Maribel and I are in the young women's presidency at church and set out to visit two of the young women and then have a meeting to plan the year's calendar. However our afternoon/evening became much more eventful! On a side note, Maribel has become my best friend here! In the beginning of living here, I had a few emotional break downs thinking that I wouldn't have any friends for two years especially because of the language barrier and we just left such a close knit group of friends in MN. While things still aren't the same, I do feel like I have friends and ones that I can actually communicate with. Maribel is the best and I feel as close to her as I do with my friends that speak English. We have a language barrier but somehow we communicate very well in spite of it. She speaks little English and I know more Spanish now then when I came which I also can't believe! When I left for two weeks to the states Maribel and I missed each other like crazy and when I returned she told me she had been living in Santiago for only two years herself and never had a friend she clicked with as much as me. She truly is my blessing! Her husband Modesto is great too and we do a lot of things together. It's my dream for them to come to the States one day but it's more than difficult to even get a tourist visa for a vacation and even more difficult for a regular visa. I also can't tell you how many years of them working it would take them to buy a plane ticket but it's still my dream and I'm going to beg my husband to help however we can!
Back to my day...As we passed the security guard of my apartment, Maribel handed him a pamphlet about Jesus Christ and our church and said if he had questions he could as me. She wasn't pushy or anything. She simply told him what it was, gave it to him, smiled and walked away. I told her how brave she was and she said: "of course, I used to be a missionary so it's easy!" The reason people should share the gospel is not for any worldly gain. It's because it is something that makes their heart so happy that they just want everyone to know what they know!
We then hopped in a standard local crazy driving concho (the cars for public transportation) and headed to the neighborhood of Gurabo. Upon walking to the young woman's home, we passed another one of the girl's home who was sick and not in church that day. We decided to visit her apartment with get well wishes but she wasn't home. Only after knocking did Maribel open the side window and scream inside for her to find out maybe she really wasn't home. That's another cultural thing that you can practically enter someone's house, backyard, window, whateves to look for them besides a simple ring of the doorbell.
We continued onto the house of the two young women. This was in a very poor neighborhood and if I were a tourist I would have considered the homes shacks. I know better now that they are actual homes but yes there is no real ceiling as you can see the roof from inside and there are curtains for bedroom doors and a very narrow living area with an old concrete floor. While it's not much, it's sufficient and I like that. Not only did the homes interest me but so did the cows outside. I'm not used to seeing them in people's backyards in the city but these people happened to own some. When we arrived, some of their neighbors were meeting with the actual missionaries. The missionaries invited us to stay and share a message with them and I understood everything and even contributed all in Spanish! We talked about the scripture that says, come all ye that labor and are heavy laden and God will give you rest. It was so cool to see the girls learning and showing faith in the scripture. Then inside we met with our intended young women and just asked her how she was doing and helped her with her personal progress. The missionaries stayed with us, as well as two of her family members, being two young men in their early twenties. They were not members of the church but participated in our conversation and the missionaries asked if they could visit with them again and they said yes! Just like that, again nothing pushy. The missionaries simply asked, and the young men said, why not? So if you can't tell...missionary work is obviously scary for me but on this day I watched how incredibly easy it can be! I was so so happy to be there. I think sharing the gospel is easier for me in Spanish because since I don't understand everything, I won't know everything they say if I get rejected so who cares? Last week I was talking to a neighbor who told me he was Mormon but no longer attends although he still reads the Book of Mormon. In Spanish, I told him, when he wants to come back to church, he can go with Jesus and I! Really? I did that? I'm telling you it's easier in Spanish! I better take these skills with me back to the states.
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| The neighborhood we visited |
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| The cows |
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| This is just another area to show different parts of the city. I love these houses with the Spanish/New Mexican style shingled roofs. |
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| And one of the houses closer to my neighborhood but up a big hill so I don't venture there often...check out the mountainous view! |
We then had our planning meeting at another woman's home and her mom made us fresh chinola (passion fruit) juice. Everyone makes the best fresh squeezed juice here! Our final stop was to visit a friend who just had a baby. While waiting outside her door, Maribel stepped in a huge ant pile and started running away and stomping her feet! When we left the apartment, we ran as fast as we could and jumped as far as we could to clear the ants and avoid all the bites! Then we headed home in another concho, being a small 5 passenger car, but there were 8 of us! I was on the end in the back and you better believe I locked the door and held onto the handle above to make sure I didn't fall out! What a day!
