week #13

Heyyyooo!

Things are going great over here in Peru!

Highlight:

MY highlight this week was that the new church in our area is opening! The building has been under construction for a while and it is finally almost ready to go ! This week we were able to walk through. It was so beautiful! Everything is brand new, and better yet, everything is CLEAN! A lot of the churches here don't stay clean but for now it is just so awesome! It has two buildings. One building contains the classrooms, offices and kitchen. The other building houses the stage and the chapel. Outside is the best, a volleyball court, soccer field, and basketball court! Its sweeet! And this is perfect because now the church is really close to all of our investigators so it will be much easier for them to attend. 

Downfall:

This week we had a work visit with our new district leader.The new  leader is a bit intimidating, he is really strict. The investigator that we arranged to visit is normally very receptive, and accepts our commitments. BUT of course on the one day she decides to be really difficult we bring the boss! Our whole goal for the lesson was to invite her to come to church on Sunday. She has been to church before and she attended conference so it should not have been that big of a deal. BUT she refused to come this week. We did everything that we were taught to persuade her to say yes, scriptures, promise blessings, testify. And she still refused. It was pretty discouraging. I don't even know how to describe it in words, but just know that it was frustrating. Our new district leader was not impressed. But we will impress him next time.

Fun experience!

This week we had a BLITZ. A blitz is when all the missionaries get together in one area that is struggling. For three hours we contacted people for the missionaries of that area to teach.We also switched companions so I worked with Hermana Ramirez. She has put in 6 months in the mission but unfortunately was awful at contacting! When you contact it is important to get to know the person a little bit and gain their confidence before you invite them to church. Hermana Ramirez really struggled with this,  but the upside is it gave me a chance to practice so that was sweet. One funny experience that happened when we were out was a dog we met. We knocked on the door of a house and a dog came to the window. I told Hermana Ramirez to pretend it was a real contact and ask it questions, it was hilarious when the dog would bark back at the perfect time. And then when we asked if it had a family and other dogs came to the window. It was hilarious. We were both dying.

Companion:

So I love my companion she is truly awesome. We get along well and she is really chill, perfect for me! However, she is a little bit shy. Its hard to have a shy companion when I can't really speak the language yet. During lessons and in ward counsel she doesn't like to take charge and she doesn't like to talk in front of groups of people. I'm trying to help her with that.  At one of the baptisms she was asked to give a little thought and she said no. That is what missionaries are suppose to be prepared for always, giving thoughts at the last minute and talking in front of people. Also in lessons this is difficult because she doesn't want to be direct. That is probably the reason we were paired together, I don't have a problem being direct or speaking in front of people, but I CANT because of the language problem. So as far as success in this area I am  just going to have to be patient. I am not going to be able to do things the way that I want. I just have to be patient, work with my companions strengths and learn to speak Spanish, FAST.  To help with learning Spanish, I'm totally giving up English. The only time I'm going to use English is to write emails. I gave up English scriptures, English prayers, and English with my companion. The only way I'm going to learn Spanish is if I can just forget about English (: Once I can speak, Cadenas and I will be unstoppable.

LOVE YALL!

see you next summer!

Hermana Huish