Random mix of thoughts...

Familia!

Buenos dias! I swear we just had Christmas yesterday...how is it already January 26th? That`s so not okay. 

Anyways, hope all is going well for all of you in the USA, Africa, and India. Between the 6 members of our family we`ll be in 4 different countries...kinda cool (and maybe even 5 if Nate is on a secret Jack Bauer mission that none of us know about). 

Here are some various journal entries from the week:

Sorry...no story from Danika about the baby deer?

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Today we knocked on a door. No one answered, but it knocked back at us. It was creepy. And intriguing.

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WE CAUGHT A MOUSE! Haha. I set up the trap so well last night, and this morning sure enough we caught a little bugger. The problem is now we just have a pet mouse in a cage and aren`t sure what to do with it ha. And he`s actually a cute little guy. I feel kind of bad plotting to kill him...but at the same time he was eating our food and everything.

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 I got some news about some of my converts from Ahuachapan...I just talked to Hermana Najera, who`s now in El Arco in Ahuachapan and she told me that Jovit Pimentel is going to send his papers to go on the mission soon. She also told me that Vilma gave a talk in church on Sunday and shared how the Book of Mormon has blessed her life and Hermana Najera told me that it was so powerful and that it was one of the best sacrament meetings she`s been in. To hear this news about my converts really animates me. It gets me going and gets me excited about finding those that are ready. It makes me feel so good inside and brings so much joy and excitement to my soul. Really, that`s some of the best news a missionary can hear about their converts. 

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We visited Ana today again with Adela. We taught la restauracion (The Restoration of the gospel). It was seriously so good. She understood well. And it made her reflect and think, "Well then, how can we know which church is true?" and we could see the spirit working in her. And the best part is that after teaching she said, "You know what, everyone always says things, especially about Jose Smith and how you guys worship him, but now that I heard more I realize that none of it`s true...why do the people say those things? Now I know it`s not true." Seriously, as a missionary to hear someone say that is like the best gift and so rewarding. It`s amazing to teach someone the restauracion and have them understand it and feel a desire to know if it`s true, and to understand that we preach and testify of Christ and of no one else. It`s seriously so rewarding. I just want to jump for joy in this moment and I absolutely love it!

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Funny story for the day. We had a noche de hogar (Family Home Evening) with la familia Aguilar hoy and we decided to make french toast with them at the end for the refrigerio. So I was taking care of the french toast that we were cooking while my companion was by the table mixing the egg batter for the french toast. Well in spanish there are two verbs for the word "to try" in english. One is "tratar" which means to try an action or something like a sport or dance or experiment. The other is "probar" which means to try food, like to taste. Well since my companion is learning spanish, she was mixing the egg mixture and to tried to tell Jeyka to try mixing the mixture. So she said, "Pruebalo" (trying to say, try mixing it), and so Jeyka just stuck her finger in the raw eggs and licked them to taste it because my poor companion didn`t use the word "tratar". Seriously so funny.

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Aside from that, the best part of the branch council today was when Presidente Alex was talking about what things we can do as a branch to be more self sufficient, and they talked about raising baby chickens so that as a branch they have food to eat and help those members that need it. I loved it...why? Because that is so NOT the solution that we would come up with in the states. Never. But it`s so practical. And I love it.

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We had interviews with Presidente Spjut this week and inspections of our house. Then after the interviews we had a discussion about faith between me, Hermana Evans, and Hermana and Presidente Spjut. It was really awesome. I just wanted to sit there all day and analyze it and talk it through with them, like parents and daughter...but unfortunately we were only given about 10 minutes.

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I`m learning a lot about faith. More to be shared maybe next week.

Love you like crazy!

Love,

Hermana Wright

Singing with a drunk man...

Querido Familia,

Last monday we went to los chorros (the jets... I went when we did the temple in El Salvador and they were called the falls at Juaya...I guess "the Jets" is a local name?) as a zone. (Finally, I was able to go...a place mom has been before me) We had to go in missionary clothes because it´s a little dangerous and it´s safer that way, so that was a little lame, but overall it was really sweet! I will definitely be going back there when I return...because you can hike and then swim in part of it, so it´s really sweet. 

