It´s so cool to hear about all the missionaries that are heading out to the MTC/field and about all the ones that will be invading Gilbert pretty soon! I can´t believe it´s already sooo hot over there. I definitely miss the heat but that´s probably mostly because I´m freezing over here. It´s actually not too bad yet though- there´s no snow or anything. It´s still taking a lot of getting used to though, being here. I´m lucky I have such an awesome "mom" to help me with the language and understanding the culture and everything. She hasn´t taught me how to cook anything, but she does make really strange "salads" with the most random ingredients, and so I showed her how to make a real American salad the other day with lettuce (it didn´t end up being completely normal though because she decided to put hot-dogs on it). We drink the Mate that´s in the tea bags a lot too because that´s the only kind that´s allowed. It´s actually not too bad. She´s a ton of fun to hang out with all day and I think she really is relieved to be with someone who´s chill and easy-going unlike her last companion (yes, it was her who tried to punch the crazy guy in our ward after he tried to punch her).
We´re doing our best not to speak too much English but after long conversations with members who are talking about things that I don´t have the vocab to understand, in order to survive mentally I have to talk to her in English for a little while. I also ask her in English how to say certain things in Spanish, but we´re doing our best. The neighbors are a lot of fun most of the time, we´ve had a little bit of unnecessary drama with one of them for various things but we´re doing our best to resolve them. The pension isn´t too bad but we did have a slight problem as of a few days ago with our water-heater. We haven´t been able to get any hot water, and so as a result we´ve been heating up water in pots on the stove and using a bucket & a cup to bathe ourselves in the mornings. It´s pretty much the same way that we bathe the dogs now that I think about it.. except I´m not on all fours trying to escape every 5 minutes (but I am shaking from the cold like they do). But it´s more just funny than anything, and we should be getting it fixed soon.
As far as investigators and stuff it´s been an interesting week. We have a ton of new potentials and a few really good ones, but the one´s that we had last week are not looking too great. The craziest day was last Friday. We took the Micro (bus) to the city of Lunlunta, which is pretty much just a bunch of fields and vineyards with a few houses scattered randomly around. There´s an awesome view of the mountains there, but a lot of it is pretty poor. The crazy demon-hunting lady lives there and so first we went and visited her and her cousin Mario who has no teeth. They live in a little brick "house" that doesn´t have electricity, and they have about 8 dogs and a bunch of rabbit skins hanging on a wire outside. We wanted to go talk to her about how she could find more happiness if she wasn´t always seeking out darkness, but she wouldn´t listen and claims that she helps people find light by casting out demons and basically she told us that she believes that she´s a prophetess and has been called of God to do what she does.. Then we talked to Mario for a little while and found out that not only will he not quit smoking, but that apparently he´s skitzophrenic. We went by a few days later and they told us that they didn´t want us to come back anymore because they were happy in the Evangelical church. We were a little suspicious though because as soon as they made that decision they happened to miraculously have the electricity that they had been begging for from their Evangelical church for years.
Anyways after that first visit with them we went to visit another investigator named Ana, who also lacks teeth. She´s married to an active member but she´s Catholic and always says "no me llama la atencion" about the church and the Book of Mormon even though she goes to our church all the time and has been listening to the missionaries for a long time. We ate some interesting pasta with her and then tried to teach her a lesson, but she literally kept falling asleep while we were trying to teach her.. It was super frustrating. After that we tried to find some new people to teach and we talked to a few people. We taught a lesson to a really old lady and her 6 cats through a gate while she was in the house listening from the window because she was didn´t have the key.
It was quite the interesting day. We did have some really good lessons the rest of the week though, two of which were with girls in their 20s who were really receptive but one of the girl´s mom tried to commit suicide the same night that we met/taught her so we´ll see what happens there- hopefully she turns to God for comfort and wants to talk to us some more. We´ve also been talking a lot with members and having more lunches/visits with them. Pretty much all of the ward is older people, which is kind of different. They LOVE talking and speak really rapidly so it´s kind of exhausting to visit them, but they´re very nice and willing to help us with whatever we need. The food isn´t too bad- it´s way to much pasta, cake, and bread for my taste, but it´s all that a lot of them can afford to feed us. I still haven´t eaten beef though :/ We do drink a ton of Malta, but fortunately I like it a lot.
That´s all I´ve got time for today! I have a lot of awesome pictures but the computer isn´t letting me send them, so hopefully next week you´ll get some. Have a super fun & safe trip to Wisconsin! Tell Katie & Daniel and the kids that I said hi and that I love them. I love you guys too!
<3, Hermana Crawford
From her letter to Chloe:
The culture here is definitely different. People here are a lot more straight-forward and not afraid to say what they think about something- they LOVE talking. We get stuck at appointments for so long because they just won´t stop talking. They´re really friendly though and everytime you greet any woman (member, investigator, etc.) you have to kiss them on each cheek, and then you have to do the same when you´re leaving. It´s a lot of kissing. Even the guys kiss other guys and women on the cheeks. It´s a little strange but that´s just because we´re so used to only shaking hands when we see people.
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