28 January 2016

The weather here's been odd. It was suuuuuuper hot the week before. Then it rained and it's been cold since. I'm not really sure what to expect.

Today I'm gonna tell you about my shoe adventure. So, about the time Hna Fasandando showed up in Olavarria, my shoes started breaking. But i just ignored it. Then the hole started getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Until about 3 weeks ago, it got unbearably big, and we were doing a lot of walking where there is no road. So, I had to do something. I tried to take them to get fixed, but they just laughed in my face. So I went to buy new shoes. I bought some cute grandma sandally ones, but they gave me blisters and started breaking. Then the blisters started getting infected.... and my whole ankle swelled up. It was bad. So I tried to take them back and exchange them. The cranky shoe store lady told me that she'd give me half the price of the shoes. And the only other shoes that fit me that were misión aceptable were dude shoes. They look like super snotty sperrys. I went from grandma shoes to frat boy shoes. Its been a weird turn of events.

Other notes, we've been working like crazy this week... we've got a few investigators, a few part- member families, and a few converts to teach, and we're always visiting and teaching. And when we're not in a house teaching, were contacting like crazy women. Also, we knocked a door the other day looking for someone. And a grandma said to us thru the window "Quien es?" and I said "somos misioneras" and she said "no hay nadie" also known as "nobody's here" and then I kept talking to her and she realized the ridiculous thing she said and said "well, I'm alone here, so I can't let you in" we laughed for like an hour after!

I show up at the house super, super tired every night, but its a good kind of tired. Also, I've been reading the Book of Mormon like a crazy person.  Weve got a reading challenge to read two chapters a day, finishing around March. I've been behind since we started, but this last week I decided to take it super seriously. And it's been going really well. As I was reading in Alma, the letter from Helaman, I was thinking wow, that's super powerful and spiritual, I should write to my mom like that. But then I forgot and just remembered. Ooops. I finished the book of Alma last week. An Elder in my zone told us something really cool about Alma, and I wanted to share it with you. He said that Alma is famous for the war chapters, and there was so much war because of the change in government. The same thing happened in the Bible, with some of the Israelites, I don't remember all the details. But the idea is that a little farm boy with no education was not gonna know these things, that the book of Alma is one of the strongest points of the truth of the Book of Mormon. I thought that was super cool.

But a spiritual note... the other day we were in district meeting, and we were just talking about the chapter in PME about the Christlike attributes, and Elder H, who's super new, was bearing his testimony, and I felt the spirit so strong. Then Elder P, the zone leader, had to finish up the meeting and said- `Wow, how powerful it is to listen to a missionary bear his testimony, and to be together and feel the spirit.' And bore his testimony. And then he gave his comp a little side hug. And it was just a moment of super strong spirit and super strong feeling of love in the zone- a love for each other, for the gospel, for the Lord. It was just a really nice moment. Im so greatful to be a missionary here in this moment, to have these nice Little Moments that strenghthen my testimony.

Well, I have to end. Im gonna run out of time!

Love you bunches!!!

Hermana Long