wellll helllllllllllllllloooooooooooolalala. and welcome back to SO YOU THINK YOU CAN BAPTIZE....
John, consider that your shoutout for the next year. Sarah, I'm a writer. I steal whatever lines I think are funny. but let's give it up for the world's best dad! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD! I was thinking about you and Grandpa yesterday. Sorry I couldn't call to tell you. Gosh I've just been thinking about you a lot lately...what with you being the birthday boy and all and then father's day... once or twice...all summer. Plus I got this wonderfully unharmed tape in the mail with your sweet leetle voice a talkin to me (he's a talkin to me! okay he's a talking to jew) since nobody else but you wanted to talk into it. I'm glad you love me dad. That's why you win a hundred points in the celestial kingdom and an all expense paid trip to ... West Valley! You da BEST...I LOVE it!
As for me...I'm just with me by myself out here NOT in Powell but in lots hotter weather than ya'll while you're with your husbands, and your girlfriends (spencer) and all of the above in beautiful red rock canyons with slight breezes over the water. We're boiling here in H-Town. In fact, THE mission :) is having problems with heat exhaustion so we've been encouraged to take two hour lunch breaks when it gets over one hundred if we are outside for most of the day. Man, they're really going to have to twist our arms to get us to obey that rule. haha. But...it's actually justified. I had to quote Sand Lot about two hundred times last week ALONE. (I'm baking like a toasted cheeser it's so HOT out here!) So I'm sure Sister Warner appreciates the new lunch rule. It's just not that spiritual for the investigator when we're talking to them and we've got buckets of water rolling off our face and down our backs. classy.
Speaking of Sister Warner - I'm a huge fan. She's so awesome! I knew it was a companionship made in heaven when we were at an investigator's house and we had an unexpected guest come in so I kinda leaned over and said "do you think we should change our lesson plan?" and she came back at me in an english accent with "I don't know mother, I'm only here for the food." (EVER AFTER) hahahahhaha so she loves movies and we quote them all the time and we talk in voices so john watch out becuase we're sending a tape your way and after the way you made fun of me in the one you sent I'm thinking we might giggle for about a half hour and talk in voices and inside jokes for the rest! haha. But no - we're having a blast. She hit the ground running and her spanish gets better every day. She's a great teacher - She's really smart and really confident and just fun. Plus she's hilarious. Okay I think you get the picture. I feel like I live with Adrian Swenson. hahaha Best friends forever. like, she's my BFF. plus she lives next door to Disneyland so it's always good to have a connection there. Happiest Place on Earth.
MaryJane! I've got a story for you. our investigator Angelica is pregnant with her first baby and it's a girl and she wants to name it something "different." (in other words, she doesn't like the name Maria) So she was asking us our names. She liked Rebeca because it works in Spanish and in English but then I started naming all of my sisters and when I said MaryJane she got all excited and wrote it down and everything so she loves your name! haha if she names her baby maryjane that will be so cool. I hope it grows up to be just like you (baptized and everything. haha)
other than that, we're just waiting to go teach Eugene again tonight (he was sick all last week so that was kindof a bummer) and we're excited about the Ochoa Family who have now come to church for the past two sundays! there's about five of them above baptismal age but we're not going to count any chickens before they've hatched. haha just FYI.
Hope ya'll are doin well! We're Lovin' it out here! These are the best days of our lives...aside from my dusty old mailbox. cough. cough.
love you!
Becca
Monday, June 21, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Never too late
Hey everybody!
Sorry to keep you hanging yesterday, we obviously couldn't write since the libraries were down for memorial day. But I have a story this week!
One dark day in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight...jk. But one dark morning at six o clock two sister missionaries were startled to a state of wakefulness by loud, long banging on their front door. This is their story. Actually my story. That's right. I"m that llama...missionary....whatever. So anwyays. There I am, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and standing at the foot of Harry's bed asking (in a voice about two octaves lower than my usual because i just woke up) "is somebody knocking?" That was one of those stupid questions we sometimes ask that have a REALLY obvious answer. So she's like "yeah." (duh!) and so then I asked if she'd come with me to get the door. After all, we are alone in a strange state. And it was six in the morning. I looked out the peephole first (might I add, I was pretty excited to be the one looking out the peep hole instead of the one being looked out at for a change!) and saw a guy standing with his hands on hips, in a white shirt and tie and a little black tag. (it's the black spot!...that's for you dad, do you know it?) So, seeing how he was "one of us" I opened the door, and in slow motion he turned and looked at me and the look of suprise on his face was priceless! hahaahaha he jsut said... "Broadway elders?" and I said " broadway hermanas." haha then he started saying how sorry he was and basically blubbering all over the doorstep. That's okay though. He was looking for some elders from the south mission that also live in our apt. complex. He didnt' know which number they lived in so we had to walk around in front of their car with their headlights shining on us in our pajamas to show them where it was! ahhaa they were heading to the temple. The only bad thing is, he's not from our mission so I don't see him much to tease him relentlessly for that! I just wish that I would have said "yeah they're in the back bedroom, let me get them" when he asked for the broadway elders! Give me a break though, i'd only been awake thirty seconds. I was lucky to get any words out, let alone something witty. But it was pretty exciting for us missionaries who never have anything out of routine to interrupt our little perfect schedule.
