission, you're thinking about yourself". Which is
really true. There have been 2 times this week that I've been super homesick
and one day I went in the bathroom and cried a little bit and I said a prayer
and immediately after that I just realized that everything is so okay. I have a
family and friends and an awesome support group in my life with whom I feel so
much love and support from everyday. By the way I showed everyone my family in
my district beacause we were all doing that one day and Hermana Tu'akalau says,
you are a spitting image of your mom Hermana Rome!! And also she called me her
barbie doll because she says I am so girly. She said that in her cool New
Zealand accent might I add.
Oh oh oh before I forget, okay Elder * is really a sweet
spirit but he falls asleep seriously all the time. One day this week we were practicing
teaching lessons to eachother and Elder Giliam and Elder Evans were teaching
him...mid lesson Elder * falls asleep and they asked him a question and
he didn't even wake up!! And then he woke up and listened for about 5 seconds
then went to sleep again while the Elders were asking him another question. Oh
my gosh he kills me.
Then there's Elder Royster, basically he's a boy version of me
and one day he was talking about elder Anderson's spanish and he says a=in a
valley boy accent (he does the acccent to try and make fun of me) and he goes,
"he was speaking super fast, and super illegibly" hahaha. We were
like..illegibly is for writing? and Also, we were in the middle of a lesson and
we looked at a page that combined 'a' and 'el' into 'al' (mom, ask dad he'll
know what I'm talkin about" and Elder Royster goes, "'A' plus
'el' equals 'al'? I didn't know spanish had math in it too!! Haha. too funny.
And one day the elders took my camera on one of their nature walks and took a
bunch of selfies. They didn't bring cameras so the pictures I send to you I'm
sending to their mother's as well per their mom's request.
Oh something else kinda cool that I got to do. There were 2
teachers that wanted to do a mock lesson for my district and wanted me to be
the investigator and the lesson was almost an hour and a half. Let's just say
my brain felt overloaded with all of their fast-paced spanish! But I got done
and Elder Evans and Elder Royster told me "Hermana, you did so well. I
couldn't follow along and I understood about 18% of their Spanish"
So it made me feel good and honestly the Spirit makes up so much of the
lack of spanish I have. But I am learning and all will be well.
My companionship had a lesson for real yesterday, but the people
are workers pretending to be investigators. It was...hard. Their names are Hely
and Jose and they are married and super cute together. We taught them about
spanish and what not and they asked if we would teach them again this coming
Wednesday! Cool ya?
Being on a routine here at the MTC has helped me to be a more
focused person all around and the lack of sleeping in until 9:30 doesn't even
bother me anymore. Every morning we wake up at 6:15 to say companionship prayer
then personal prayer then we get ready until 6:55 and then we go to breakfast
until 7:30. After that we have personal study until 8:30 where we read
scriptures or study Spanish and then we go have companionship study until 9:30
where we plan lessons and memorize things like Joseph Smith's vision and our missionary
purpose all in Spanish. from 9:30 to 10:30 we have language stydy which we do
with our whole district and then from 10:30 to 11:40 we have gym time where we
cando cardio or play basketball or volleyball and stuff like that which I love.
It wakes me up. After that we have lunch at 12 until 12:45 where we eat...haha
I guess what you would normally think would go down during lunch. And then we
have spanish class from 1-4:30 and then dinner until 5:15 and then class until
9:00! Then we sing a song and pray as a district and go home and get ready for
the next day and start all over!! It's really fun I love it :)
OH! Elder Nelson gave a devotional on Tuesday!! I Was in the
same room as him...oh my gosh so so so so ooooo cool and I'm in choir so I was
on TV for all of the other Mtc's so holla :)
I'm running out of time and I want to send pictures, so I'll
finish answering other questions in a letter yes? I love you all!! OH! Mom
thank you so much for the package. My whole district loved it and we had a lot
of fun with it :)) thank you thank you.
PLus also, keep the Dear Elders coming!!! I love reading your
letters and hearing about your lives, makes me happy:)
Yo se que la iglesia de JesuCristo es verdad y yo se que
missionary work es de Dios y el Evangelio trae mucho felizes a todos las
personas. Okay until next week. I love you all:)
Hermana
Romeril
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Her classroom....
Laundry day!