Story of the week:

We also met a kinda crazy dude. We contacted him in the street and went to share a message with him outside his house. We were talking and asked if we could sing a hymn to start. He agreed. We pulled out our himn books and turned to sing "La Luz de la Verdad" and we asked him to count us to 3. So he said, 1, 2, 3, and then he started tapping his foot, pounding his fists on the table and singing or humming a beat for us to sing to. The best part is his animo (energy) was so high and he was just going so much so that me and my companion started singing the hymn and following him, but the tune was hard to carry and we got distracted with his beat and pounding fists that we started singing the words to his tune or beat that he was making, which was just hilarious all around...but then he started directing us and waving his hands, and when he started playing the air guitar, that´s when me and Hermana Evans lost it. We just busted out laughing. We couldn´t keep it in. I was dying. We told him we loved his animo and emocion and then decided a prayer to start would be just fine. Good times on the mission.

 

Hiking to the Falls

This week, in my personal study I studied a lot more about la fe. (Faith) Lei en Hebreos (I read in Hebrews)11:1 y me encanto! It´s so much better in spanish than in english. It says..."la fe es la certeza de lo que se espera, la conviccion de lo que no se ve." And I loved the words certeza (certainty) and conviccion in this scripture because it just gave me animo and excitement and made me want to increase my faith to have this certeza (certainty) and conviccion. 

It made me think of my experience in Europe when I lost my camera. I had the certainty that I was going to find my camera and I knew it. I don´t know how I had that firm faith, but I did. And I need to find that same faith now and here in the mission. (if you don´t know the camera story that can be told another day) 

Well, aside from that, not much more to say this week, I´ll send a few pics. 

Mom, the pics and everything from Ghana looks and sounds great! I love hearing about it and a little part of my heart is sad I can´t be there with yáll. Tell everyone I love them and yáll are in my prayers. I know where I´m at is where I need to be, but Ghana and the temple sounds unreal. Enjoy every part of the experience! And please take me with you next year :)

Love you all lots and lots!

Love,

Hermana Wright

Our zone at the falls.

Another story that Danika sent to her dad.  He felt we should share it.

Father,

Church is supposed to start at 9am. Well today it started at 9:50am. Which means sacrament finished at 11am. But rather than cut the classes short or skip sunday school like they would in the states, they just kept going. So sunday school finished around 11:45am and Relief Society started at 11:55am. About 15 minutes later (12:10pm) we heard Priesthood singing their closing hymn so they were almost done. Unfortunately for us the sweet little old lady who was teaching the class had just started. at 12:45pm, she was still giving her class, but some of the hermanas had left. About 10 minutes later there was only me and my companion in the room, one hermana from the branch, the old teacher and the relief society representative from the stake. Well, it had literally turned into a conversation between the old grandma teacher (Mari) and the old grandma representative from the stake. Literally no one else was commenting or talking, and by the end everyone had left except for us and them. I was dying. They had no concept of time, and were just going about their business continuing to share more and more stories, acting like everyone was listening and they had a huge crowd, but they didn´t. I fell asleep at one point or another, and was praying for energy as we were fasting. I had 8,000 sarcastic comments running through my head, and was trying to hold them all back. But thinking about how hilarious this could be if my dad was there to appreciate the sarcasticness. My favorite part was at the end of the class, Mari finished and then said, "That was a beautiful lesson, I really enjoyed it." Ha...too much.

Just thought you´d appreciate that.

Love you always,

Go kill it in Ghana and India

Love,

Me

an email that´s way too long...but I know mom likes it...

Querido Familia,

I hope yáll had a glorious week. Mom and Dad are ready to set off on their out of country adventures. Mom...be safe in Ghana, and enjoy it! It´s going to be hectic and crazy and a little stressful, that´s a given (I mean you´re teaching a bunch of locals how to do professional faux finishes in the house of the Lord...it´s going to be stressful), but just enjoy it all, because it´s seriously so cool and an incredible experience. Daddy, enjoy India...be safe, and go make yourself famous already, okay? Oh, and take me back this summer. Please and thank you.