Also, we had a cool experience with a recent convert who was assigned to give a talk in sacrament meeting so we went over to help her write it. She told us how her friend recently got mad at her for arriving late to work because she was feeding us (awkward). and her friend said, "obligation before devotion." But Hermana told me that she doesnt' agree with her friend. She said that is how she had always lived her life until four years ago when her husband died in a car accident and everything changed. She said she wants to put devotion to god and her loved ones before any sort of worldly obligation because that is what really matters and that is what will last, and you never know when it will be too late. I thought that was a really good thought. And I thought it was cool to see how her membership in the church has helped her to change her priorities so that she doesn't have to look back on any more of her life and feel like she was spending time in the wrong places. I also felt so grateful that when I get to be her age, I won't have to look back on a life of doing things the wrong way and learning from it, but I'll be able to look back and see that being obedient to what I've learned in the gospel has brought me so much happiness, the way i know mom and dad do. So much better that way!
okay sorry this one is short again, but i'm almost out of time. I love you all and miss you.
love Becca
p.s. pray for Eugene!
Sorry to keep you hanging yesterday, we obviously couldn't write since the libraries were down for memorial day. But I have a story this week!
One dark day in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight...jk. But one dark morning at six o clock two sister missionaries were startled to a state of wakefulness by loud, long banging on their front door. This is their story. Actually my story. That's right. I"m that llama...missionary....whatever. So anwyays. There I am, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and standing at the foot of Harry's bed asking (in a voice about two octaves lower than my usual because i just woke up) "is somebody knocking?" That was one of those stupid questions we sometimes ask that have a REALLY obvious answer. So she's like "yeah." (duh!) and so then I asked if she'd come with me to get the door. After all, we are alone in a strange state. And it was six in the morning. I looked out the peephole first (might I add, I was pretty excited to be the one looking out the peep hole instead of the one being looked out at for a change!) and saw a guy standing with his hands on hips, in a white shirt and tie and a little black tag. (it's the black spot!...that's for you dad, do you know it?) So, seeing how he was "one of us" I opened the door, and in slow motion he turned and looked at me and the look of suprise on his face was priceless! hahaahaha he jsut said... "Broadway elders?" and I said " broadway hermanas." haha then he started saying how sorry he was and basically blubbering all over the doorstep. That's okay though. He was looking for some elders from the south mission that also live in our apt. complex. He didnt' know which number they lived in so we had to walk around in front of their car with their headlights shining on us in our pajamas to show them where it was! ahhaa they were heading to the temple. The only bad thing is, he's not from our mission so I don't see him much to tease him relentlessly for that! I just wish that I would have said "yeah they're in the back bedroom, let me get them" when he asked for the broadway elders! Give me a break though, i'd only been awake thirty seconds. I was lucky to get any words out, let alone something witty. But it was pretty exciting for us missionaries who never have anything out of routine to interrupt our little perfect schedule.
Also, we had a cool experience with a recent convert who was assigned to give a talk in sacrament meeting so we went over to help her write it. She told us how her friend recently got mad at her for arriving late to work because she was feeding us (awkward). and her friend said, "obligation before devotion." But Hermana told me that she doesnt' agree with her friend. She said that is how she had always lived her life until four years ago when her husband died in a car accident and everything changed. She said she wants to put devotion to god and her loved ones before any sort of worldly obligation because that is what really matters and that is what will last, and you never know when it will be too late. I thought that was a really good thought. And I thought it was cool to see how her membership in the church has helped her to change her priorities so that she doesn't have to look back on any more of her life and feel like she was spending time in the wrong places. I also felt so grateful that when I get to be her age, I won't have to look back on a life of doing things the wrong way and learning from it, but I'll be able to look back and see that being obedient to what I've learned in the gospel has brought me so much happiness, the way i know mom and dad do. So much better that way!
okay sorry this one is short again, but i'm almost out of time. I love you all and miss you.
love Becca
p.s. pray for Eugene!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Quick Email
Good Monday Morning!
This e-mail might be a little short because we're going to Kingwood in about twenty minutes to "play" with President Moldenhauer. In other words, we're giving up our one day in the week that we have to do what we want in order to drive an hour to a chapel where we will be divided up into groups and forced to play sports with elders two years younger than us that are going to be trying not to get the sisters on their teams. haha. but i'm not self conscious about my athleticity.
Anyways we also had a really cool experience where we saw this lady sitting outside her apartment and so we stopped and talked to her and it turns out she's a member but hasn't gone in over fifteen years and she was really really sick so we were able to get her a priesthood blessing. she said she knew she needed to come back to church but was worried she wouldnt know anyone there but once we showed up out of nowhere she realized she would at least know us. so i hope she comes becuase she didn't come yesterday...but it was a neat experience meeting her. ONe thing I noticed is that she had totally forgotten how to pray. she was talking during our prayer and whispering under her breath. Sad. It's crazy how fast we lose our spiritual progress if we slack off. Don't slack off! okay i'm done preaching.
okay i'm totally out of time so whether i want to write more or not it's not really a choice anymore. i love you all. hope you enjoy the snow. we're sweating here in houston. seriously. it's nasty. and i got forty seven mosquito bites last night. counted them. hermana harry was FREAKING out. she said she's only ever had about ten in her whole life before. we put her face mask all over our legs to "soak out the poison." i dunno. i just do what she says so that i don't cause problems. haha no it was fun and now they don't itch as much. enjoy the snow. that's the moral of the story. love you all
miss you!
