Monday, February 10, 2014

02/03/2014

I don't have a catchy beginning this week.

This week was relatively boring actually. A lot of our appointments weren't there (I feel ya, Hermana Poole) and since the failed baptism we went from having 9 investigators with a baptismal date to having 3. Yeah. It stinks. BUT I'm okay! I'm going to learn something from it and that's what's important! I'm just not sure what yet...
I still like the food and I think my body has adjusted to it. (Which is good. I don't want to get sick again.)
I have received a request to talk more about spiritual stuff, so I am going to try. Believe it or not, I've actually had a bit of trouble emotionally. Almost to the point of wanting to go home. (I'm usually okay by Monday though, that's why you haven't heard anything about it until now.) There was a point that I was so down and didn't know what to do and I couldn't stop crying. I legitimately wanted to go home. So, I went and prayed. I was praying for 10-15 minutes (Yeah I know, I'm not Enos.) when I received my answer. I had lost faith in myself and just felt that I couldn't do it. But I got the answer that I need to work. To focus solely on the Work and on my investigators. That if I had faith in God and in Jesus Christ, I could continue. Afterward, I found a scripture that I felt fit perfectly. It's Alma 26:12: "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." Since then, I have had more of a drive to work and to stay positive and while there are still some things that are hard and sometimes I am too hard on myself. I will say though, I have had two dreams (nightmares for me) that for some reason I had to go home after only three months in the mission (pretty much like right now) and both times I woke up happy to be on my mission! I think that God sent them to me to help keep my perspective.
I promise I'm okay now. I don't want to go home quite yet and, despite the lack of investigators, I'm okay. I promise!
And this computer won't let me send pictures! I'm sorry! (It's a different place than normal. I'll send some next week!)
Sorry I don't have much today! I don't have a lot of time!
LES QUIERO MUCHO!!!!
♥ Hermana Beaumont

¡YO SOY LA REINA DE LAS MANCHAS! 01/27/2014



Seriously. It seems like every week, I have a new stain on a different piece of clothing! And, we ended up not moving, so when they were doing maintenance on our apartment, I brushed against something in the bathroom and got paint on my skirt. -_- Don´t worry, it came out. But still. It´s frustrating.

So... The baptism didn´t happen. Due to many very complicated and confusing circumstances that I really don´t want to explain because it would take too long, our investigator didn´t show up. But I´m okay. Honestly.

This week wasn´t that great, to be honest, starting on Thursday, (the day of the baptism) everything went pretty much downhill. On Thursday we had a capacitación meeting with El Presidente and it was super spiritual and uplifting and I cried and junk. But I have been told that every time we have something like that, the trials come. AND THEY WERE RIGHT. First, our investigator doesn´t show up. Then, Friday, we didn´t work at all because we had to be in the apartment when they were doing maintenance and they worked for a long time. (But got it all done in one day, and now we have hot showers!) We just did our Weekly Planning and more training for me. The only time we left was to eat. On Saturday and Sunday, pretty much all of our appointments fell through and NONE of our investigators went to church! That was really frustrating because now we have to change all of their baptismal dates! I don´t know if I told you guys this, but in my mission, investigators have to go to Sacrament meeting 5 times before they can be baptized. ZERO for the past two weeks! It´s getting really frustrating. Hna. Maldonado was really stressed. So, we didn´t meet any goals this week. But we´re planning on working much harder in the coming week and I am really looking forward to it. 

On another note, I finally found two Mexican candies that I actually really love. One is a sucker that is watermelon flavored, with chile. The other one is called, "Pica Fresa". It´s strawberry flavored with... chile. They´re both really good, and I plan on buying a bunch of them when I have time and money. lol Weird story: The first time that I tried Pica Fresa, I bought four afterward (each one is half a peso, so I only paid 2 pesos) and I ate two more that night, and saved the other two for after church the next day. About an hour after I ate the last two, I was thinking, "I really want another Pica Fresa". We were walking around and passed by the store where we bought them the first time. But it was Sunday! So I couldn´t buy them. I stuck my hands in the pockets of my jacket and LO AND BEHOLD A PICA FRESA WAS IN MY POCKET. Immediately, I asked my companion, "Did you put this in my pocket?" She said no, maybe Hna. Price put it in your pocket. (Because I had talked to Hna. Price about it before and she had some too.) So today, I asked her, "Did you put a Pica Fresa in my pocket?" and she told me no! So, I have decided that it was a miracle. GUYS, WHEN YOU KEEP THE SABBATH DAY HOLY, YOU WILL FIND CANDY IN YOUR POCKETS. NOT REALLY. But seriously, I consider it to be a real miracle. You are blessed when you keep the Sabbath day holy. 

