I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!! Happy New Year to all 😊
"Mande" is a Mexican word that basically means "what?" as in "huh, what did you say? I didn't quite hear you." I say it A LOT. I use it even when I hear what they say but didn't understand because it's the easiest and fastest way I've found to get people to repeat themselves. Spanish is fun. And hard. I have to constantly reasure myself that I will indeed learn to speak one day. I actually understood quite a bit of Sacrament Meeting on Sunday! That's because Hermana Schaumkel spoke and we know all of the same words (in reality, I probably understood more of her talk than most of the congregation because I could hear what she was trying to say rather than what she was actually saying). I also understood my talk because I wrote it (Hermana Laguana corrected my grammar. There was a lot to correct...).
I almost titled this letter "Que enfermo parte 2" or "Voy a vomitar." I maintain my stance that flu shots make me sick. That's all I'm going to say. Well, one more thing: for those of you who have seen the film "Pitch Perfect," I used to think that a certain part was completly unrealistic. Now I'm less sure.
Since pictures are worth 1000 words, I'm going to use my remaining time to send as many pictures as I can.
"Mande" is a Mexican word that basically means "what?" as in "huh, what did you say? I didn't quite hear you." I say it A LOT. I use it even when I hear what they say but didn't understand because it's the easiest and fastest way I've found to get people to repeat themselves. Spanish is fun. And hard. I have to constantly reasure myself that I will indeed learn to speak one day. I actually understood quite a bit of Sacrament Meeting on Sunday! That's because Hermana Schaumkel spoke and we know all of the same words (in reality, I probably understood more of her talk than most of the congregation because I could hear what she was trying to say rather than what she was actually saying). I also understood my talk because I wrote it (Hermana Laguana corrected my grammar. There was a lot to correct...).
I almost titled this letter "Que enfermo parte 2" or "Voy a vomitar." I maintain my stance that flu shots make me sick. That's all I'm going to say. Well, one more thing: for those of you who have seen the film "Pitch Perfect," I used to think that a certain part was completly unrealistic. Now I'm less sure.
Since pictures are worth 1000 words, I'm going to use my remaining time to send as many pictures as I can.
Our desks in our apartment. How excting! I know. It's nice and roomy. Cold in the mornings though. Yes, we do our laundry outstide by hand. We have a little tiny balcony thing where we wash and hang our clothes out to dry. Washing things is very theraputic for me, I enjoy it. I am glad, however, that I don't have much laundry to do
Christmas - I didn't take many pictures on Christmas. It was actually a pretty "normal" day. We had our district meeting in Tepatepec and I finally got to have an interview with President Egbert. We hadn't been able to have it when I first arrived because of stuff happening too fast. We taught a few lessons (which I loved) and studied and called home!
Before I forget, here's an except from my weekly letter to President:
This week I noticed that I was really dreading lessons, to the point that I was grateful when no one answered the door when we knocked. It's not that I don't like meeting people, it's that it's scary to meet people and try to teach when you never quite know exactly what is going on. I decided that this fear of lessons was pretty dumb since I came on a mission to teach lessons, not to just walk around. I began to pray for the desire to have lessons. I also tried hard to take notice of how I felt during lessons and what I loved about them (because I'm usually only scared before lessons). As I tried to listen to the Spirit and really concentrate on how much I loved the people we were teaching, I began to enjoy the lessons more and more. I still get nervous before lessons (I chalk that up to the disposition to do good, I want to do a good job), but now I hope we have them and am disappointed when they fall through.
Better than Christmas! We had a baptism this week! [Note from Blogger: She has a picture but it didn't come through the email all the way so I'll post it next week.] He's a pretty chill 13 year old kid. His mother and brother were baptized months ago but he didn't want to. He had a change of heart though and I'm very excited for him!
More pictures next week :)
Love you all! The Church is true! The Book of Mormon is the best book in the world!
Love,
Hermana DeFranco
This week I noticed that I was really dreading lessons, to the point that I was grateful when no one answered the door when we knocked. It's not that I don't like meeting people, it's that it's scary to meet people and try to teach when you never quite know exactly what is going on. I decided that this fear of lessons was pretty dumb since I came on a mission to teach lessons, not to just walk around. I began to pray for the desire to have lessons. I also tried hard to take notice of how I felt during lessons and what I loved about them (because I'm usually only scared before lessons). As I tried to listen to the Spirit and really concentrate on how much I loved the people we were teaching, I began to enjoy the lessons more and more. I still get nervous before lessons (I chalk that up to the disposition to do good, I want to do a good job), but now I hope we have them and am disappointed when they fall through.
Better than Christmas! We had a baptism this week! [Note from Blogger: She has a picture but it didn't come through the email all the way so I'll post it next week.] He's a pretty chill 13 year old kid. His mother and brother were baptized months ago but he didn't want to. He had a change of heart though and I'm very excited for him!
More pictures next week :)
Love you all! The Church is true! The Book of Mormon is the best book in the world!
Love,
Hermana DeFranco