Becca
Thursday, May 20, 2010
New Monday P-Day!
hello!
how are we all feeling on a monday morning? I"m not going to lie, i think i'm in missionary shock. Gotta get out there and contact! what am I doing in a library? but I"m sure come Wednesday as I'm knocking doors i'll feel a lot better. haha. So the big news is that our p-day got changed to monday. That's really only because the church came out with this pretty sweet way of reporting our numbers/writing our mission president so we actually go to a new website ( i know, uncharted territory venturing from myldsmail!) and are able to enter our numbers and e-mail him through that site. He wanted to change the p-day so that we're reporting our numbers as soon as the week ends. I'm kinda bummed because it was nice to break the week up between sundays and p-days and now we'll kindof have the weekend effect but maybe that will acutally be better in the long run. I guess it doesn't really matter. But hey "it must be Monday, oh what a dumb day... can't drag my bu** out of bed... wish that I could sleep in, and wake up on the week end..." doesn't really apply any more. (shania is my girl!)
so all this excitement actually begins way before Hercules' time, many eons ago...at zone conference last friday. And guess who was there? My beautiful cousin Cherelle, also known here in Texas as Hermana Jones! President arranged it so that she and I could sit by eachother during lunch afterwards and it was so fun to catch up and share in our missionary-gooberishness together. So there we were, chatting away, and I started telling her a story and everything was going great, I was actually communicating like a normal civilian, and all of a sudden - I called her HERMANA! what? I know. way embarassing. Sarah quit judging me! She didn't even flinch though (felt normal to her) but I just about died when I realized what I had done! I was apologizing and blushing and blubbering and everything. gross. gross. GROSS. And then I just had these words go through my head - "what's to become of me, what's to BECOME of me. what am I fit for?" No longer a gutter snipe OR a duchess at an embassy ball. somewhere in between. so now i think I've officially reached that point in my mission where I don't want to come home. Not because I don't miss my life and the people in it from before...but because I'm afraid of what kind of weirdo I've become. ew. I still can't believe I did that. And she was nice about it, but I can just SEE myself calling one of my actual blood hermanas "hermana." would not go over well. I'd be the butt of family mexican missionary jokes for the rest of my life.
Other houston news: Wicked is officially here in Houston! talk about rude. I want to go so bad! I'm acutally here, in a city big enough to attract shows like that, but I can't go! waht's the point of living in houston when wicked comes if you can't go? So I told Harry we shouldn't eat for a month so that we can save up enough money to buy tickets and then when we get there we can look at each other and say, "I feel...WICKED." hahaha. she said no. can you believe that?
So last night we were eating Sunday dinner at the Ward mission leader's home and his pregnant daughter and her husband were there with us. She's our age and lives in our area too but she's less active so we know her pretty well and she's way fun! Anyways she and Harry get along like ... well, like Ron Weasley and Harry Potter, because they both LOVE to talk so we get into some pretty crazy convos. Last night we got doing stupid human tricks and next thing I know, Harry's going into some yoga stance in front of everyone in a SKIRT. whoa there. haha the best part is, she had to kinda tuck her skirt in between her legs to start it and Elder Elkins says, "there you go Harry, gird up those loins." hahahahhahah best line of the week! I was laughing soooo hard. So hard in fact, that I had to run in to the bathroom (don't worry, nobody was in there) so that I wouldn't have an accident.
By way of investigator updates, this week we had a health fair at the church and ANGELICA CAME! I was in the gym looking at this giant snake that "friends of the forest" brought with all the little kids and all of a sudden I felt this light tap on my shoulder and someone said really soft, "hermana." I turned around and saw her and just immediately gave her this huge hug! I think I took her by surprise. But she is offically pregnant with a GIRL. haha she thought it was a boy. but it's a nina! (that's spanish for...the nino) And we have an appointment with her and our relief society president tomorrow afternoon. But I was so happy that she came. I told Hermana Harry I felt like a sixteen year old boy on his first date! (spence...you'll be able to commiserate soon.) Baby steps.
So I've been really worried about what to do to help Angelica because her husband doesn't want to meet with us at all. I was kinda mentioning it to a returned missionary in the ward and I swear God sent the "tender mercy" stork with a special delivery for me because this particular guy is very in tune and he just started teaching me in the way that he would teach her and he showed me a few scriptures that backed up what I was wanting to say to her - it was like he was reading my mind! I don't have a very good mastery over the scriptures but it's funny how answers come in unexpected ways. The interesting thing is, we actually used those scriptures the next day on a woman that it had never occured to me to use them on and I know she felt the spirit. We're learning!
