I've arrived

Things They Don't Tell You You'll Sacrifice on the Mission:

-Your comfort zone. Okay. Maybe they warn you about this one a little bit, but they don't tell you that you'll have to teach a 56 year old man who has been living with his girlfriend for the past 8 years about the Law of Chastity... on an air plane... for 2 hours. By the way, that's how I started my mission in the field.

-Your tan lines. My feet are developing one of the most comical displays of bad tanning in the form of an awkward strap right across the top and my calves are beginning the awkward mid length skirt line. That'll be great.

-Your waist line. THE FOOD!! So. Good! My first meal. Empenadas. By the mountains! I can't even. Coree. Those will be at our bakery. But yeah, people just love to feed you. And they do. We also just had Dia de Espanidad. Which is basically a festival where people make the food of their home country and feed it to you. I don't know what Peru was doing, but it was a vat of purple goo and it tasted like Christmas :'} (the cinnamon part of Christmas).

- Your sense of humor. Seriously. Missionaries find the dumbest things hilarious! And you make Bible & Book of Mormon references like it's cool.

- Your cool factor. Whilst driving around, trying to find potentials and members, Hermana Hall (my new companera) compared each main battle in the Book of Mormon to the battle in Lord of the Rings.

- Your music. No Ben Howard or James Vincent McMorrow or Bon Iver. MoTab all day!! Woot woot! But I can't really say this one is a sacrifice. I truly have come to love hymns so deeply. Also! The Primary program was this Sunday and I must say, it's literally the same in every language. You have your cute kids, the ones that scream in the microphone, the ones that memorized all their lines, etc. And I still fight back tears when they sing, "I am a Child of God" or "Family Can Be Together Forever", and now, more than ever "Bring the World His Truth". SO powerful.

- Your fashion sense. I wake up in the morning and don't even think about if my shoes are going to match what I'm wearing :'{ Instead I think, "what will hide my obnoxious sweating in the freakishly hot and unexpected weather of California?"

- Your hair. I can't even remember the last time I got a good braid going -.-

- Your heart. Some days you come home and you feel one of the deepest kinds of sadness you'll ever feel in your life. You'll hear people life stories and how they don't have enough money to buy clothes or shoes, or enough food to feed their families, or even a home to go to at the end of the day. And you'll think about your bed, your clothes, your food, and how full your stomach was last night after 10 tacos and dessert... and you'll just feel horrible. And you begin to love people that you hardly know to the point that you would offer them the clothes off of your back in you could. And it gets even worse as you come to love these people and you want to help them so badly! And you KNOW the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help them more than anything, and they reject it. I couldn't have anticipated how sad this mission would make me feel until I actually got here and put my hands with my whole heart and soul into it.

 

But it's great. So much work. The people are great. My companion is great! She's from Idaho, (went to BYU-I.... Claro-.-). Also, She's Abby Erdelatz's doppelganger. Enserio. Same face. Different style of hair. But they both love dance and drama and music. It's scary. But so great :'}

 

Phrases of the Week:

Me: Getting married in the temple is like getting your bikes welded together. It's a tandem bike ride to the celestial kingdom.

 

Some Elder: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Me: It's a tie between being a mom and being happy.

Some Elder: Hmmmm.... tough choice.

New Address

California San Fernando Mission
Hermana Sarah E. LaBanc

 23504 Lyons Avenue, Suite 107
Santa Clarita, California 91321-2530

THE LAST WEEK!

Greetings :}

Well. It's finally that time.

LA ULTIMA SEMANA!!! THE LAST WEEK!

the hermanas in our district who left this week

 I finally understand "The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days."

But it's been a pretty tough week, in that we had to say goodbye to our teachers, Hermano Monroe and Hermana Camacho. We all shed a few tears, took some last minute awkward picture, shared words of wisdom and bid them farewell before they start back up at BYU. The greatest thing Hermano Monroe told me was, "It varies for everyone [how hard it will be after this], but you're one of those people who will always smile. Nothing will ever be too hard for someone like you." My favorite thing Hermana Camacho told me was "Growth should hurt a little, if not a lot." They were some of the greatest teachers I have had thus far. So much knowledge! And their testimonies are as solid as they come.

Other than that, the week was actually pretty great. We finished up teaching our "investigators", which went really well. Even though it's just us practicing our language and teaching skills, the feelings are so real and the Spirit is so strong at some parts that you forget it's just a person playing a role. I can't wait to go out and help real people with their problems.

the temple!

Let's see... we got to go to the temple today!!!! :DDD The Mexico City Temple is beautiful!! One of the coolest things is that the CCM is in the middle of what feels like the ghetto. Like, gunshots, cannons, car crashes, screeching dog fights, hundreds of houses stacked on top of each other... ghetto. And the temple is right in the middle of the city, so as you drive closer and closer to the temple you can watch as the humdrum of the world is at a constant, but the quality of the streets improves. The trees seems to be more green, there's less honking and yelling on the streets, it's just... great. I love that drive. Even if it is on a hot bus through crazy traffic and bumpy roads.

We also had some pretty legit devotionals this week. One was based around how we all spoke a universal language in Heaven and how we're here now teaching, and though we may not speak Spanish very well, we all have a vague knowledge of how it was before and when

The Elderes Casa Pet. Her name is Tiena LaFawn.
With her food. Which says "Feed me Twice a Day".
We also gave strict instructs to not feed her after
 midnight or give her baths ;}

we teach we're reminding others of how we once were and how we will forever be after this. Another one was on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and my take away from it was "The purpose of the gospel is to make bad men good, good men better and change human nature" David O. McKay. So good. I love that quote and the more people I meet the more I understand the truthfulness of it. Another devotional was by D. Todd Christofferson. My favorite thing he said was when he compared our missionary work with that of Paul and he said "If Paul could see us now he'd probably say 'You wimps! You have cellphones and the internet and cars and planes and trains. If I had had that I could have converted the world in 10 months!'" He went on with his thoughts and another thing I loved was when he said something along the lines of, God is so gracious to let us touch anything and help him in this work. This is the fine china. It's precious and pure and He's letting us put it in our hands and bring it unto others. So connect yourself to the Spirit. He will not let HIS work fall to the ground. Forget your words and use His. Testify in His name, siempre. Always. Lastly, we had a devotional by Elder Emr Villalabes. Adorable man. This thoughts were kind of everywhere, but some good ones were, "Everyone's life has a Zion's camp." Also,"God

in case you ever think Oki cars are beaters

didn't give us a Spirit of fear." I thought that was pretty solid. And "We are inviting and preparing teh people who will receive our Lord in His second Coming."That kinda hit me. People in the Bible and The Book of Mormon were prophesying hundreds of years before Christ's first coming, crying repentance unto the people like it was cool, and here I am. Relatively speaking, we're not very far from the second coming, and I'm number among those we are called to cry repentance and help other's be prepared. That's a pretty huge responsibility. But it's exactly how I want to be spending my time.

So my times almost up. Things are great. Having fun. 

Funny Phrases

Elder  Villalabes (in his adorably thick accent) "This teacher she had these little chocolates with two M's on them. Called something like M and M's. Do you know what those are?"

Hna B (sharing a story of how she scratched her name into someone else's car when she was 5) "She was pretty mad. Too bad HER name wasn't Emily."