LDS General Conference!

Oh what a beautiful conference weekend!

 

It was like music to my ears to hear the voices of the Apostles and Prophet in ENGLISH! I have missed their sweet voices with the dubbed over Spanish ones...but the message is always the same, no matter the language. The next conference will be my halfway mission point! Woot!

I love you all and thank you for the letters! I am so glad that you are all healthy and happy. I keep having dreams that people die and I have to choose whether to stay here or not, so that is startling and I wake up a little out of sorts...fun fact.
 
Also, another fun fact, everyone in the ward thinks that I have had a nose job! WHAT? I am so...so...weirded out...haha. We were with one young woman from our ward and she said (in Spanish, of course) ¨I don´t want to sound rude...but me and my mom were talking...and...have you had an opperation on your nose?¨hahaha. I died when I finally understood! I was all, like, ¨uh, NO guuurl, ma whole fam has dis nariz!¨ Then I had to pull out my pictures for proof. She believes me, but now other random people ask me to see my proof too, so I know she wasn´t the only one thinking it. Anyways, I feel like that freaky 16 year old that married the 60 year old on Anderson Coopers´RIDICULIST that has to clarify that ¨my hair is ril (real), my boobs are ril, my face is ril, MY NOSE IS RIL!¨ Anyways. Done venting.
 
Also, the whole ward knows that I can´t eat lentejas (lentils? beans?) now. They make me sick every time I eat them and my stomach grows and I get a sneak peak of what I will look like pregnant. So, even though there are jokes about my ¨picky diet¨¨ (ITS JUST LENTEJAS, OK PEOPLE?) I am grateful that they are willing to accommodate to that. I love the ward, and the people are very kind in telling me that I speak a little better now and that I look like I had a nose job. But really, I do love them!

 Alright. Well, here is one semi-cool story. I met this lady, 65 years old, named Maria. (Mariaaaa, I have just...met a girl...named Maria! WEST SIDE STORY anyone?). She was really nice, and I was on divisions with another girl, so I did all the talking and got all her information and what not. She wasn´t too interested, but I told her she looked too young to have 4 grandkids and told her we would love to share our message about families with her. She was impressed by our age and the fact that we were out doing good & not drugs or boys. So, that was our in. She didn´t want to commit to an appointment, but she said to pass by if we were in the neighborhood. Turns out, we are always in the neighborhood. We have passed by several times and seen her yard working or doing laundry, and every time we help for a bit and have nice conversation but she doesn´t have time for a lesson. I told my companion that it was ok, someday she will let us in. We have seen her, ummm, probably 10 times in random places, and every time I see her I exclaim with mucho excitement ¨Hola Maria!¨ (and I have to restrain my urge to sing her name, every single time). Well, here is the punch line. The other day, after we had 2 appointments fall through; we were walking to our back back back up plan´s house. We happened to pass Maria´s house, and she popped her head out of her fence and said (in Spanish) ¨Do you have time right now? Come in! I have time to visit!¨ We were amazed, and we sat down and had a nice chat about The Book of Mormon and how it changes lives over a smoke (well, she was smoking, we were drinking juice.) The point of this long story is that by small and simple things, are GREAT things brought to pass. We know that it may take time to work with her, but if we hadn´t been doing the little things and chatting for a bit every time we saw her, we NEVER would have had the opportunity to share with her our testimonies about The Book of Mormon.

 So, friends, the moral of this letter is that I expect you ALL to try a little harder to be a little better to someone. If you look for opportunities to share the message of the gospel through your works, Heavenly Father will open the doors and help soften hearts. I know that this is true.

 I had a weird realization this last Thursday that caused me to stop dead in my tracks for a few minutes. I realized that if I were my mom, I would be getting married on the 3rd of October, age 19. YOU CRAZY LADY! I am so grateful that my parents got married and were able to raise perfect children. ;) But really, Parents, your example has been the biggest influence in my life. Your examples of service, love, and patience to each other and to us kids has paved the way for us to have righteous families. I am excited to apply your teaching and examples to my own marriage (in the faaaar future...at LEAST 15 months away! haha).Love you both and I hope that your new 180+ children realize just how good they´ve got it.

 I loved conference. I hope EVERYONE heard the many talks that mentioned how EVERY member should be a missionary. They´ve said it, and they´ve said it. It is now a commandment. Help your missionaries to be able to teach, it is a waste of time for us to be out finding all day. Even in Utah, there are people who aren´t members and whose lives can be greeeeatly blessed by the gospel. Don´t be selfish with your knowledge. Thanks.

 

Well, the mission is stressful and fun. I would say 90% stressful and 10% fun, but at the end of the day we can always laugh about the things that went wrong and know that tomorrow is a new day...of struggles. haha. I hope I am not discouraging you future missionaries, but it is important to realize that missionary work, is WORK, it isn´t all fun, and it isn´t easy. The cool stories and experiences are mostly the exceptions, but, the point is, THEY HAPPEN. It takes a lot of work to see one miracle, but they come. And when they come, that is when you realize how FUN and GREAT a mission really is.

I am going to go home and make myself a dang quesadilla now. Love you all, be good and write me!

 OH P.S. (before I finish this letter) PRESIDENT HOLLAND IS COMING TO US ON NOVEMBER 15th!!!!!! I cannot contain my excitement. I will probably make a paper chain to count the days left during Pday today while we watch the First Vision Video (again and again and again).

 Love,
Hermana VanCott