Anyways i'm running out of time but i could go on forever (that's literal, and you all know it.) I love you I miss you and i hope you're all doing well. I got NO mail this week! i hope you all feel horrible. haha jk i know it's on the way. thanks for everything.
love, Becca
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Jyze Pro!
Dear people who have my same genetic pool (and the few of you who read this who don't, but wish you did):
Hello. My name is Hermana Rebecca Tingey and I'd like to introduce you to my new friend, jyze pro. It's the newest and grooviest way for missionaries to exercise in tight living conditions with or without an excercising-enthusiast for a companion. Complete with water-slide! In other words, do you think they could hire me when I get back to advertize for this awesome yo yo thing? haha where did you buy this? I actually really really like it. When I first took it out of the bag I was a pretty big doubter. Especially since I did what the paper said and couldn't get it to spin AT ALL. ouch. But then I played around with it for a while and finally got the hang of it and all of a sudden I was working out and barely even trying! haha Hermana Harry is totally jealous and I think she probably secretly uses it when i'm in the shower. (the only ten minutes we missionaries ever have to ourselves - what we do with them is our only secret!) No, I'm just kidding. I'm an incredibly gracious companion (is that how you spell gracious? gracias.) and let her use it whenever she wants. But i'm not going to lie, we kinda looked like the monkey-model-men on zoolander for a while while we tried to figure it out. but THANK YOU thank you thank you for it! and my arms thank you ask well.
okay now on to the important stuff: I loved talking to you guys on Sunday! I just wish we could have talked longer. But that's okay. You were probably bored of hearing my corny- weirdo- missionary stories in the first five minutes! But as a result, this e-mail is going to be pretty bummer. Not much has happened since Sunday. Aside from about fifty people contacted...and one dinner with the kid I saw in the bathroom. haha. nice. I don't know why but I feel like I know him really well...
We had a really good lesson with our investigator Angelica. or really bad if you're Hermana Harry. haha. She has been doing awesome but just won't come to church because she doesn't want to do something that will put a rift in between her and her husband. So yesterday we went to give her what I call the "do or die" lesson. We talked to her really seriously about spiritual progression and then asked how we can help her come to church. It was awesome because I didn't really know how to say what I wanted to say but once we got talking it all just kinda came out in the perfect way and she understood very clearly what we were trying to communicate. She said she'd talk to her hsuband and we're going to try to do a lesson with them and a couple from the ward, but other than that, if she doesn't come to church we can't keep coming to visit her. ugh! I love/hate lessons like that. I always walk out with a huge burden lifted off my chest - it's just good to get some stuff out on the table. But at the same time, I have really loved visiting her and I know she has a testimony! But we'll have to see. Hopefully her husband will see how much she wants to go and he'll take her. But hermana Harry was pretty distraught about it. It's weird being in a companionship because we both deal with things like that so differently. I think she was hoping to hang on to it a bit longer but I just felt like, hermana, she's just not that into us! that's what my mom taught me. so we'll see how into us she really is.
But you know what that means? Back to the streets. We've been knocking doors and trying old investigators from the area book so i'm sure we'll have some crazy stories for next week.
Take care this week and don't let any mexican men give you besos! I learned that the hard way! haha ugh. i'm still shuddering about it. sorry this e-mail is kinda lame. Better luck next time! haha love love love you all!
muah
love Becca
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Working Hard to Improve My Patience...
Dear void:
It’s another blustery day in the hundred-acre mission field. The weather here is crazy. One minute it is tropical summer and the next it’s sweater weather. Somebody told me the other day that if you don’t like the weather in Houston, wait a minute! Haha that’s pretty true.
I think the same could be said about missionary work. If you feel like things are going smoothly, wait a minute! Haha and vice-versa. This past week our investigator Ana who totally wanted to be baptized told us that her mom is not going to let her meet with us anymore. Her mom wants her to go to the Catholic church. I guess they’re all going as a family. What?! I know. Totally stinks. But there’s really nothing we can do about that. It’s just SO HARD for me personally to walk away from someone who so obviously has felt the spirit and started to see some real spiritual growth, and who has such strong desires to keep growing! What can you do. . . KNOCK DOORS and find someone else to teach! The good thing about missionary work is you can always find someone else to worry about and it gets your mind off the people you have to leave behind.
