Back to the Motherland: Shhhhh and Some Bigotes (Mustaches) (April 20, 2015)

Hola familia y amigos!

This was a great week. First week of the transfer and I realized I forgot to tell you about my new companion. Because Hermana Hernandez Ruiz left, I got a new companion. Her name is Hermana Carrasco. She was born in Argentina, but her family moved to Utah when she was 5. So she grew up in Utah. That seems to kind of be a trend with my companions. They were born in another place, but live in the US. But I'm ok with that. Hna Carrasco is AWESOME! She speaks with an Argentine-Argentine/Mexican accent. It was a little bit to get used to. So basically, she says certain sounds different, like the "y" or "ll" sounds she says like "sh." Don't ask me why, but it's just how it works in Argentina. It has more of a European influence, I guess. We get along super well. She's a selfie-sister, so there may be a lot of selfies coming to you this next transfer. :)

As for our week, it started off funny. We went to dinner at the Lopez in our ward and Leovi, the daughter, gave us these mustaches. We took lots of great pictures with them, then we had plans to go meet the bishop, so we decided to just go with them on and then pretend like there was nothing out of the ordinary. Conversation starter, ya know? It was SO FUUUNNY! He totally pointed it out and we were playing it off like everything was normal. Then we couldn't hold it in anymore. We all just laughed. Then his kids were eyeing us all weird, so we gave the mustaches to them. They loved it!

Also this week, we found a family that is SO ready for the gospel. The dad just called the teacher of the english classes, but he couldn't get ahold of him. So the teacher gave us the number to try. We called them (the scariest thing ever, because you never know how they're going to react), CORRECTION: I called them, in my terrible phone-spanish. And the wife actually was really open and glad that we called. She said that she was a member and that she had an 11-year-old daughter that wanted to be baptized. So we asked when we could come over and we went over THAT NIGHT. Serious BLESSINGS! They even came to church yesterday and are SUPER LEGIT!

Then yesterday, we had a ROUGH, but good day. So we have church at 9 in the morning. So we went to church and didn't even think to bring a lunch or any food. Then right after church, we had a 2-hour ward council. Our stomachs were growling through the whole thing. 1) We didn't really bring any food. 2) We live too far away from the church to just run home for food, plus we don't really even have any at the house. And 3) It's Sunday, so we couldn't go buy some. So we just decided we'd wait until dinner in 3 hours. LONGEST 3 HOURS OF MY LIFE. We had a lot of things to do, but we seemed to just be rejected and aimless and not make progress. And our hunger just made it worse. A referral straight up said no. Then a family who were looking promising, ALSO told us they weren't interested. Then people just didn't answer and we didn't seem to have any success. Then we went to dinner. FOOOOOD! That was good. Then we went to an appointment with a lady we're teaching. Her name is Tina. She's been through a lot. She was a drug dealer and has been in jail kinda a lot of her life, but she's on parole now. Her brother and mom are members and she's actually one of my favorite people. She definitely has been through a lot, but she's making changes in her life and has more perspective now. She started reading the Book of Mormon this week and when she saw us, started out by saying, "Sorry! I'm only in the fourth chapter." We're like WHAAAA! That's AWESOME! But as we were there, she shared with us one of the verses that stood out to her. 1 Nephi 1:20 "...But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance." And it really made us feel better. We told her how much she helped us and that sometimes Heavenly Father guides us to things that can help others. It really made an impact on her and me. I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father's watching over me. It's truly amazing!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Con amor,

Hermana Shirley

My upper lip has been kinda itchy lately... (me and Hermana Carrasco)