Today, we went to Tijuana to do stuff for my visa. It was interesting (signing stuff, fingerprinting-- I still have ink on my hands) and I got to see a few of the people from the MTC that I hadn´t seen in a while, which was nice. I met a sister, Hna. Ortiz. She´s from Ecuador, and speaks ZERO English. But (and I´m very proud of myself) I HELD AN ENTIRE CONVERSATION WITH HER IN SPANISH. I only had to use my dictionary once, near the end! And it was a nice, long conversation too! WOOHOO! I haven´t yet dreamed in Spanish, that I remember, but I think I´m doing pretty well. :) And I feel like I can officially claim that I speak Spanish. (Though I always have the disclaimer that there are a lot of words that I don´t know or recognize.)

What else? I don´t know. I feel like I´ve actually written a lot.

OH! One thing that I really love is the word for peanut. Strange, I know, but it´s really fun to say. Ready? "Cacahuate". So peanut butter is really crema de cacahuate. (cah cah WA teh) ALSO! I have a tongue twister for you guys! My companion told me that if I could say it fast, I would be able to speak Spanish really well. "Parangaricutirimicuaro." It doesn´t really mean anything, but it´s really hard to say fast. There´s another one with "Tres tristes tigres..." Something. I don´t remember. I´ll try to remember to bring it for you guys later.

The two pictures that I am sending today are 1.) A meal that I had of "mariscos" (I was scared) and 2.) a cute little pug puppy. :)

LES QUIERO MUCHO!!!!!

♥ Hermana Beaumont

HOLA A TODO! 01/20/2014

Sorry it´s so late! We were really busy today.

So... Not sure what to write about this week. Everything is going well and I'm improving every day. :)

Muchas personas me dijeron que mi Español está mejorando cada día, y también que mi acento es muy bien. Actually, one of the Hermanas in my district told me that I have an Argentinian accent. Not entirely sure what that means, but it´s better than a "gringa" accent. ;P

On Thursday and Friday we had... BUM BUM BUM---- INTERCAMBIOS!!!!!! And I was assigned to be with Hna. Aleman. (Ah-leh-mahn) It went well, despite the fact that I don´t know my area! Anyone that knows me well, knows that I´m TERRIBLE with directions. Like, legit terrible. We got lost twice. It was by the grace of God that we made it to ALL of our appointments! 

Umm... ¿Qué más? I´ll be having my first baptism on Thursday! Woohoo!

I feel so drained of information! An hour ago I had a million things to tell you!

OH! We´re moving houses! The apartment in which we are currently living is, as my companion says, "BIEN FEO!" Hna Carreón (Mission Pres. wife) came and looked at it and asked us how we´ve been living there for so long and told us that we need to move ASAP. Our new place is farther from the chapel, but closer to the members and investigators and has a view of the ocean. :)

(If there´s anything weird about this e-mail, it's because I'm using a funky keyboard.)

Umm.... What else? (BTW, I´m going to try to send you guys more pictures in a little bit) Oh! The other day we were at a baptism for the other ward and it was one of the English speakers. (There´s a group of people in our wards that don´t speak a LICK of Spanish.) I was talking to them, but I was thinking in Spanish! So I ended up speaking in Spanglish a lot. It was a little confusing for the both of us. lol I have yet to dream in Spanish, but when I do you will be the first ones to know. :)

The pictures in this e-mail are 1.) The view of the ocean from ON the beach and 2.) Me and some of the other sisters with Presidente Carreón ON THE BEACH! (Hna. Chavarria was taking the picture.)

Ummm... What else...... Thus far, I love Rosarito. It´s hard to be a missionary sometimes and I have a lot of things to learn, but I´m looking forward to continuing on and doing my best.

Random: Today we were in a taxi, and two of the songs that played were "If I had a Hammer" and "Dancing Queen". It was interesting. lol

Sometimes it´s really hard because there will be music playing in the streets that I used to dance to at Latin Dance, and I´m just like, "I WANT TO DANCE!" lol My companion is the same way. There´s a lot of Cumbia music here though, so it´s not so sad. (I´m not the hugest fan of Cumbia)

What else? I don´t know. I think that´s all. I only have a few more pictures to send you guys and that will be it. :)

LES QUIERO MUCHO!!!!!!

♥ Hermana Beaumont