tuesday-the elders in my district have officially knocked my socks off. They're so willing to serve, it's CRAZY! My wirst has been acting up, so I asked for a blessing from Elder Chamberlain. I did not expect that -- I had planned on Elder Bleak giving it.. but I felt prompted to ask Elder C. So I did. It was one of the sweetest and most wonderful blessings :) He blessed me with strength both physically and mentally, and that the Lord knows how hard I'm working and will bless me accordingly, and that my body will be able to rejuvenate as needed... and that God loves me. Finally, he blessed me that I'll have the spirit with me always as I consecrate my afflictions to the Lord. I was actually just studying in 2nd Nephi about Jacob consecrating his afflictions to the Lord, so that was cool! It was really nice though... when I mentioned I needed a blessing, all 4 of our elders jumped up and said "it's your choice, but whoever you want... we are always here to give you one. Whenever you want." I felt so loved!!
wednesday-ok... the last 4 days have literally been perfection (pause: hermana smith is on the bunkbed and just hit her head. hahahahaha). Anyway, just a lot of funny things happened! I was walking on monday and saw myself in jeans for the first time in a while... so I looked to make sure they weren't tight. But the "mirror" i looked in was a window full of elders in the room... so I guess I just gave them a nice view for about 5 seconds. I was soooo humiliated haha, but my comps thought it was hilarious! oh well... later that day, Hna. Smith and I were in the computer lab doing language study when all of a sudden, "Leonardo" walked in! Leonardo was our investigator that we were teaching... and he turned out to be a TEACHER acting as an investigator! We seriously love him. His actual name is Hermano Garcia, and he is at BYU studying English. the best parts? 1) He served in Argentina on his mission, but before that he lived in peru... and HE IS FRIENDS WITH MY MISSION PRESIDENT! He knows him really well! 2) he was like "when you walked in to teach me, I recognized you... were you at byu a couple weeks ago?" I was like "uhh... yes, I was touring campus with my friends!" and he said "I KNEW I saw your face somewhere!" so that was just a little bit funny :) But basically, it was such a spot of sunshine in my day... and i communicated with him in spanish which boosted my confidence :) another thing -- i think my district thinks i'm nuts. I laugh a lot and get scared easily... so I'm pretty sure that even though they laugh, they really secretly think I'm crazy. Oh well.
thursday-we had a really loooong day of class, and Hna. smith recieved a package of COOKIES! we left them by our chair while we went to the bathroom, and when we were back they were GONE. all that was left was a note saying "if you want your cookies, come to the lemon tree with $200,000." ummm... there isn't even a lemon tree here! So we figured our elders were playing a joke on us or something. I stomped into class and put my hands on my hips and said "DONDE IS THE LEMON TREE?!" poor elder landon looked so confused and terrified... apparently some other elders in another district did it to us. I think now they think I'm reallyyyy crazy... talking about lemon trees that don't exist and such ;)
friday-today was SO MUCH FUN... because I got to smoke some elders in volleyball. Hehe. I may be just a little bit competitive... but at least now I have a reputation! That night, Hna. Smith and I taught our subsitute teacher Hermano Norseth, but his name was david and he was investigator. I taught most of the lesson and I taught it in SPANISH! It was another big confidence booster, because I can at least piece together sentences enough to get my point across :) today was also good because I found out that Elder C LONGBOARDS. He worked at a skate shop and everything... may or may not have talked about setups, wheels, decks, sliding, etc. I also found out he broke his wrist snowboarding just like me! Haha it is so weird to get to know the personalities of people... I guess I just classify them all as ''missionaries'' and forget that they're really individual and unique :) We also had a lesson with our investigator named Raul. He is an ACTUAL investigator, which is quite frankly terrifying. but I was able to share my testimony of eternal families in spanish and I think he was really moved :) we were supposed to teach him about the restoration of the gospel but... he was like "so, why do we have to have eternal families in the afterlife? why is that important? what are temples?" and hna smith and I just looked at each other, took a deep breath and prayed that we would say the right things. and we did, somehow :)
