Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness

Hola,

First of all. pidan a sus padres que por favor manden paquetes y todo otro correo con el correo nacional de su país, y NO con otros sistemas como DHL y FedEx. Translate this. It just means that you should only send packages through the national mail - not FedEx, DHL, or UPS. The mission asked us to tell you that.

I did get your Christmas card, Mom, Nyla, and Brother Kunz! Thank you soooo much! You are all so great and it helped me have a very great week!

You know you are a missionary moments for this week....

When in awkward silence with your companion, you start to hum your favorite hymn.

You have to walk home a certain way to avoid a certain skitsophrenik (I can’t spell that), bipolar, split personality disorder lady. If she sees you, she invites you in. and yells if you don´t come. It´s like being in Bathida Bagshots house when she is possessed by Nagini (holla, HP fans!) (p.s. no idea how to spell the snakes name anymore. It´s been too long.)

You learn how to read maps that don´t speak to you. We sometimes joke that we are technologically advanced because we use Google Maps...hard copy version.

¨What the He$% was that¨ is the only phrase that works in some situations. It’s in the Bible.

As you are cleaning the ward list looking for who is actually living in your boundaries, you have to ask people if the people live in the house. We have had to apologize more than once for asking for a person who has passed away. Half of our ward has died or moved. Or they were baptized 20 years ago ¨for fun, to experience something new! ¨ I think we are going to get really good at teaching less actives that we have to treat like investigators.

 

The end.

 

Now, let´s get the dirty details out of the way. I am pretty sure I was high after scrubbing the bathroom for 3 hours last Pday with bleach. I didn´t realize the door was shut, but not to worry. The window in our shower is missing, so it was ventilated. We have gotten pretty creative with cardboard. Cardboard now acts as a barrier between the fridge and freezer so that our yogurt doesn´t turn into chunky ice blocks and our milk actually pours. It also serves as a curtain for our shower window so that our neighbors with the two story house can´t creep on us....although I don´t think they are awake when we are showering at the crack of dawn anyways.

We thought our electricity was bad, because the elders were using candles in the bathroom. We struggled for a day or two, but then had this brilliant idea (after a series of unfortunate events) that led us to believe that maybe these elders weren´t so ¨with it¨ after all. Why we assumed that just because they are men they must have tried to put in a new light bulb before buying candles is beyond me. Don´t worry, now with new light bulbs in the sockets we are just glowing! (or, better said, we can see more of the dirt streaks all over).

 

Even though the elders left a lot of nasty in the apartment, they did leave a great investigator! Her name is Alejandra and she is a mom to two teenagers. She is adorable. We gave her a baptismal date for next Sunday because her other ones have fallen. We were a little afraid to ask why they had fallen, but obviously we needed to. So, we asked. She said...¨I believe it all, I just like coffee!¨ Huge sigh of relief. We taught the importance of the Word of Wisdom and extended the promises that are contained with it, and she was on board! Literally, she was all like, ¨It´s in my past!¨and we were all like, ¨See ya in white, sistah!¨ Also, she loves the temple, which is a huge plus. I am quite excited to keep working with her and her family.

The cleanliness of the apartment is borderline camping and Econo Lodging. The spiders make us feel like we are in the great outdoors, and the classy furniture that the elders found on the street adds the Econo Lodge ambiance. We really are so blessed.

Hermana Burnett is fantastic! We get along great and she is totally like Jillian Michals (the mean lesbian trainer on Biggest Loser, except not mean nor lesbian). We have a love/hate relationship because she has committed to not let me eat junk food. She makes me laugh every second of every day and we have a lot in common. Definitely a friend for la vida.

A mini (tinsy weensy little pequenito) downer is that my companion has never read nor seen Harry Potter. I am TRYING to not make this a big deal and let it ruin our friendship, and TRYING not to get mad when I think of a great HP analogy or quote and it is wasted on her....

but it´s hard. :(

Just kidding, I can handle it because she is awesome in every other way and has offered her Vegas house as a pit stop on my future drives to visit my family in California, so I will just have to make it work. Heavenly Father knows that I can handle this challenge. Maybe it is time I start quoting scriptures instead of Harry Potter to investigators anyways.... (jk)

 

We have gotten to know the members and their neighbors this week. It has been a lot of names. Mom, I know names are hard for you.... but just be glad they aren´t Latino names! I get so confused when it is Hermana Gonzalez and Hermano Ruiz (or whatever) and they are married! I just go all North American on them and call them by the man´s last name. Hope I am not offending anyone!

OH! HUGE NEWS! Some good friends of the Frees are in our ward! Kyoko is from Japan, and Oscar is from Chile. They met in Utah and fell in love. Kyoko´s sister is Yoko, and she married Brian Little. I don´t know if any of these names are familiar to you, but they are very familiar in the Free household. We have eaten with them twice! We love their house and never want to leave. We get to speak English, share scriptures in English, and pray in English! It is amazing AND TOUGH. I can´t talk doctrine in English anymore. We love them and their two cute kids, Lucas and Jimena. I was looking through their pictures of when they lived in Utah and was able to say where all of them were taken. There were even some pictures with the Free kids and one of Matt at a Rodeo (Strawberry Days in Lehi, I believe?) . Good times. It is a SMALL world in the Church. Japan to Utah to Chile.

Well. I am loving the work! I am tired and happy and have a burst of much needed energy even though it is still hotter than Death Valley.

Have a great week everyone! Keep on emailing and keeping me posted. I love your news!


Love,
Hermana Van Cott