So last Wednesday we went to do some sight-seeing in San Jacinto City, where the U.S.S Texas finds its berth. I think my poor brain hadn’t had that much non-religious stimulation in six months (today is my six month mark by the way!) and was flipping out. I kept asking all the elders ten billion questions about battleships and whether or not they would join the navy and “what is that for” and other questions they couldn’t possibly know the answer to. But it was way fun for me. I thought it was fascinating the way that ship was put together. I could never live on it though. Anyways, the point of all this is that I found myself, at the end of the day, behind the wheel of the Lord’s car, with two backseat drivers in white shirts and ties sitting behind me telling me, “don’t follow the zone leaders, we know the way home.” In other words, “the zone leaders are trying to lead you down the path of righteousness but we’re gonna lead you down the path that ROCKS.” And I totally succumbed to peer pressure and split off from the group. (actually I didn’t have much of a choice. I would do just about anything to avoid having my district leader (backseat driver #1) mad at me – we work with him on an almost daily basis.) So there I was, in the fourth largest city in this wonderful nation, stuck in rush hour traffic and –of course- taking the WRONG exit onto the WRONG freeway. The right freeway twists around and goes up over the wrong one so all the other missionaries could look down on us in mock pity and wave as we inched under them. And we inched for about another forty minutes before finally traffic broke enough for us to realize that in order to exit the freeway we would be going well out of our mission boundaries. Welcome to the Texas Houston mission, where the freeways take you into downtown and where missionaries from the East mission get sent home for visiting! Haha. Probably one of the most stressful car rides of my life! But we were all just laughing so hard. Every time we tried to fix a mistake, we ended up making a worse one. Anyways I finally got smart and decided my own knowledge, though limited, would be better getting me home than any information I was getting from the back seat. (I realized this about the time one of them took out his camera and started taking pictures of all the things we were seeing that we weren’t ever supposed to see since they’re in the Houston mission.) Let’s just say I was happy to set foot back on Houston East soil.
And speaking of the Houston East mission, we have a strange phenomenon here that the President is very concerned about. Since we have both English speaking missionaries and Spanish speaking missionaries, there naturally comes with that demographic a divide of sorts, and he wants to eliminate it. So he’s starting at the root of the problem and trying to correct our language. He no longer wants us to refer to them as English speaking missionaries – he’d prefer we don’t make any sort of distinction. I think he’s a wonderful President and trying hard to improve our mission but there are times when we really need to refer to them that way! For example, when we meet an English speaker and we want to give the referral to the “English missionaries.” How else do we say that? So my District leader came up with a long list of other things we could call them. One of them was “muggles.” When I heard that, I just turned to Hermana Harry and said, “do you know what this means?” then in my best Hagrid voice...”you’re a WIZARD harry!” hahaha! But the moral of the story is, we’re just going to try to bridge the divide which is what President wanted in the first place.
“The boy who lived” and I have actually had quite a week. Our zone leaders asked us to knock doors for two hours each day, after three o-clock in the afternoon, so we’ve met some interesting people. We chose a new apartment complex that we had never knocked before and started knocking fairly randomly at a door that was on an end. A cute Hispanic woman who was probably about sixty or seventy opened and let us set up an appointment with her for the next day, then told us that she was the only Hispanic in the complex. We knocked a few more doors just to make sure and she was telling the truth. Everyone else confirmed it as well, so we decided we’d be more productive somewhere else. Anyways we went back to teach the woman we met and turns out she’s a less active member! But it was so odd to me because she never told us. We got about halfway through the first lesson before I figured it out and asked her. Sure enough, there she is on our ward directory. That was a weird experience. But I told her that the Lord must be calling out to her to come back to church then because all of that hullaballoo just to meet her. I don’t think she’s going to come. Some people are so strange. But I really do think that we were led to her. Why else would we have received such strong impressions to knock that complex? I’m glad the Lord is more patient with his lost sheep than I am. As for me, I’m working hard to improve my patience. Which is just a missionary way of saying that I totally lose my temper after visiting less actives that show no interest in coming back to church but happily claim that they have faith they will inherit all the blessings of an active member in the eternities. It just doesn’t work that way. Something interesting I’ve noticed about the Hispanic people is that they are very quick to accept the gospel but – and they’ll all tell you this- they’re very lazy about STAYING in the gospel. We have a lot of less-actives. I guess that’s probably true with everyone though.
And I don’t have anything else super-interesting to write about. I think the hardest part about missionary work (and I think I’ve said this before) is just the monotony. It’s never boring but a lot of the time it’s just average. It’s like flying a plane. 90% nothing and 10% high stress/ultimate excitement. But I have noticed, since I’m doing my six month mark nostalgia, that looking back you can see how far you’ve come even though at the time you didn’t realize you were changing.
I hope you’re all changing and growing and progressing as well. As I tell my district leader, “may your every wish be granted.” (that’s what I tell him when he says “this is a dumb song” and I read his mind and change the track…but I mean it sorta seriously to all of you…or at least most of you, depending on who reads this. Haha jk okay all of you!)
Love you lots!
Becca
p.s. Meg - i officially had a dream about you. I dreamed I went to go see you because I hadn't heard from you in so long! And you were sitting in your pajamas on the top bunk of a bunk bed so I think you weren't expecting me. haha. Don't make me come find you! Write me....
It’s another blustery day in the hundred-acre mission field. The weather here is crazy. One minute it is tropical summer and the next it’s sweater weather. Somebody told me the other day that if you don’t like the weather in Houston, wait a minute! Haha that’s pretty true.
