Monday, September 8, 2008

We have had lots of cancellations on citas (appointments) in the last two weeks, and we've been doing TONS of knocking doors. It gets kind of old, but it's always interesting. People keep things fascinating. White people tend to think they either know everything about religion in general or our religion in specific. The not so nice people like to tell us we believe in a different Christ than they do or that we are a cult. Whatever. It's okay, because if they can just turn us away really quickly (sometimes they like to take their time to be dumb though) then we can have more time to go find the people who are ready and willing to listen. Esta bien! We've talked to two different very young guys who have masters in theology and it was really interesting to talk to them. The Hispanic people are hard because they're all really nice and they listen and give you their contact info, but they're just not good at saying no. But they're still so fun.
But seriously the Hispanic people, and just a lot of cultures other than Americans just now how to have fun. They are more relaxed and generous and are always having parties and inviting you over. Not to say that American aren’t' like that too-hey, I'm patriotic! The Spanish is coming. Sometimes it's frustrating; I just want to be fluent. We're going to have to listen/watch General Conference is Spanish, so I decided I should be fluent by then-it would just be so much more convenient! We are teaching two different women (Delmy and Araseli) and their daughters, and both of them have so much potential, but they're just not coming to church. And if they can't commit to that, then we might have to "drop" them. It's so hard to keep coming back and teaching the same thing if they're not willing to get themselves to church. But they're both so amazing and one of them has this daughter who's 12 and when we read the BoM she always says that it's so beautiful and she's excited to come to church. Come to church people! Gosh! We just got a couple of hopefuls last week-Maribel and Maria. We have return citas with them this week and we're really hoping it works out because we need some new investigadors! We are also teaching the new member lessons to a couple of different men, they're funny. Hispanics just talk a lot. You don't have to ask much to get them going. Everyone in our stake seems to be related to someone else and it's hard to keep them straight. There are some inactive ladies that want their children to be taught and hopefully baptized (it seems kind of like a Catholic cultural thing-just get them baptized so they're good to go) but the women don't do much to support them. They're not there at the lessons and aren't getting the kids to church. I don't know.
We go visit this white woman every week that is in our area but not in our stake. She's a little crazy. She's a convert of 23 years and doesn't have any teeth (she's 55) and hasn't gone to church in a white because she's super sensitive and just needs someone to talk care of her. Her house is a crazy mess and her 19 year old son supports her. We're going to go clean and organize her house next week-hooray! She knows a lot of doctrine about the church and still believes it all, which is great, and she spends all of her time doing genealogy. So that's great, but coming to church would be great too. She likes to tell us false doctrine too, like how she knows that everyone will be white after the resurrection. She's funny, I really like her. Her name's Joanne. Plus last week she gave us some homemade zucchini bread!Anyway, things really are going wonderfully here, it's a challenge, but I pretty much planned on that, so that's just fine. If it wasn't hard, I don't think it would be real missionary work! Oh yeah, we are going to the temple this week so I'm reeeeally excited for that. It's a beautiful temple, come see it someday! Anyway, I'm happy, I'm healthy and doing just great! Thanks for the love and the e-mail and the packages and prayers and everything! Love you all!
Your missionary Emily!