Any one else got some crazy adventures in these next few weeks? 

This week was a good one. Full of a range of emotions and thoughts...times of desperation (is that even a word? Desesperación is the word in spanish), but finished with lots of hope and increased faith. 

In our zone meeting this week I liked what one of the Elders said...he said that instead of praying for miracles, we need to pray for more faith to then go out and look for the miracles. And that is what I decided to change. I had been praying for lots of miracles and pleading with the Lord...but i had failed in this aspect. Really it´s that I need to plead with the Lord to increase my faith to go find the miracles, and as I do that we will find them. And that´s what I did for the last few days of the week...and the more I did, the more miracles we found and the more my faith increased.

We saw some great miracles yesterday as we were able to bring two people to church and put a baptism date with another. God pushes us and makes us do our part, but if we do it, He will always do His part and make the miracles happen. But He works according to our faith, as I learned more about that this week. 

". ..it looks like a green screen, but no,
it´s actually real life..."

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Aside from that, last monday we went on a sweet hike! It was gorgeous! Had views of the cities and the whole valley, and seriously I was loving it. I will for sure be coming back there when I return. 

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This week we went to look for a family that lives a little farther away. We contacted them in the street the other day and they were super nice and positive and said that we could pass by whatever day we wanted. So we decided to go looking for them. It was funny because they live below the calle vieja (old street), there´s a finca called la finca manzano (estate...apple tree estate?) and so we hiked through that for about 10 minutes until we reached a little stretch of a few more houses where they live. As we were walking through the finca (possibly country plantation?) I was just loving it and in awe a little bit at how cool it was. We were literally hiking through this little tiny trail, in the middle of the mountains, surrounded by coffee, in fact ducking in and out of the coffee plants as we hike to find a family to share the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Does it get any better than that? I don´t think it does. 

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In our visits with Madelin there are two stories that happened, one chistoso (funny) and one more spiritual.

We contacted two ladies that Madelin knew and they let us in to share a message with them. We were visiting with them (Araceli and Marta), and we had visited their sister about 3 days ago. And after we finished the main part of the lesson and gave them un folleto, (a brochure or pamphlet) Marta said, "Yeah I saw one of these folletos at my sister´s house. The little girl was reading it the other day and I asked her what she was reading and she told me that it was her punishment because she didn´t eat her tortillas for dinner." Yep, that´s right, she had grounded her little girl to read our folleto because she didn´t finish her dinner. I was dying of laughter...that´s one I´d never heard on the mission. At least the folletos are getting read, right?

The other visit we had with Madelin was with Roxana and her mom who´s evangelica. We taught the restoration and her mom seemed super evangelica at first as she said some classic lines that I´ve heard a million times, "Los profetas llegaron hasta Juan...Jesus es la verdad y solamente...etc" (the prophets were only until John...Jesus is the only true God)

Well we finished teaching the restoration (not in a perfect way by any means, but we did the best we could), and my companion asked them how they feel to learn these things. And the abuelita (granny) looked at us and said, "Sabe algo, yo creía que ustedes adoraron a Jose Smith. Yo creía que tenía Él como un Dios o algo." (I believed that you guys worship Joseph Smith. I believed that you had him like a God or something.) (Finally Danika translated for you)

And Hermana Madelin dijo, "Usted creía, entonces ahora, despues de escuchar a los misioneras y aprender, ya sabe que no es asi, verdad?" (You said you believed, so now after listening to the missionaries you know it´s not true, right?)

And the abuelita said, "Si, yo ahora se que ustedes predican de Jesucristo y habla de El. Ustedes hablan y predican bien bonito y me gusta. Gracias por lo que hacen." (yes, now I know that you guys preach and talk about Christ. You preach beautifully and I like it. Thank you for the work you are doing.) And then she thanked us for our work and everything we do and told us how she knows we teach of Christ and she is grateful for us. 