I think the same could be said about missionary work. If you feel like things are going smoothly, wait a minute! Haha and vice-versa. This past week our investigator Ana who totally wanted to be baptized told us that her mom is not going to let her meet with us anymore. Her mom wants her to go to the Catholic church. I guess they’re all going as a family. What?! I know. Totally stinks. But there’s really nothing we can do about that. It’s just SO HARD for me personally to walk away from someone who so obviously has felt the spirit and started to see some real spiritual growth, and who has such strong desires to keep growing! What can you do. . . KNOCK DOORS and find someone else to teach! The good thing about missionary work is you can always find someone else to worry about and it gets your mind off the people you have to leave behind.
So last Wednesday we went to do some sight-seeing in San Jacinto City, where the U.S.S Texas finds its berth. I think my poor brain hadn’t had that much non-religious stimulation in six months (today is my six month mark by the way!) and was flipping out. I kept asking all the elders ten billion questions about battleships and whether or not they would join the navy and “what is that for” and other questions they couldn’t possibly know the answer to. But it was way fun for me. I thought it was fascinating the way that ship was put together. I could never live on it though. Anyways, the point of all this is that I found myself, at the end of the day, behind the wheel of the Lord’s car, with two backseat drivers in white shirts and ties sitting behind me telling me, “don’t follow the zone leaders, we know the way home.” In other words, “the zone leaders are trying to lead you down the path of righteousness but we’re gonna lead you down the path that ROCKS.” And I totally succumbed to peer pressure and split off from the group. (actually I didn’t have much of a choice. I would do just about anything to avoid having my district leader (backseat driver #1) mad at me – we work with him on an almost daily basis.) So there I was, in the fourth largest city in this wonderful nation, stuck in rush hour traffic and –of course- taking the WRONG exit onto the WRONG freeway. The right freeway twists around and goes up over the wrong one so all the other missionaries could look down on us in mock pity and wave as we inched under them. And we inched for about another forty minutes before finally traffic broke enough for us to realize that in order to exit the freeway we would be going well out of our mission boundaries. Welcome to the Texas Houston mission, where the freeways take you into downtown and where missionaries from the East mission get sent home for visiting! Haha. Probably one of the most stressful car rides of my life! But we were all just laughing so hard. Every time we tried to fix a mistake, we ended up making a worse one. Anyways I finally got smart and decided my own knowledge, though limited, would be better getting me home than any information I was getting from the back seat. (I realized this about the time one of them took out his camera and started taking pictures of all the things we were seeing that we weren’t ever supposed to see since they’re in the Houston mission.) Let’s just say I was happy to set foot back on Houston East soil.
And speaking of the Houston East mission, we have a strange phenomenon here that the President is very concerned about. Since we have both English speaking missionaries and Spanish speaking missionaries, there naturally comes with that demographic a divide of sorts, and he wants to eliminate it. So he’s starting at the root of the problem and trying to correct our language. He no longer wants us to refer to them as English speaking missionaries – he’d prefer we don’t make any sort of distinction. I think he’s a wonderful President and trying hard to improve our mission but there are times when we really need to refer to them that way! For example, when we meet an English speaker and we want to give the referral to the “English missionaries.” How else do we say that? So my District leader came up with a long list of other things we could call them. One of them was “muggles.” When I heard that, I just turned to Hermana Harry and said, “do you know what this means?” then in my best Hagrid voice...”you’re a WIZARD harry!” hahaha! But the moral of the story is, we’re just going to try to bridge the divide which is what President wanted in the first place.
“The boy who lived” and I have actually had quite a week. Our zone leaders asked us to knock doors for two hours each day, after three o-clock in the afternoon, so we’ve met some interesting people. We chose a new apartment complex that we had never knocked before and started knocking fairly randomly at a door that was on an end. A cute Hispanic woman who was probably about sixty or seventy opened and let us set up an appointment with her for the next day, then told us that she was the only Hispanic in the complex. We knocked a few more doors just to make sure and she was telling the truth. Everyone else confirmed it as well, so we decided we’d be more productive somewhere else. Anyways we went back to teach the woman we met and turns out she’s a less active member! But it was so odd to me because she never told us. We got about halfway through the first lesson before I figured it out and asked her. Sure enough, there she is on our ward directory. That was a weird experience. But I told her that the Lord must be calling out to her to come back to church then because all of that hullaballoo just to meet her. I don’t think she’s going to come. Some people are so strange. But I really do think that we were led to her. Why else would we have received such strong impressions to knock that complex? I’m glad the Lord is more patient with his lost sheep than I am. As for me, I’m working hard to improve my patience. Which is just a missionary way of saying that I totally lose my temper after visiting less actives that show no interest in coming back to church but happily claim that they have faith they will inherit all the blessings of an active member in the eternities. It just doesn’t work that way. Something interesting I’ve noticed about the Hispanic people is that they are very quick to accept the gospel but – and they’ll all tell you this- they’re very lazy about STAYING in the gospel. We have a lot of less-actives. I guess that’s probably true with everyone though.
And I don’t have anything else super-interesting to write about. I think the hardest part about missionary work (and I think I’ve said this before) is just the monotony. It’s never boring but a lot of the time it’s just average. It’s like flying a plane. 90% nothing and 10% high stress/ultimate excitement. But I have noticed, since I’m doing my six month mark nostalgia, that looking back you can see how far you’ve come even though at the time you didn’t realize you were changing.
