Tess’s letter from Roy, Utah April
9, 2013
Hola otra vez, gamberros (yes, that does
mean hooligans BTW- it's my fave palabra en Espanol)
Well, week 2 in the mission field is
officially over. It's pretty loco that in a couple days I'll have been gone for
2 whole months. Thanks for all the emails, letters, and crazy stories! I'm glad
everyone's doing well and that Nellie's ok! This week we finally got some more
info about our Visas as I'm sure you're aware because of the whole lost license
thing. Haha sorry about that, I seriously lose everything and the other
Hermanas make fun of me for it as well as claim that it's rubbing off on them
because they're starting to lose stuff too now. Anyways on Thursday of last
week we went down to Salt Lake and got our fingerprints taken in preparation
for our meeting with the consulate today. It was extremely stressful because
they had to be done a certain way without any smudges or they'd be rejected by
the consulate. I had to do mine over again because one of them wasn't the right
shape and I took the longest but it's all good because the consulate approved
it this morning so my visa papers are officially in!
Today we all got to talk to him and he
gave us a brief summary of what the weather and stuff was like in the different
parts of Argentina and then he let us ask questions (we had to be careful
though because if the questions were too religious he might deny certain people
their visas). The coolest thing to hear though was that in his opinion, Mendoza
is the most beautiful part of Argentina. It was also cool because our whole
district, minus Elder Connolly, was there and we got to hear about how things
are going with them in the field. As far as the actual Visas go, what they're
telling us is that we'll probs be in Utah for like 2 more transfers before they
come, which isn't too bad. I'm having a lot of fun here and we're
meeting/teaching some great people.
Conference was awesome! We did have
tickets for the Sat. morning session but our investigator couldn't come so we
had to give them away. On Saturday though my comp. and H. Hale's comp. went to
both sessions because it's the last conference before they go home, and so I
got to chill with Herm. Che (that's her new nickname) all day. I freaked out
when I saw Nea on the screen singing in the BYU choir and I almost lost my
focus because I was thinking about my BYU friends, but don't worry, I pulled it
together once the talks started. Herm Che and I went proselyting together for a
little bit but we were kind of freaking out because neither of us really know
what we're doing, nor do we know how to carry on a convo in Spanish. We ended
up knocking on the door of this one lady who was a member from Nicaragua. We
had fun chatting with her (in English) because her husband actually helped
build the Nauvoo, Newport, and Sacramento temples and she showed us a bunch of
pictures of him building it along with an actual stone from the Nauvoo temple
that she had. A funny thing about that was that her husband isn't actually a
member- I guess he thought he had been baptized but when they checked his
records he wasn't, so he got offended and refuses to get baptized now even
though I'm sure he knows that the church is true. The lady was really sweet
though and she told us how happy she was that we showed up when we did because
her visiting teachers hadn't stopped by in a while and she had just gotten knee
surgery so she was in pain and needed someone to talk to.
After that it was dinner time so we
didn't have to try to tract anymore but we had a fun day. My favorite
conference talk was also the one by Cardon who talked about forgiveness and how
changing through the Atonement isn't expected to be instantaneous, but that's
it's a process, and it's not the end of the world when we slip up a little. I
think that's something important for us to remember, as well as something
that's good for investigators to understand. We had another appointment with
the Toledos again this week but when we got there the mom wasn't home but we
met her 16 year old daughter and were able to teach her and Kate (the 9 yr.
old) a little bit about Christ and the Atonement. We have an appointment with
the Veleros tonight and I think we'll teach them the Restoration, but we might
not have time if they watched conference and have a bunch of questions. We'll
see what happens!
Something really exciting that happened
this week too is the story of the two Daisies (two ladies named Daisy, that
is). So a while ago a lady in our branch, Hna. Aguirre, informed us that she
was going to have her nonmember friend and her daughter over for FHE on Monday
and that she wanted us to come and teach her about the Restoration. She didn't
want us to have her address or to call her before because she thought it would
just be better if we waited until Monday to meet her. So that night we were
knocking some apartments and we came across this really sweet and friendly lady
with a young daughter, she seemed interested and so we set up an appointment
with her for later in the week and then when we asked her her name she said it
was Daisy and we were kind of freaking out thinking that we might have come
across the same lady that we were going to meet that Monday. So when Monday
rolled around we went to the FHE and came to find out that it wasn't the same
Daisy, but that both Daisies actually live in the same apartment buildings and
we had knocked on both Daisy's apartments but the one who the lesson was with
wasn't home and didn't answer. Anyways the lesson was one of the best I've ever
been in. She was so prepared by Heavenly Father it's not even funny. She had
met with missionaries before but unfortunately the Elders had only really
talked to her about baptism and the Book of Mormon without really explaining
the Restoration, so she was frustrated that they kept asking her to get
baptized without teaching her about the reasons behind it. Also, she said she
feels really peaceful and happy when she reads the Bible but she hasn't felt
that same spirit in any church that she's attended and she's been searching for
it for a while. We were able to go over the Restoration with her though and she
just absorbed everything, was asking awesome questions, and really wanted to receive
revelation about whether it was true or not. It also really helped to be in the
Aguirre's home because they each shared their testimonies, helped teach, and
really helped bring the Spirit into the lesson. Daisy gave a great prayer at
the end and we could just tell that she's ready and we're excited because we
know that she'll be able to get her answer because we know she'll put in the
effort to pray, read, and come to church. She has a lot of faith. Her husband
is Catholic and we haven't met him but she says he's less interested though
he'll still listen to us so I think we'll teach him the Restoration this
week.
