¡Hola!
My first week with my new companion, Hermana Tozcano! I completely adore her. I was a little bit nervous that she didn't speak English at first, because I've never not had an English speaking companion, but I honestly felt like the ability to speak sky rocketed as soon as we became companions. It's definitely a huge blessing, and evidence of the gift of tongues that missionaries receive. Its fun learning Spanish and English between the two of us and being able to laugh at all the weird things that happen out here. That´s one thing I´m super grateful to have in a companion, some one who likes to laugh at all the same things I think are funny.
In a lot of ways, I feel like this week I've learned more about how to be a "real" missionary. Now that I'm the senior companion and the only one of the two of us that knows the area, I have a lot more responsibility! The first four days of this week were pretty nuts too. One of the days we had a sister stay the night with us, and in the morning we took her to the airport because she served her 18 months. The other days we had other sisters who had to say with us because it was too late for them to travel home to their area. And last Monday, we had sisters with us all day running errands! Lots of extra people to take care of! Hermana Tozcano and I were pretty exhausted those first few days.
General Conference: Hopefully everyone got a chance to watch! I think my favorite talk was by Elder Uchdorf about gratitude. I love it because gratitude really is the cure for any depression, sadness, when life just seems dull or not fair. There is always something to be grateful for. I really liked what he said about Nephi too, because I remembered reading that in the Book of Mormon and how it had impressed me. I think its toward the end of 1 Nephi when Nephi is tied up for 3 days on the ship. He says when his brothers finally untied him, his ankles and wrists were super swollen and that it was really painful. If you honestly put yourself in that position, I think it would be really hard to not be mad or at least want to complain about the pain. But Nephi thanked the Lord and didn't complain against him. I'm pretty sure the things I want to complain about are nothing compared to what Nephi suffered.
Speaking of pain and complaining, Saturday I got sick. It's my first time getting sick here in Mexico. Getting sick in the mission is honestly the worst because you can't just curl up on the couch and watch movies until you feel better. Instead you have to walk and walk and walk. And walking outside in Merida right now is super hot and humid, we are constantly sweating and sweating! And not only that, you've got to use your brain muscles to try and get people to listen to you, AND seem happy. After conference when we were out teaching, I was super tempted to just go home a couple hours early because I didn't feel like I physically had the energy to keep going. However, little by little I made it through the night and I 'm so glad I did because we found two families with a lot of potential. It strengthened my testimony of obedience to see how God really does bless us when we sacrifice to be obedient.
Ok, well that's all I have time for this week!
Love, Hermana Harper
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