Hola
Familia y Amigos!
This week
flew by! Days feel like an eternity, but
I swear yesterday was P-day. So much is happening
here that I want to share, but I’ll just try to pick a few of the highlights.
About 2/3
of the people here wear normal clothes and the other 1/3 wear killer awesome
native outfits. Like skirts and sweaters
with top-hats. We are “teaching” this OLD
lady named Sarafina, who only speaks Quechua.
We have a Book of Mormon in Quechua, but she can’t read. We try to bring members who can translate for
us, but this week we stopped by twice without a translator. We just go in and say, “Mama, Ora-chon mama?”
Then she says “Si Mama.” Then she prays and we sing a hymn then she prays
again. It’s flipping chevre. The older people here add “mama” to the end
of every sentence and “cita” to the end of every word.
I want to
learn Quechua so bad, but I should probably learn Spanish first.
Apparently Quechua is a lot easier for
Gringos to learn than for the Latinos.
It is super simple because it doesn’t have any conjugations. But every
word is a mile long. The Book of Mormon in Quechua only has a few
parts of the actual book, because it is so hard to translate. Crazy.
On
Saturday, 8 year old Sol de Jesus was baptized.
About three minutes before it started, my companion and I were asked to
speak. I was SO scared because I don’t
really speak Spanish and I don’t know how to write a talk in 3 minutes. But I am trying to humbly accept the Lord’s
will in all things so that he can strengthen and teach me. My companion spoke about Baptism and I spoke
about the Holy Ghost. I don’t even know
what I said, but with the help of the spirit and the gift of tongues I was able
to face my fears and share my testimony about the Holy Ghost. Also, during the meeting they asked me to
play the piano for the hymns and for the special musical number. I am really not very good at the piano, but I
am trying to serve in all aspects that I can.
Latinos sing so loud and so off key and I love it! I hope that they don’t judge too harshly that
I stink at playing the piano.
Our
investigator Jeidy is getting baptized this Saturday! She is so great. Every time we go to teach a lesson, we start
by asking what she learned from reading the pamphlet and she literally teaches the
whole lesson. She knows so much and she
is really excited to learn more about the gospel. She is 22 and she is talking about going on a
mission. Her family doesn’t really want
to learn about the gospel, but we’re hoping that they will see her example and
how happy the gospel makes her.
Oh yeah so
we got home from church yesterday and Raul was in the kitchen chopping up a
guinea pig. So yeah… I ate Cuiy. It really didn’t taste so bad, but it had
fingers and nails and eyeballs and hair on it.
Oh geeze. I am getting pretty
good at eating just about anything. Most
of the food here is so good, but there are some pretty nasty things. Members and investigators always give us
missionaries food every time they see us.
It is terrible sometimes, because they dish up the biggest portions and
watch us eat every bite. I exercise
every morning and we walk all over the place, but I just can’t compete with the
giant portions and the faces of the people who prepared the food for us.
I still
feel like I have no idea what is going on, and I still don’t speak Spanish, but
I am getting better. I can’t roll my R’s
which is awkward, because you have to roll the R in Harris. It is super frustrating that I memorize words
then I forget them in 10 minutes. My
companion keeps telling me to “Confiar en el Señor.” (Trust in the Lord). It’s cool because confiar means trust, but
every time she says it I think of the word confide. I have been really trying to confide in the
Lord because I really can’t confide in anyone else here. God is good.
The church is true. I love you
all. Until next week!
Con amor,
Hermana
Harris
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