Back to the other Daisy (the one we met
while knocking), we had a lesson with her and her husband a couple days later.
We just kind of got to know them more at the beginning and they're super nice,
and then about halfway in we realized that a miracle had happened. So when Hna.
Kreutzer and Marcum got into this area they looked through the area book (which
wasn't very well kept) and found this story about a couple who the Elders had
found that had an epileptic daughter. I guess the daughter wasn't doing well
the night that they met so the Elders gave her a blessing and were going to
come back and teach them another day but then they got transferred and weren't
able to. They didn't write down any name or address though of the couple so the
Hermanas had been searching for them for weeks with no success at all. During
the lesson we had with them though, they started telling us that same story and
they told us how their daughter had improved a ton after that blessing and they
had been waiting for the missionaries to come back and teach them more but they
hadn't come in weeks until we randomly met them while we were knocking! It's
pretty amazing. Our lesson with this Daisy went pretty well too because she's
Christian and has a lot of faith and belief in Christ but she was looking for
more and didn't really know where to find it. We taught them the Restoration
too and she really took everything in and also said that she's looking for a
church where she feels more peace and joy. At one point in the lesson she even
stopped and said that she could feel the spirit right then without us even
asking, which was amazing. She might have a harder time committing to come to
church though because she wants her husband (well they're technically not
married, like most of the Hispanic investigators here, they just call each
other their husband/wife) to come with her, but he's a little more attached to
the religion he grew up with and isn't sure if he wants to come to ours or
anything. Based on her faith and desire to find something more while going to
church though, I'm sure she'll get there on her own and will gain a testimony
of the truth too.
As you can see it's been an awesome week
as far as lessons go and I'm not too sad that I won't be going to Argentina for
a little while longer because great things are happening here in Roy. However,
next transfer might get a little cray because 8 new Spanish speaking sisters are
coming into the mission but there are only 7 trainers. There's a lot of talk
about what might happen such as visa-waiters having to train other
visa-waiters, zebras (which is where Spanish and English sisters are companions
and you have to switch between teaching in Spanish and English or something
like that), and there are other rumors but what we do know is that we'll most
likely all be in trios. We'll probably have to move too, which sucks because we
love our house and not having to buy our own food! It's kind of exciting though
that things are changing so much and I'm sure everything will work out fine
even if it's kind of crazy for a bit. Lots of leadership things with the
sisters are changing too, so we'll see how that goes. My comp and I get along pretty
well, and I really love Herm. Che's comp too. The only thing that's happened
between me and my comp. though is that we both love music & singing, but
our taste is pretty much the exact opposite- she likes classical opera stuff
that's all emotional and dramatic... and I don't, haha. So what we've decided
to do is just not talk about music ever, and it's working out well so far! She
also hurt her ankle this week and she's been in a lot of pain so that's kind of
slowing us down a bit, but it's all good.
Oh yeah, something else that's funny
that has been happening is that 3 different Hispanic people have asked me if
I'm Hispanic/South American. One was a lady in the branch who's from Argentina,
and she said that I look like I'm from Mendoza because of my hair and skin
color. Another was this lady in the branch from Ecuador who says I look exactly
like her friend who also is from Ecuador. And the third one was a nonmember we
taught who asked why I'm so much darker than my companion and asked me where my
ancestors were from. It's funny because my friends always tease me for being
tan and say I look Mexican but I've never heard it from actual Hispanic people!
Hopefully when I get a lot better at Spanish aka Castellano I might get
mistaken for a native Argentine! That would be sweet. Anyways, that's about all
I've got. I'll let you know next week what's going to happen for the next
transfer. I hope you're all doing well still and you haven't forgotten about me
yet (it's cool if you do though because I'm trying to forget about me too). I
love you guys! Nos vemos.
<3,
HermCrawf
PS- I had a lot of pics to send but I
can't do it this week because we didn't have time to run by the house and grab
my card-reader, so you'll get them next time
Note from mom:
Several years ago Tess and I had this joke about her being half Ecuadorian because one time her seminary teacher was telling the class about his beautiful grandchildren. His son married a woman from Equador and as he was trying explaining to the class what beautiful color of skin they had he looked at Tess and said, it looks just like Tess's! Haha!
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