I hope you’re all changing and growing and progressing as well. As I tell my district leader, “may your every wish be granted.” (that’s what I tell him when he says “this is a dumb song” and I read his mind and change the track…but I mean it sorta seriously to all of you…or at least most of you, depending on who reads this. Haha jk okay all of you!)
Love you lots!
Becca
p.s. Meg - i officially had a dream about you. I dreamed I went to go see you because I hadn't heard from you in so long! And you were sitting in your pajamas on the top bunk of a bunk bed so I think you weren't expecting me. haha. Don't make me come find you! Write me....
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Plan B...or C or D...
Happy P-day familia mia!
I hope every one of you kneels down each night with your (eternal) companion and prays before diligently planning your day out like Harry and I do. Last night I couldn’t help but think, “those who can’t wed, plan!” and laugh at how true that is. (mom: name that movie) You can make a plan for each half hour of your day, and a back-up plan as well, but why is it that what you ACTUALLY end up doing never really goes according to plan A OR plan B? I guess some things you just can’t plan for.
For example: On Sunday, we planned to have eleven investigators in church. Haha. That was plan A. Since we were feeling so great about that, we decided to go knocking doors before church started and picked a street we both felt good about. As soon as we turned down that street, we both started oohing and ahhing like we’d just walked into Disneyland. HOUSES. With YARDS. Haha it was actually really really pretty. And so we were remembering those far off days when we used to have grass in front of a house and a driveway where we could put the car that we actually owned. (or at least, my dad owned. ) And then, to our further amazement, we noticed something…strange…on the side of the road. I’ve seen cats and possums (yes mom, possums!) and all sorts of mangy dogs, but this was a new one: PEACOCKS. Yeah. About twelve of them! It was the coolest thing ever. We drove further and found more! All over the place. Who would have thought. We got some crazy pictures. So that was our not-according-to-plan-experience #1 for the day.
Experience #2: remember our plan for eleven investigators? Nobody showed up! So I was sitting up on stand by the piano, waiting to play the closing hymn, when a guy in black jeans and a turquoise shirt walked in. I looked at him and then did a double-take. It was Jose Gonzalez- one of the investigators that I didn’t really think would come! I think my face just about broke from smiling so big – and so he smiled back and kinda shrugged his shoulders at me like “what am I doing here?” haha. He is my favorite investigator that I’ve ever had. (don’t tell the rest.) He teases a lot and he’s very smart, but has been put off by religions that take money from the people and give it to their pastors. So he’s not very trusting, but he told us later that he’s been to lots of churches, but when he walked into our chapel, he felt something different. Definitely didn’t plan on that.
Unplanned Experience #3: and I’m not sure that this one counts because it happened before Sunday but it was pretty darn unplanned. Last p-day, in an effort to buy shirts that actually allow you to keep your sanity in this Texas heat, we PLANNED to go to a thrift store (don’t judge too harshly, we only get $130 a month!) with some of the other hermanas who live near us to buy some really cute shirts. Two hours later, we walked out of the thrift store. The hermanas didn’t come when planned, so Harry and I just walked around collecting everything we thought might possibly fit us (sarah- they had really cute stuff and really CHEAP. It’s like the reject store for charlotte russe and stuff). When the time came to try everything on, we asked to be shown to a fitting room. PLANS CHANGEDwhen the store worker told us there WASN’T A fitting room. (we’re not in Utah anymore Harry) haha! Oops. So we found a nice corner in the bed sheet section, took a mirror from the mirror section, and tried our shirts on over our lovely missionary proselyting clothes. Talk about companion unity- we had to depend on each other to tell us whether something was cute/ made us look fat or not. As if people didn’t already think we were weird enough. But I’m happy to report that I bought some stuff that I’m pretty happy about and seeing as each shirt was about two dollars to five dollars, I didn’t spend much money at all either. And I’m glad, because the other day I got asked if I was a menonite! OUCH. Hermana Harry and I just looked at each other and then I said, we’ve got to buy some new clothes! Haha the guy actually laughed pretty hard. He was an unplanned experience as well. In fact, he’ll be unplanned-experience #4
Number 4: We contacted a referral and set up an appointment, when we got there, he wasn’t available but his wife was and she invited us in. As we started the lesson she started saying how she and her husband have really been wanting to come to our church. Then she already knew the Joseph Smith story and said she knew it was true and felt like this church was “calling” to her. I told her I knew it was. Haha. No, her name isn’t Israel, it’s Lucia, but we’re going back tonight and I’m way excited. Anyways, the unplanned part of this story is that as we left, the sun had gone down. Usually we’re told not to contact after dark, but we were pretty stoked about the awesome lesson we had just had and so we decided to contact the two guys drinking on the back of their truck across the street. That’s where we got called menonites. But they were actually really friendly, funny, not-interested-in-religion drunk guys. And they were little short of amazed that we weren’t scared to talk to them. As they were asking me if I was scared, I told them no, but then my mind went off on all the reasons why I probably SHOULD be scared, but my naïve, growing-up-in-Utah mind hadn’t thought of any of them before we contacted. I think next time I’ll think that through.