That moment just touched my heart and was something that I have never heard on the mission. It was like drinking a glass of ice cold water on a steaming hot day. It was so refreshing. I have had a million people tell me that we worship Joseph Smith or we treat him like a God...and then I explain how that´s not true and explain how he was just a prophet and help them understand. But today, was the first time that after teach a simple lesson of the restoration, that she understood completely and told us that she thought...but now knows that we preach of Christ and then thanked us for the work that we do. It was really great to hear. 

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Love you lots and lots!

Love,

Hermana Wright

Moving adventures...

Querido Familia,

Hope yáll had an enjoyable New Year´s Eve and didn´t go too crazy. Can yáll believe that it´s 2015? That´s nutso. I still remember when we celebrated 2000 and everyone was freaking out about the computers and everything shutting down... (yeah, I know, I´m an old geezer). But seriously weird. What goals do yáll have for the new year? Please do share. My goal is to find a husband. But after the mission of course.

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The journal on Friday:

This morning we went and helped a family move houses. Let´s just say moving houses in El Salvador is much more exciting than in the states. They don´t have that much stuff, but still it all adds up when you move. So they pulled up with a pickup that they had a friend use that was with the local drunks helping out ha...so funny. Then they loaded a bunch of stuff on the truck, tables, bed, chairs, bags of clothes, and all the other people just hung off the sides (about 5 people) as the back almost bottomed out from the weight. I was sad I didn´t take my camera with me. 

But this family moved from the carreterra to a little street called la calle vieja. Well this little street is actually quite long...like extremely long. So they were able to take the truck to the start of the street to leave all the stuff there, but then we had to haul it all down to the bottom to their house. And that was definitely an adventure. It´s a little dirt trail that is like hiking through the mountains, with rocks and only one or two people can fit cause it´s small, and then on top of that they lived way far down, so it took at least 10 or 15 minutes to walk from the street to their house. It was such an adventure as we were hauling clothes, stools, beds, etc, down this little trail in the mountains. I actually loved it. But boy was it a work out. The good news is we were hiking the stuff down, so when we hiked up, we didn´t have to carry anything. We took that trip there and back about 6 times hauling stuff. Go fight win. I think my biceps for sure got a good work out. Let´s just say that moving is way more fun in El Salvador...I hate moving in the states ha.

But the side story is why this family was moving. Sonia and Oscar, and their little son is named Bryan who´s 5 years old. Well Sonia was baptized about 4 years ago, but Oscar never was and she went inactive for a little while. Well the elders started teaching them and they have come to church and he´s going to get baptized this coming Sunday. Well the guy that rented their house to them told them that he doesn´t like that the elders go to visit them. Well they didn´t listen anyway and kept letting the Elders visit as they felt the spirit and knew it was a good thing. Well, then the landlord talked to them again and they told them that they feel good and that Oscar was going to get baptized. When the landlord heard that he said that it would be best if they left the house. So they said that´s fine, and a few days later we were helping them move out. 

I don´t get it. People hear so many crazy rumors and thoughts about the church and believe it all and don´t even bother to try and learn for themselves. They make judgments and decisions based on false ideas and thoughts. And if people will really get to know the church and the people, they will find that there is no reason not to have Mormons living in your house or near by. But that´s just part of the opposition. 

 

Ruins at Tazumal...last p-day.

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Spiritual thought for the day: 

Luke 22:41-44 

When Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed, asking God if it were possible to not make Him suffer, if there was another way, to let that happen. And in Matthew we learn that Christ didn´t just ask this one time, but He asked the Father 3 times. The perfect son, the chosen one, He who was without sin...there came a moment when He thought he wouldn´t be able to do it. He thought he couldn´t stand anymore, and that He might not be able to make it. But then He said, but thy will be done. And He did it. He completed the will of the father. He was perfectly obedient to the Father and as a result had to pay a huge sacrifice. 

What sacrifices are we each willing to make to be obedient to our Father in Heaven? 

Well, I love yáll lots and lots. I´m always praying for yáll and hope the best. 

love you lots and lots,

Love,

Hermana Wright