November 25, 2013
Hey Family!
Do you know what the title means? I hit my 4 month mark yesterday! Yesterday was also significant because it was the LAST day of the 12 week training program! So I´m like a real missionary now! Just kidding, I was already a real missionary, but now we are on the normal schedule with more proselyting time instead of more studying time, so it´s different. But yeah, my second transfer is over! We didn´t get a call this time (we didn´t expect one) so we´re both staying here. Out of the 8 missionaries in our district (6 in the Málaga 2 ward, 2 in Nerja branch) only one is leaving, which is kind of surprising since Elder Quinn and Elder Oldroyd are both staying and they both already have 3 transfers here. But they are my favorite elders in the district anyway, so I would have been super sad if they left. And I´ll leave next transfer (most likely) and so will they, so we´ll all leave together anyway!
Lets see...the only thing truly worth mentioning this week is la fiesta de naciones! It was a combined ward party on Friday and since so many people are from different countries, they all brought food and flags and set up tables. I´ll send a pic of the American table the missionaries made. It was pretty lame since we´re missionaries but we had chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and hot dogs. The hot dogs were the elders´ idea but they took bits of hotdogs and stuck them to bits of buns with toothpicks and put little bits of ketchup on each one. I thought it was absolutely hilarious since obviously that´s not how people actually eat hot dogs, but whatever. I honestly don´t understand the things the elders do and probably never will! But the ward party was super fun and I´ve never felt so proud of my country! It was really exciting to have the Bishop announce them all and give a big cheer for the grand USA. Plus as a cultural addition, all the missionaries sang Take Me Out To The Ballgame. We sang it horribly, but no one could understand it anyway haha. Some women from Spain did some flamenca dancing and it was all super fun! The only problem is that Spain hasn´t quite figured out how to pull off ward socials yet. You have to do the food BEFORE the long and sometimes really boring program of people talking forever about their countries. So we had to sit through the long program while the food literally just sat there getting cold. But oh well. After that it was a crazy free-for-all and I just tried to get whatever food I could grab! I played a game in my head called "Which country´s food can make me wish I had my mission call there instead". And the winner? Argentina, hands down. Super good. Ever had an empanada made by a legit Argentinian? Well, believe me, you´re missing out. Someday I will have to visit Argentina for sure! Super cool ward party, I wish something like that was more possible in the States, but most people are born and raised in the USA, and it´s definitely not as cool unless people are actually from that country.
We had our interviews with President Deere this week. Once again, he secured his place as my favorite person in the whole world. I realized also one of the reasons I love President Deere so much: he reminds me of Brother Griffin! For those of you who do not know who Brother Griffin is, he is my amazing BoM and NT teacher at BYU. Seriously, the more I think about it, the more alike they are. And it´s not a look thing and not quite a personality thing, but it´s more like the way I feel around Brother Grifin is very similar to the way I feel when I´m around President Deere. You feel completely like you can be yourself and won´t be judged at all. I feel like I can tell either one of them absolutely anything that´s bothering me or anything I wish I did better and neither of them would ever be angry or harsh in any way, but only lovingly try to help in any way they can. Like, I don´t always feel that confident or feel like I´m the kind of missionary I wish I was, but President Deere has so much confidence in me that it makes me want to be better on my own! Seriously, that is how everyone needs to run wards, families, schools, everything! You don´t need to be mean and enforce the rules the get people to be better. Being super strict only makes people want to rebel. But if you treat people the way you want them to be, they will automatically have a desire to be like that!
In other news, last Monday night we tried Fufu! I don´t know if I spelled it right, but it´s a Nigerian food that Michael and Oliver (Nigerian ward member) made for us. I didn´t particularly love it, but it was cool simply because it was African food! I´ll try and send a pic of that too. I always bring my camera, but it´s so hard to remember to leave time to send pics! Today we played futbol with some elders (actually Hna Thompson doesn´t like soccer so only I played) and then walked around central Málaga for awhile. Hombre, saying the word ¨soccer¨ is actually weird. I´m going to come home and be really confused until I can get that word back in my head...Also, in the centro there is an American food store called the Taste of America. It´s pretty expensive (10 euros for one box of fruitloops!) but I enjoyed seeing American things and bought a can of Rootbeer. Rootbeer!!!!! I didn´t even realize how much I missed it! it was like drinking Heaven. Everybody please take time to appreciate the fact that you can drink rootbeer at your leisure!
MY SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW. It´s not fair :( But on the bright side, I like to put random quotes and scriptures in my agenda everyday just for inspiration and without meaning to, I had the scripture Nehemiah 6:3 for tomorrow, my sister´s wedding day. And I don´t have the exact words right now with me, but it´s something like the guy is working on building a wall and he´s up high working on it and some people are trying to get him to come down and he says something like ¨Why should I come down now? Who is going to build this if I come down?¨ And I really like it for tomorrow because the wedding is calling me and I really wish I could, but like Nehemiah I can say ¨Why should I leave now? I´m building the church in Spain, who is going to do my work if I leave?¨ So as much as my heart is being ripped in pieces by not being able to go, I can use this opportunity to say that I KNOW why I´m here and I KNOW that this is where I´m needed. Jesus never had it easy, He always had sacrifices to make. This is simply a sacrifice the Lord is asking me to make. And if the mission was too easy, then it wouldn´t be worth it, would it?
Have a great week and go share the Gospel!
Hermana Andrew
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