So... my new companion is Hermana Thomas, from Bountiful, Utah. She is so WONDERFUL! I love her to pieces and know that we´re going to have a great time together. She is almost a whole foot shorter than me ;) She has such a strong desire to work hard and is so diligent. When I heard that 4 of the 5 new sisters were north Americans, I kind of new I would train a north american, and immediately got nervous because I don´t want to speak English and lose my Spanish, but she doesn´t even want to speak English, and that is pretty much a miracle. Of course, she asks me questions in English and occasionally without even thinking the conversation turns into a little English, but I´ve been really surprised, it´s almost always pure Spanish, and I´m grateful for that, because we´re learning from each other every single day :) The Bishop´s wife saw us running the other morning and then that day we had lunch with her..She said that when she saw us in the morning she thought that my little sister from Montana had come to visit me for the week! Haha. Everyone asks if she´s my sister. It´s pretty adorable.
This week, the 16th of September, was Independence day in Mexico! Super fun, even though I was in meetings part of the day. Lemme tell ya, I´ve never been so scared walking down the street...almost everyone was drunk. It made me sad. I´ll admit we didn´t do much street contacting that day...haha
And so I begin my 4th transfer in good ol' Garcia Gineres, think I might be there for a while :) fine with me! If I have the opportunity to train Hna. Thomas for the full 12 weeks in Garcia, I´ll have 7.5 months there!! Craziness. It´s a great area and we´re finding lots of new investigators every week. My companion brought me a pretty wicked cold from the MTC and we´ve both been sick all week. Saturday, I felt terrible and complained a little during companion study..What am I gonna do? I asked my companion..I couldn´t stop sneezing and blowing my nose. She just pointed to a poster I have up on the wall that says "Forget yourself and go to work!" So I did! And Saturday was such a good day, I just brought my tissues, water, and cough drops, said a prayer to be able to forget how yucky I felt, and we went to work. That night, we found an awesome new investigator thanks to a referral from another investigator. I began to just forget about being sick and focus on our lessons and helping our investigators progress on this path and prepare for baptism.
Elder De Hoyos, a general authority, came to our mission about two weeks ago and we had a wonderful training meeting with him about how to work with members more and get them more involved in the work.
Something that he said struck me big time, and I wanted to share!
He said,
Escucho y olvido. (I hear..and I forget.)
Veo y recuerdo (I see..and I remember)
Hago y aprendo (I do..and I learn.)
After 4.5 hours of training, I heard a lot...it would be easy to forget a lot of the stuff he taught, so I took good notes. And then when I review my notes, I remember. But now, I´m beginning to apply some of his advice and counsel, and I´m learning! It´s true. So true. I loved that and am grateful that I´ve already seen it work in my life. We have to put the things we learn into practice if we truly want to learn and grow and change.
I am well. My thoughts and constant prayers go out to the Brown Family. Derek was a good friend in high school and will be missed. He was such a great example to everyone and always so happy. Please keep his family in your prayers! When tragedies such as these happen, it makes me eternally grateful for the Gospel. I´m grateful for my testimony of the Plan of Salvation. I know that families can be together forever. I know that this life isn´t all that the Lord has given us. There´s more, and that brings me happiness and hope when loved ones pass on. I sincerely ask each one of you to pray for the Brown Family each day :)
I love you all! Talk to ya next week :))
Hermana Melody Maki
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