Anyways, the moral of the story is, plan to be planning as you go along.
May you all plan to write me back LOOOONG letters with lots of encouraging compliments, and may you all follow through with your plans. I’ll be planning on checking the mailbox lots this week! Haha I love you all and hope everyone is doing well. Talk to you soon,
Becca
I hope every one of you kneels down each night with your (eternal) companion and prays before diligently planning your day out like Harry and I do. Last night I couldn’t help but think, “those who can’t wed, plan!” and laugh at how true that is. (mom: name that movie) You can make a plan for each half hour of your day, and a back-up plan as well, but why is it that what you ACTUALLY end up doing never really goes according to plan A OR plan B? I guess some things you just can’t plan for.
For example: On Sunday, we planned to have eleven investigators in church. Haha. That was plan A. Since we were feeling so great about that, we decided to go knocking doors before church started and picked a street we both felt good about. As soon as we turned down that street, we both started oohing and ahhing like we’d just walked into Disneyland. HOUSES. With YARDS. Haha it was actually really really pretty. And so we were remembering those far off days when we used to have grass in front of a house and a driveway where we could put the car that we actually owned. (or at least, my dad owned. ) And then, to our further amazement, we noticed something…strange…on the side of the road. I’ve seen cats and possums (yes mom, possums!) and all sorts of mangy dogs, but this was a new one: PEACOCKS. Yeah. About twelve of them! It was the coolest thing ever. We drove further and found more! All over the place. Who would have thought. We got some crazy pictures. So that was our not-according-to-plan-experience #1 for the day.
Experience #2: remember our plan for eleven investigators? Nobody showed up! So I was sitting up on stand by the piano, waiting to play the closing hymn, when a guy in black jeans and a turquoise shirt walked in. I looked at him and then did a double-take. It was Jose Gonzalez- one of the investigators that I didn’t really think would come! I think my face just about broke from smiling so big – and so he smiled back and kinda shrugged his shoulders at me like “what am I doing here?” haha. He is my favorite investigator that I’ve ever had. (don’t tell the rest.) He teases a lot and he’s very smart, but has been put off by religions that take money from the people and give it to their pastors. So he’s not very trusting, but he told us later that he’s been to lots of churches, but when he walked into our chapel, he felt something different. Definitely didn’t plan on that.
Unplanned Experience #3: and I’m not sure that this one counts because it happened before Sunday but it was pretty darn unplanned. Last p-day, in an effort to buy shirts that actually allow you to keep your sanity in this Texas heat, we PLANNED to go to a thrift store (don’t judge too harshly, we only get $130 a month!) with some of the other hermanas who live near us to buy some really cute shirts. Two hours later, we walked out of the thrift store. The hermanas didn’t come when planned, so Harry and I just walked around collecting everything we thought might possibly fit us (sarah- they had really cute stuff and really CHEAP. It’s like the reject store for charlotte russe and stuff). When the time came to try everything on, we asked to be shown to a fitting room. PLANS CHANGEDwhen the store worker told us there WASN’T A fitting room. (we’re not in Utah anymore Harry) haha! Oops. So we found a nice corner in the bed sheet section, took a mirror from the mirror section, and tried our shirts on over our lovely missionary proselyting clothes. Talk about companion unity- we had to depend on each other to tell us whether something was cute/ made us look fat or not. As if people didn’t already think we were weird enough. But I’m happy to report that I bought some stuff that I’m pretty happy about and seeing as each shirt was about two dollars to five dollars, I didn’t spend much money at all either. And I’m glad, because the other day I got asked if I was a menonite! OUCH. Hermana Harry and I just looked at each other and then I said, we’ve got to buy some new clothes! Haha the guy actually laughed pretty hard. He was an unplanned experience as well. In fact, he’ll be unplanned-experience #4
Number 4: We contacted a referral and set up an appointment, when we got there, he wasn’t available but his wife was and she invited us in. As we started the lesson she started saying how she and her husband have really been wanting to come to our church. Then she already knew the Joseph Smith story and said she knew it was true and felt like this church was “calling” to her. I told her I knew it was. Haha. No, her name isn’t Israel, it’s Lucia, but we’re going back tonight and I’m way excited. Anyways, the unplanned part of this story is that as we left, the sun had gone down. Usually we’re told not to contact after dark, but we were pretty stoked about the awesome lesson we had just had and so we decided to contact the two guys drinking on the back of their truck across the street. That’s where we got called menonites. But they were actually really friendly, funny, not-interested-in-religion drunk guys. And they were little short of amazed that we weren’t scared to talk to them. As they were asking me if I was scared, I told them no, but then my mind went off on all the reasons why I probably SHOULD be scared, but my naïve, growing-up-in-Utah mind hadn’t thought of any of them before we contacted. I think next time I’ll think that through.
Anyways, the moral of the story is, plan to be planning as you go along.
May you all plan to write me back LOOOONG letters with lots of encouraging compliments, and may you all follow through with your plans. I’ll be planning on checking the mailbox lots this week! Haha I love you all and hope everyone is doing well. Talk to you soon,
Becca
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