Letter #14 (December 23, 2013)

This week has been kind of crazy. We all took turns being sick, which made for some interesting experiences. Let me explain.

Last P-Day, we hung out with our elders at the church (Elder Carter and Elder Hall). Elder Carter started to feel sick and then ended up in and out of the bathroom throwing up. The next day, Sister Scott was sick, and so was one of the Hermanas that we live with. So Hermana Garcia and I took Sister Richards to the office and then the two of us worked in her area while our companions stayed at home dying.

It was really funny working with Hermana Garcia for a couple of reasons. One is that she is from Peru and has learned most of her English while out here, so it is still kind of choppy at times. So communication between the two of us can be really confusing (and really funny). The second is that contacting people in Spanish when only one of us actually speaks Spanish is a bit awkward. She would talk to someone and I would just stand there silently, trying to follow the conversation based on the few words that I recognized (which I have discovered that I'm actually kind of okay at following conversations sometimes, I just can't talk back). So whoever we were talking to would just kind of look over at me sometimes like "why isn't she saying anything?" So I would just smile and continue to stand in silence.

Funny story about that day:

We were trying to contact a former investigator named Juan. So we go to where the address (I don't remember the exact number, but let's say it was 526) should be and it hops straight from 524 to 528. So we look around, trying to make sure that it's not a back house or anything, and we still can't find it. So we knock a neighbor who tells us that 526 is a nursery at the end of the road. So we walk to the end of the road, wondering why the heck 526 is way down there, and sure enough, it's there. There is a sign pointing at a chain-link fence that says "No Trespassing" that is surrounding a big empty lot. We kind of look at each other like "should we?" when Hermana Garcia notices that there is someone sitting in a pick-up truck at the back of the empty lot. So we proceed to spend the next five minutes yelling "HELLO! EXCUSE ME! JUAN?" over and over again. We're about to give up and leave when the man sees us and get out of the truck. He starts walking towards us and beckons us to come in. So we go in and walk over to him. We ask him if he's Juan. No. So we tell him why we were there and he thinks about it. "You mean the really short guy?" We had no idea. So he tells us to wait a second. So we wait while he goes into the house. He comes back with two men. "Which one of you is Juan?" "I'm Juan, he's Juan" Ooookay. So we ask if either of them have met with missionaries before. Nope. Then one of them gets this look of understanding. "Oh! You want the other Juan! He's working right now." How many Juans are there?!

We thanked them, told them that we'd come back another time (they told us when would be best) and then we left. As soon as we were out of sight, we both just start laughing. It was so funny!

Anyway, the next day I was out sick. We're not sure if it was the same thing Elder Carter and Sister Scott had or if has something to do with eating cow stomach. Tuesday night Sister Richards and I went to a couple of lessons that the Hermanas had scheduled. I just sat there during the first one. I was having a hard time following the conversation, so I just kind of sat there throughout the whole lesson. The second one though was a first contact with a referral. Hermana Garcia had called the number of the referral earlier and he said that we could come by tonight. So it didn't end up being much of a lesson so much as a get to know you kind of thing. The referral is from Peru, just like Hermana Garcia, so they had a lot to talk about. Finally he offered to make us some Peruvian food. Which happened to be cow stomach and potatoes. The potatoes were really good, but I only made it through one chunk of stomach. It tasted okay, but I couldn't handle the texture. Within a few minutes I was feeling sick. I think that it may have been a coincidence though.

Anyway, I need to wrap up.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas! You should all email me your family Christmas traditions, I find them very interesting :)

I love you all! Merry Christmas!

~Sister Kretchman