Well, one transfer down, 11 or so to go. haha. (technically transfers are tomorrow though, so I don't know still if I'm staying or going...but if I had to guess, I'd say I'll be staying with Hna Mortensen because she only has one transfer left in the mission).
So last p-day we had a kebab party for labor day and to celebrate all of the birthdays in september. It was pretty fun. We have a grill and a grassy space behind the batallion where we had it.
The update on Magdalena and Jorge for the week is that we had an awesome lesson with them the other day. We watched "how rare a posession"...that movie about the man in italy who finds the book of mormon without a cover and starts preaching from it. Anyways he has tons of obstacles for years before he can finally get baptized. at the end Magda said that they just need to have more faith. we were like...uhhh yeah. haha. But she still doesn't want to get married. grrrrrrr. We have an AWESOME lesson planned for tonight though about lehi's vision of the tree of life. Apparently Jorge has read 1 nephi 11 three times because he thinks it is so interesting but doesn't fully understand it. So we have made visual aids and are going to emphasize the fruit being baptism (as a way of using the atonement) and focus on how lehi wanted his whole family to partake of it...aka they should get married. Then for the next lesson we are plannin on taking them to the temple and teaching them there about eternal families. Hopefully the spirit will just overwhelm them there and they will want to get married. Well, Jorge wants to get married, we just need Magda on board.
This week I was the senior companion, so that was interesting. Mostly I just had to decide everything we did.
One night we had dinner with a woman in the ward, hna Sevilla, from Nicaragua. She made us food from her country, which included boiled bananas. It was interesting, but also good. For dessert she gave us coconut ice cream, which made me with I had a chocolate coconut gelato milkshake from whole foods.
As for Daniel and Cleo, we didn't really get to teach them this week because they ended up canceling on us. But it involved a funny story. On tuesday he called us and invited us over to celebrate his birthday with them the next day, so we said sure and were planning on still teaching them then. On Wed we called to see if we could come earlier because our coordination meeting was canceled. He said he actually wanted us to meet them at a restaurant, so we were like, ok. Then he called back and said his wife didn't want to come, but could we still meet him, so we said no because that would be super awkward. haha. Just picture 2 sister missionaries with a mexican man out to eat at a japanese restaurant to celebrate his birthday. Kind of strange. haha. We're planning on seeing them again this week though.
We visit this less active woman, Ana Torres, every once in a while. She is awesome and really strong in teh faith, but works on sundays so she can't come to church. She is funny though, her daughter had just gotten back from mexico, so she was showing us all the things her mom had sent with her. Anywyas, she hasn't seen her mom for 9 years, since she's been in the states, so she was saying how much she missed her. It made me glad I'm just gone a year and a half. Also, she said she wanted to take us to mexico after our missions. haha. she is funny.
One day this week hna mortensen and I went to visit this senior missionary, elder Bradshaw. His wife died in the MTC so his mission call got changed to here and he just had surgery, so we are taking turns visiting him while he recovers. Anyways, while we were there he had us pick some oranges from his orange trees. It was pretty cool, he had this "picker' like a claw with a basket on the end of a long stick that we used to pick the oranges. Guess I'm really in california. haha
The mormon batallion sisters rotate being at the temple. Since there isn't a visitor's center we just sit outside and talk to people who come. While we were sitting there I felt something land in my hair so I reached up to brush it away. Turns out it was a bee. and it stung my hand. WHAT? haha It was kind of ridiculous, but not a big deal really. I mean it was uncomfortable, but mostly just funny. We did get one referral while we were there though. so that was cool. Also, the scaffolding is down now , so I will take some pics next time I'm there.
On friday we had an AWESOME ward activity. unfortunately none of our investigators came, but we (as a district) had 15 investigators there total, so it was still really good. We had it here at the batallion and had food in teh back and then came in and watched on teh way home...en camino a casa. haha. it was way funnier in spanish. but it was so good. At the end this recent convert shared his tesitomony and invited everyone there who wasn't baptized to be baptized and see the wonderful change in their lives. I wish jorge/magda had come, but oh well. Our less active, Adriana came, so that was really good. I was in my pioneer get up at the party and the counselor in the bishopric came up to me and said "que le paso" or what happened to you? hahah, pointing to my dress. It was kind of funny. We also played this game where we tied balloons to people's ankles and they ran around and tried to pop them. It was way funny, some of the adults were getting way into it. haha
On sunday there was a fireside (in english, so we didn't have investigators there), but hna mortensen was asked to play the piano, which meant I had to sing in the choir. hahaha. it was a way good fireseide though. Several recent converts bore their testimonies and then our mission president spoke.
So I was thinking the other day about Our Town (I'm SO GLAD i got to see that before coming on the mission). I was thinking about that end scene and how that's how it's going to be when we get to the celestial kingdom. We think we can see and smell and hear things now, but everything is going to be sooooo much better once we're there. Cool huh?
Lately I have been thinking a lot about my circle of concern vs. my circle of control. I've been trying to only worry about the things I can control, because I see a lot of the sisters here get really discouraged by things they can't control, which is lame because there is nothing they can do about it. It has been working well so far. For example, I do everything I can to get our investigators to come to church, including going to their house 20 minutes before it starts to remind them, but when they don't come, I just move on and don't dwell on it except to think about what else we can do to get them to come next time.
Well, that's about it for the week. I do have some photos to send though. Hopefully you will enjoy them. I though you'd like to see more of what the batallion is like, so Hna Evans helped me out and took some photos of me.
love you all!!
hna livingston
hna livingston
p.s.
The pictures:
they follow the order of the tour. We start with the introduction, with the pictures, then the enlistmen room, where they watch a movie. Then the outfitting room where I talk about the uniforms and supplies and the book of mormon. I have to open the window to talk to some of the characters who come. Then the campfire room is another movie. And the courthouse is another room and then we get to bear testimony and talk about whatever we want. ENJOY!!!!!!
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