Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Elderas!

Well hello everyone!!! 
Thanks for the package!!

  We had a zone activity today and we played volley ball on the beach... I don`t really know why we always have to play on the beach... It is actually kind of torture because number one... the sand is everywhere and it is extremely hot!  And number two... we can`t swim and you have to suffer and watch EVERYONE else enjoying the water.  But we had a good time.  After we played at the beach we went to the mall here in the peninsula and ate at Carl's Jr.  It was wonderful!  I just wish I could have enjoyed my Diet Coke, we can`t drink Coke down here it is a mission rule.... -___-
My Zone, enjoying American food!

    Well nothing much happened this week... Just the normal walking and walking and walking some more trying to find people who really want to change.  I am still struggling with the whole Spanish thing but it is coming I am understanding more and more.  I do have some major problems with the language.  I think I don`t understand the conversation.  I then ask my companion what they said after the visit and she tells me EXACTLY what I thought they actually said.  So it is frustrating I just need to trust in myself that I do understand.  I just think that these people are saying profound things or that they have more to the story... But it is an incomplete thought or they are just rambling.  So that is frustrating.  Another thing that I have come to realize is that I talk kind of soft.  So when people say "mande?" Which means what did you say, they are really just not hearing me and I think, oh crap they didn`t understand me.  So I look at my companion and she just says say it louder.... It is really hard to project my voice when I think that I sound like a complete IDIOT! But I am improving... slowly but surely I am improving!!! It is still a miracle that I can understand ANYTHING!!! I have only been here two months!  

    This week my companion and I were contacting and after a few blocks we knocked on the weirdest looking house that I have ever seen.  It kind of reminded me of Luna Lovegood`s house from Harry Potter.  But we knocked on the door and a little girl was swinging in a hammock watching Adventure Time.  She came to the gate and we asked her if her mom or dad was home.  She said her mom was home and then we said can you go and get her.  She left and we saw her talking to a man.  He then stood up from the chair he was sitting in and he started walking towards the gate.  He was very very handsome.  I then whispered to my companion.... "That is not her mom..." it was my turn to talk at the door approach.  All I could get out was "Somos... somos...missionaras" Which translates to "We are... we are...missionaries"  But the words were not coming..... He then opened the gate and closed it behind him and said that he had to go.... Oh my gosh!!!! I was so embarrassed!!!! There I am tripping over my tongue and he wasn`t even coming to talk to us!!!! But then her mom came to the door and luckily my companion took over since I was still star struck by whoever that was. But I learned that Spanish gets even harder when you are talking to someone really cute.  Ahhhhh!!!! But my companion won`t let that one go... Every time she sees a man who is remotely handsome she whispers.. "Somos, somos!"  It is not funny anymore!!! Hahaha 

    But we have been here in this area for about two months.  We have come to find out that this is the poorest place that sisters are stationed in the mission.  We also learned from our Bishop that there have not been sisters in this area for over 20 years.  So all the people refer to us as "Elderas".  I can see how this is logical because there is a difference between missioneros and missioneras but I don`t think they realize that Elder is an office in the Priesthood.  It is pretty funny because they don`t know the difference.  I thought at first that it was just the little kids who referred to us as Elderas but it is the majority of people here.  Haha 

   Well I have also noticed that there are so many people her who look just like people back at home only Mexican... I have seen a Cooper Welch- my first baptism Byron.  A Steve Anderson- our neighbor who owns the apartment that we live in.  A Chole Nielson- we were visiting a less active family and I saw a little girl about 11 years old who looked just like Chloe did when we had Thanksgiving in Mesa all those years ago.  A Crystal Moore- there is a poster of this girl who is selling some kind of dental product in the grocery store we always shop in and it looks just like her.  Jillian Welch, and a Susie George- one of the members that we eat lunch with every week watches this series about these high school girls and their drama and two of the actresses look like Jill and Susie.  And a Lindsey Anderson- my teacher in the MTC reminded me of her alot.  Her hair, her teeth everything!  And lastly a  Michael Jackson- before he was white- my zone leader looks like him but with a pointed nose. It is pretty crazy!  
See the similarity to my Zone Leader?  He is in the red shirt in the photo above!

  What else... I have fallen in love with a wonderful combination here.  They eat maduro which are these giant green bananas with cheese.  What they do is they take the bananas when they are yellow and a little bruised, they can`t be green at all and they fry them in oil until they are soft and delicious and then they eat some kind of cheese with them.  I have been buying mozzarella to eat with them but they are so good!!! You have to try it!!! 
Good eats!  Bananas and cheesy goodness!

   Well that is about all for me this week. Sorry that this email was so lame.  I will write a better one next week but I hope you all had a wonderful week!  
Love Hermana Welch (Jessica)

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