Hermana Tess Crawford: Tess's Daughter is a Mini-missionary

Hola mama, Aug. 5, 2013 Mauipu, Argentina

Yes, you spelled that right, but you basically just called your other hijas ugly by singling me out as the beautiful one. Haha so thanks! "Mí bonita hija" would be more what you're going for though, I think (; It looks like you guys had another fun week of summer break. Loved all the pics! I wish I could've been there for the food fight, pool party, and shark week! Next summer, I'm in. I also wish I could do the More Fit for the Kingdom thing with everyone (shout out to Nessy- I miss ya, woman!). Hopefully it goes well and everyone's able to stick to it. Haha I can't believe you broke that tooth again.. pobrecita! As far as Chloe's driving goes, hopefully she gets the hang of it soon. She just needs to relax a little and she'll be fine!

And speaking of needing to relax, it's been quite a different week.... A few more sorpresas- and this is gonna sound bad- but my brand new baby is about to die in a little less than a week..

Yep.

I'll explain. Much to my surprise, this Wednesday at the offices they called me up to the front (just like they do to all the trainers) and announced that my "hija" is Hermana Sidan, a MINI missionary. Normally they advise the missionaries that are going to recieve minis on the night that they call us to tell us what's happening to us in the next transfer, but for whatever reason they just decided to tell me that I was getting a new missionary and not specify. So yeah, basically a mini missionary is like a normal missionary but only for a short time when there's a need for more missionaries. The thing is that they literally have 0 training (except for mission prep classes) because they haven't been to the MTC or anything .. So my comp literally just came to the mission for the first time on wednesday. What were they thinking?? I was expecting to get put with someone who had been out in the field for a few months! But anyways, Hna. Sidan is pretty cool. She's from the mountains of Mendoza in a super small town called Uspallata. She's 19 too and she doesn't speak English at all. There's 7 kids in her fam and thhey make up pretty much half of the branch in their town (her dad is the branch pres). She's really friendly and we've had fun so far but a ton different from my last comp who was from the capital of Buenos Aires and grew up in a small family (I miss her a ton).

Anyways, as you can imagine we were both super nervous from the start and I was basically given no direction on how to work with a mini missionary besides show her what missionary life is like and get to work.. We've survived so far, but not without a few minor difficulties. For example, we've gotten lost probably about 20+ times within the last 3 days. No joke. Sometimes I question why I got put in a mission where the iPad thing isn't probably going to work out because I seriously need a GPS. Luckily she speaks Castellano and we're able to ask locals where certain streets are and get around that way. But still, it's quite frustrating. Also, lessons are really nerve-racking because I'm not used to having to take the lead and my comp has never given a lesson in her life, but they haven't been too disastrous yet. We've had lessons with Mauricio, Luis, Ana, and Roxana (the store lady) and somehow we've been able to teach at least something to each one and they haven't dropped us yet haha. We've done a bunch of door-knocking too which has been good, but we still have a ton to improve. It's really stressful having to try to be an example of what a missionary should be and trying to help her prepare for her real mission, but at least she can learn what not to do from me haha. Just kidding. I'm not that bad, but this has been an interesting and stressful adventure. I think we've both learned a lot already and my Spanish is getting better and better by having a comp who speaks 0 English.

The other thing, though, is that Hna. Sidan is leaving next Sunday because she has to start her next semester of college, so I have no idea what the heck is going to happen as far as my next companion. I'm pretty positive I'm not training or anything (and after this experience I'm a bit relieved to know that because I've found out that I'm not ready at all to do it) but I guess what might happen is that some other older missionary will get put with me here? I really don't know, but we'll see what happens. It's kind of a crazy situation but for some reason I needed to have this experience.

That's about all that's happened so far. The new comp of Hna. Ruiz is Hna Cooley from Boise, Idaho and she's cool too. We're thinking about starting English classes for members and investigators on Saturdays in the chapel so that we can find more people to teach and possibly do recorridos after the class with those that are interested in the church. We'll see how it goes! Also, we had started a "missionary work choir" with my old comp and so we're going to continue with that because Hna. Cooley plays the piano too, and the goal is to help the ward unify a little bit as well as to reach out to the less active members who can benefit from feeling the spirit as they listen to us sing hymns. Other than that it's been just about the same.

Hopefully you guys have a fun week getting ready for school (haha) and you're not as stressed out as I am! We'll be fine though, don't worry too much. Thanks for the prayers and for everything! Have an awesome day!

Love,

Hermana Crawford

- last foto I have with my mommy :,( and with our favorite member of the ward, Andi (the one next to my comp), who invited his friend to do a recorrido (church tour)