I met my trainer, Hermana Lopez, she is from Guatemala. She's the best! The lord really knew what he was doing when he put us as companions. We went to our house.....or Shack. At first I was thought of it as only a shack but after visiting members it is a nice house! It has tile and I am so grateful for every part of it.
In Uruguay they eat a small breakfast, HUGE LUNCH, and drink matte the rest of the day. Everyone has matte all the time! MATTE, MATTE, MATTE... POR DIAS! As missionaries we are not allowed to have it though.
The food is a lot! They get offended if you don't eat it. So everyone should just expect to see me 50 pounds heavier when I come home and I don't care. The people see missionaries as hero's and so to show appreciation they feed you. It's not the best food.......I pray at every meal for Heavenly Father to help me. It works every time! AND they have mayonnaise with EVERYTHING. I'm not kidding! EVERYTHING. They also have a lot of soda. NO ME GUSTA. I haven't had soda in weeks. Any kind of soda you can think of, they have it! They never give you just water... It's soda with water.
Here they also don't have doors. They have sheets so you stand in their yard (as a million dogs bark at you) and clap. I was clapping one day and I felt something fall on my arm and head. IT WAS BIRD POOP. That's how my day went, that day. But I washed it off and kept working.
I don't understand really anything. haha Its hard, really hard. Pray for my language! I usually always hear MOOOOOOO after I tell people my name and CASINOS! When I say where I''m from. My bishop served a mission in Las Vegas. I'm not alone!
I LOVE THE PEOPLE! We teach these little girls and they are 8.9. and 10. They love Heavenly Father so much! Their families don't listen to us but they don't care if their daughter do and get baptized. They want to get baptized so bad but because they are young we have to teach them for 3 more months. The first day I met them they pulled out their report cards and were telling us that since we have been teaching them and they have been praying the have seen their grades improve. They know it's because of Heavenly Father. THESE ARE LITTLE KIDS! The next day we had planned to teach them about the word of wisdom and why we don't drink coffee, alcohol, do drugs, ect. and when we walked up one of the girls had a cup of coffee.....OF COURSE. As we taught right in the middle of the lesson she dumped it out into the dirt. Another girl went into the kitchen, grabbed a tea bag, and poured it onto the ground. NO MORE! They said. How faithful!
There's another house I went to where they have 13 kids and it's about the size of my room at home. One of the older kids just got baptized last Friday. THEY ARE SO HAPPY! We played a game and in the game you have to refer to each person as a number you give them. I don't remember any of their names but I remember their numbers! haha Everytime I see them I just say "HOLA NUMERO CINCO!" Or HOLA NUMERO TRES!" They think it's so funny. And they always try to help me with my Spanish.
Lastly, I'm not gonna lie. I have never felt so homesick in my life than I did the first couple of days! The only way I know how to describe it is when you go on a hike and part of you just wants to turn around at the start and just go home but you really want to get to the end cause you know how great it will feel! It's so hard. The food, the language, the people, the poverty, but I love it more each day.
Yesterday I was at church and I fought tears all day because I couldn't understand anything! I sat in sacrament and memorized words. Then when we went to go teach lessons NO ONE was home or they were all watching the FUTBOL game. I was really wanting to go teach the members cause that always makes me feel better but that just wasn't happening. Then when we did teach all I did was sit there and then when Hermana Lopez would look at me I would bear my testimony in what little Spanish I knew. Finally we were going to the last house of the day. It was the wards old bishop who was bishop for 5 years and is now inactive. (inactive members are a huge problem here) Craziest thing happened. It was a MIRACLE. I understood everything! I understood!!!!!!! I knew exactly what to say when it was my turn to speak. After I spoke I then asked Hermano Lopez if he would come to church with me on Sunday. He said YES!
That moment made all my struggles I've had here worth it! It was a MIRACLE! If you are obedient and trust in the lord through difficult times. He will help you. It's hard but I smile through it because I trust that eventually I learn the language, love the food, and call this my home.
HOY ES EL DIA!
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