saturday-my new favorite quote is "Hola granola!" from JaQ, of course. That kid... I just can't ever be sad around him! Today was a day of opposition in all things I guess. We taught Hno. Brown (who was actually an investigator named Jared). First off, Hna. Smith and I thought he had invited us--HE DIDN'T. He answered the door and was like "umm... necessitan algo?" It caught us off guard, but we introduced ourselves and our message and convinced him to let us in. The lesson was alright in the fact that I talked, but the language barrier is SOOO FRUSTRATING. I CAN'T STAND IT. I left the lesson feeling angry and frustrated and hurt. I knew what to say in English to help him, but I couldn't translate that fast. He didn't think that God loved him because he had trials. I wanted to say "Hey! Let me tell you something about God's love--it's constant! and those trials help us GROW!" but.. i couldn't, because SPANISH. anyway, I was fuming when I walked into class. my fists clenched at one point and my face was all flushed... and I was at that point of being mad that I was so calm that it was scary. Hno Brown said "Hna Reeve, what reason do you have to be upset?" and I leaned forward on my desk smiled through my teeth and said "I. know. the gospel. is. true. But I can't tell anyone that because I. don't. know. Spanish." The elders just thought it was hilarious, but it really was making me frustrated. So Hermano Brown sent us all out to pray for 1/2 hour. I guess it helped a little bit, but I was still lacking that happiness... elders bleak & chamberlain suggested we rent some cellos and go play music. So we did that for like an hour before dinner... and I was literally an entirely new person. I was no longer mad, and I was happy and laughing by the time dinner rolled around :) It's incredible to see the effect that music has on me! I'm so grateful for my talents that God has blessed me with. I got to pick up a violin recently, and I was kinda pleasantly surprised that I could still play without sounding like a dying cow.
sunday-was fantastic as usual! Since I am now a STL, I had meetings allllll daaaayyyy looooong.... and I have a phone now! it only calls the front desk, but still... it feels really weird :P not much to report about sunday, because it was uplifting and nice like every other day! We did sing a musical number in church.. me, another hermana, and 4 elders from my district. another hna from the zone played the flute and hna smith played the piano. We sang "nearer my god to thee" in spanish, and it was the first time anyone had done a musical number in our branch! also, I got to watch the movie "legacy" for the first time in years... it was so nice! These elders were being really dumb and loud during the movie though, so I may or may not have told them to "put a cork in it"... I think kind words will be the next thing I work on.
sooo yep, that was my week... :) a few things i didn't mention in the journal:
**THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR YOUR LETTERS! this week on wednesday, I got 3 packages and 3 letters. And I get letters throughout the week. I am pretty much just really loved :) The elders love to tease me when I get letters from boys, so thanks to those guys that wrote me letters this week. keep em comin ;)
**I have officially disappointed my mom and entertained my district... I accidentally have burped in front of the elders at least 3 times :/ I swear I didn't mean to!! And I say "excuse me" every time!! I also snort when I laugh... it's a problem. I'm so unladylike. oops.
**Mom, everyone thinks you're a saint. I told them how wonderful they are and showed them a picture of you and they love you :)
**I was in a fireside last night, and i was trailing a pen across my face absentmindedly. I didn't realize the pen was open. I had black pen marks all over my face. oooh how typical... and embarassing :/
**so the word "raro" means "weird". we were in class and elder bleak said some word and the teacher was like "that's abnormal..." and elder chamberlain was like "ooooohh RRRARORITOOO!" I guess you had to be there, but now we call each other rarorito sometimes. It's a completely made up word, and we find the littlest things to entertain ourselves haha. Also, Elder Sheen has a gollum voice and it's kind of the funniest thing ever to hear gollum talk in spanish.
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the first picture is me (obviously) and it was like the 50th time i tried to take a jumping picture. I finally succeeded!
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Elder Chamberlain, Elder Harris (JaQ), me, & Hermana Smith at the temple this mornin!
I basically attacked Brooke when I saw her! I'm so glad I have a friend in the MTC!!
hna howe & I got a picture by our mission on the biiiig mtc map!
I know it's a loooong letter this week, but it was just such a good week! God is good, and He sure loves us all :)
Love,
Hermana Reeve :)
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