Foreign Tongues

THIS week was incredible. But I guess that's what a mission is. It's still just so cool.

Tuesday we had a tri-zone conference with President and the assistants. It was awesome and we all got a ton out of it. They'd asked me to share for ten minutes about Matthew 10:39. I had an awesome time preparing and finding all these cool thoughts, and then the elder before me went twenty minutes bearing his testimony in a monotone voice and everyone was asleep so I sort of chucked the plan and decided to do a three-minute explosion of what I'd learned. The main thing that came to mind makes more sense in spanish, which says "El que busca salvar SU vida la pierde, pero el que pierde su vida por causa de mi la hallará.” [He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.] I focused on two parts of it. The word "Su" (your) and "la" (the) and talked about first everything that makes up YOUR life, or MY life. Talked about a lot of things we have to give up to be a missionary from MY life. And then I talked about THE life, and pulled out a picture of Christ. He IS the light and the life. If we can learn how to give up MY life, our will, our disobedience, our pride, we will find THE life--We will find Jesus Christ and we will find Him in ourselves for we shall see Him as He is, for we shall be like Him. And THAT is worth losing a hundred My lifes. In english the words are "his" and "it" which wasn't quite as impactful to me. So there you go. 

Afterwards we did exchanges with Comitan, and I got to stay here with Hermana Pugh - our third exchange in the mission! It sort of just happened that way since we decided to give her companion the chance to direct the area which totally freaked her out. But that's exactly why we did it, because she's had a lot of freak-outs and thinks she can't do anything and only follows her companion who can do EVERYTHING. Perfectly, I might add. She's awesome. We decided it could be really good or really bad. And it turned out to be really good! She came out of it with a new calmness and confidence and found she was able to do things she was convinced she couldn't. In four weeks she'll be doing the same thing anyway since Pugh is headed home.

In our exchange we got to sing a lot of hymns in harmony, find cool people, including one crazy one named L. He started laughing maniacally at one point. But other than that he's pretty golden. And I showed her a "chamula"--the indigenous people who wear goat skin skirts--and then we decided to contact her. Most here speak Spanish but this one didn't. So I gave it all the Tzotzil I had which was totally cool. I told her we're missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ (Vuún kutik misioneraetik yuún li chulna yuún Jesucristoe in case you're wondering) and she got these wide eyes and said "Oooooh! Missionaries! You speak Tzotzil?" And I'm like, no. Muk na. And we had a whole conversation using a mix of Tzotzil phrases and Spanish words. I asked her where she lives, and she's like, over there! pointing to the mountain. Helpful. As we ended, I asked her how she was just to extinguish the very last drop of what I knew and that was that. We said bye and she went off and Pugh just looks at me with big eyes and says, "That. Was so. Cool." And I'm like "I KNOW RIGHT I'VE NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE!" Anyway. Going on three languages over here.

Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference which was beyond inspiring. Elder Alfredo Mirón came and blew us all away with laughter and knowledge and we learned about the HUGE importance of the Sabbath day. That's one thing here that almost zero people obey. Gotta buy those tortillas. And we've sort of been trying everything. Also, we invited so many people, and none of the new ones came anymore. But we got a cool surprise when SIX new new ones came, who were all invited by member friends! That makes missionaries happy! We have lots of appointments this week.

Now to finish up, I will answer the following questions of my Father:

1. Could you send a picture of your new companion?

I would love to.... my SD thing isn't showing up again. We're even at the most fool-proof cafe. I'll see if I can get another computer to let me but we're going on two.

2. Do they have you give talks in church? Or do you bear your testimony there sometimes?

Supposedly. As in every other missionary yes, but for some reason all of mine have been canceled due to surprise speakers or general conference etc. I have not spoken all mission. But I do bear my testimony almost every time. Some think it takes away chances from the members but I think it helps them get to know their missionaries and want to work with them better. And there's always something specific they need. 

3. Have you ever had to speak or do training in zone conference?

See paragraph one. 

Other than that, yes we help the zone leaders every time and sometimes travel to one of the other two zones to help them too. We'll be doing that tomorrow in Chojolho (tzotzilandia)

4. Do the people wear bright colors there like Guatemala? Or western clothes? Or what?

Most people wear normal things. Indigenous people wear pretty self-embroidered flower shirts and cool skirts with a belt thing. Or goat skins if they're from Chamula. 

5. Are the people tall or short?

Short. Except the European tourists. 

Love you!!

Hermana Wilson :)