HOLA!
WHAT? How is it my second week almost my third week
already?? Time FLIES here. The first week was actually the longest 4 days of my
life but now it feels like I just left. But I’m LOVING it here.
Before I left I would always get asked if I’m gonna miss my
phone, my laptop, tv, etc. all that good stuff. But seriously I had such an
easy time adjusting. I miss all of that stuff but hardly at all. They are right
when they said it distracts you because I have never been more focused on
something in my entire life. Seriously. I love it.
Every Tuesday night is COSTCO PIZZA NIGHT. Soooo I basically
love where I’m at.
Something interesting here: in the bathrooms when you go to
pull the toilet paper out, there is only one square at a time that comes out.
It’s a weird system. We joke about how we get super lucky when 3 come out at a
time.
I LOVE THE NATIVES HERE. We had a group of natives that we
fell in love with but they left last week! They came in with us but they only
stay here 2 weeks because they already know Spanish. They would always make fun
of how we say words and how we can’t roll our Rs. We taught them tongue
twisters like ´she sells seashells by the seashore´ and they teach us Spanish
tongue twisters that are nearly impossible to say. Its soooo fun. They are the
nicest, sweetest, most humble people I have ever met in my life. It makes me
SOOO excited to go into the field and teach them the gospel!
So I think I talked about our investigator Carlos in the
last e-mail and how we had to teach him 4 lessons all in Spanish? Wellllllllll
- on Monday we were sitting in class and in walks Carlos in a suit and tie with
a TEACHER NAMETAG ON. He is our new teacher!!!!!!!!! He was just pretending to
be an investigator and now he is one of our teachers. Coolest thing ever!
Speaking of teachers, I hate to brag but I think I have the best teachers in
the whole MTC. They are soooo good at teaching, they are so funny, so honest
and spiritual and the best people. One of our teachers (Hermana Vergara) has to
write a paper in English for school and we have been helping her. She is the
best and I have gotten super close to her. Her favorite English words are
´blank´ and ´puddle´. She is so fun! We have both decided that we are going to
be best friends after my mission.
I had the hardest day of my mission this week. Saturday. It
wasn’t a good day for me. Spanish was super hard for me that day- I don’t know why. My companion and I had a
first lesson with an investigator (another one of our teachers). I prepared and
everything but during the lesson the words would not come to me. I would start
to say a sentence and the words would escape my mind and I would just stop. It
was so awful. I was so discouraged. After we were done with the lesson I came
in and just bawled. It was a moment where I felt like I couldn’t do anything. I
felt like I wasn’t learning the language and felt like I couldn’t do what I’m
doing now for 18 whole months. After the lesson, hermana Vergara hugged me so
much and gave me a scripture that has helped me so much already. D&C 100:
4-8. Look it up! Sooo good. The next day after that I was so scared to teach
and speak Spanish. But I prayed a lot and really pondered that scripture.
PRAYERS WORK! The next day, I woke up and decided I was going to be the best
that I could. And you know what? I taught one of the best lessons I have ever
taught. I felt like my Spanish was 10 times better. I knew what to say and I
was so comforted. I know that the power of prayer is real and that the gift of
tongues is real. Trust the Holy Ghost!
Another powerful lesson that I learned this week: hermana
Vergara was teaching us about baptism. She got back from her mission probably 5
months ago. She said ´imagine your first investigator getting baptized´ so we
closed our eyes and imagined. She said ´imagine them coming out of the water
full with joy on their face´ and we imagined. Then she said (the part that
really hit me) ´imagine them coming out of the font and saying THANK YOU´ it
hit me soooo hard! I was crying. It was soooo powerful to me. It was so
motivating. I thought, I really need to stay on top of studying and learning
the doctrine so I can have plenty of those experiences! I have never felt the
Spirit so strong before in my ENTIRE LIFE. I know this is what I need to be
doing!
Anyone: please watch the Book of Mormon video by Elder
Holland. Truly amazing and soooo inspiring.
So our teachers are taking Spanish super seriously now that
it is our third week here. So every time we say a word in English, we have to
do a 1 minute wall-sit. Let me just tell you that my abs and legs have never
been more toned before in my life.
So we were eating and one my teachers walk by with his
girlfriend and we were like ´awwwww! So cute!´ and it looked like his
girlfriend was embarrassed with all of the attention she was getting. So I said
´are you embarrassed??´ Like I yelled it. But instead I said ´are you
pregnant´? Yeah. In Spanish. Yeah I’m never saying those words in Spanish ever
again. Thank you everyone for the prayers and e-mails! I LOVE hearing
what’s going on in your life. Sorry I don’t respond to everyone but I do READ
all of them! Thank you again! I wouldn’t be on my mission if it wasn’t for all
of your support! I love you all!
xoxoxoxoxo
Hermana Garner
Love wearing this name tag everyday! Such a great reminder
of why im on a mission!
If you make your bed the day the cleaning ladies come, you get a nice surprise on your pillow!
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