This email is probably going to be all over the place. I think and speak in this weird spanglish and I was up all last night helping sisters pack. So bear with me.
First off, awesome job on the talk Will! You're going to be an amazing missionary! Gama, Mamoo, and Boppy thank you so much for your emails! Sorry I haven't had time to respond yet. But I appreciate them so much and love reading them! Mamoo, I'm crossing my fingers the rumors are true because we are watching a devotional tonight!
These past few days have been amazing, but really emotional. Proselyting was awesome but exhausting! And we only went for two hours! We got five references and placed a book of mormon and two pamphlets. Some of them I don't think fully understood what we were saying and just gave us information because we were two gringas and they wanted to be nice. We got the cold shoulder a lot and it was hard because people would be like well I'm catholic so we believe the same things you do and because our language is still so limited it was hard to convey the difference between the Catholic church and the gospel! Definitely a learning experience! There was one woman that was awesome though. We saw her at a bus stop and I was like "Hermana, we need to go talk to her." She was sitting with her daughter and she had tears in her eyes. The spirit completely took over and we told her about how families can be together forever and gave her a pamphlet on the restoration. When we walked away we were both like "We have no idea what just happened but we had to have planted a seed or something." It was awesome!
Besides proselyting, we also have investigators we teach, who are our teachers impersonating investigators from their missions. Our investigator was named Claudio and we had to teach him the law of chastity twice. That was super fun. Sometimes I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing because our teacher, Hermano Herrera, is so funny and would make up the craziest problems for us to help our investigator with. Both our teachers are such examples and I've learned so much from them and they speak english so well!
Saturday night before we all went to bed all the missionaries crowded into a classroom and sang called to serve in spanish at the top of our lungs. I wish you all could have seen it. We all had huge grins on our faces and the spirit was unreal. The power when we all get together is unlike anything I've ever felt. We truly are like Helaman's army.
Sunday we had an area seventy come speak to us, Elder Carmacho I think is how it's spelled. He did an amazing job. He talked about how we have covenanted to live the law of consecration and part of doing that is giving everything we have to the Lord by being obedient and learning how to sacrifice. He also told a story that I loved. When he was a mission president in South America he had a missionary come into his office with tears streaming down his face. The missionary said "President, no one understands me. And I don't understand anyone. But I've realized that whenever I pray, the Lord always understands me." All of us north american missionaries were especially touched because we felt like he was telling the story of our lives. But I know that its true. And I know the gift of tongues is real. The other day I was sitting in class and I just suddenly understood everything the teacher was saying in Spanish. Speaking is still hard for me, but I know I have been blessed with the gift of understanding and everyday I'm improving!
This morning we said goodbye to all our latinos and some north american missionaries. It was really hard. I've come to love them all so much and even though I've only known them for two weeks, I feel like I've known them for years! The gospel brings people together in such an incredible way. One of the hermanas, Hermana Arias, and I had a really special bond. I know we knew each other in the pre mortal existence and I loved her soooooo much. Saying goodbye to her was really hard, we were both really emotional. She was such an example to me and always brightened my day and made me feel so loved.
Tonight we get a whole new district of north americans! Two new american sisters! I'M SO STOKED! We'll have over ninety missionaries in the CCM!
Sorry I can't send pictures today, we don't have our cameras. My next Pday is next friday, which feels like years away! But I promise I'll send some them! Love and miss you all so much but I don't ever want to come home! I love being a missionary and knowing I get to share the gospel with people! The church is true!
Hermana Willes
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